Virtual reality takes you on a trip to Mars with NASA rover – and to alien worlds, too NASA has been offering virtual-reality tours of Mars for years — but now, with Google’s help, the space agency has come… Read More
Project Blue tries again with crowdfunding campaign for planet-watching telescope Project Blue is launching a second try to attract crowdfunding for a space telescope designed to study planets in the… Read More
Why these scientists argue that we are turning Earth into an alien planet A trio of scientists has just laid out a new classification scheme for planets that would put Earth into a… Read More
Hubble keeps hope alive for water on potentially habitable TRAPPIST-1 planets Do some of the Earth-sized planets around a dwarf star called TRAPPIST-1, just 40 light-years away, have liquid water? Newly… Read More
Breakthrough Starshot tests smallest space probes for interstellar mission Breakthrough Starshot says it’s been testing prototype interstellar spacecraft no bigger than postage stamps in orbit for the past month,… Read More
NASA’s Kepler space telescope points to 10 new planets in the habitable zone Astronomers say they’ve used NASA’s Kepler space telescope to discover 10 Earth-sized planet candidates where life could lurk. The 10… Read More
Astronomers use the music of the spheres to track TRAPPIST-1’s seventh planet An international research team led by a University of Washington astronomer has worked out the intricate dance of seven planets… Read More
Newfound super-Earth could be the best planet for analyzing alien atmospheres It’s not the closest potentially habitable planet, but astronomers say a world 40 percent wider than Earth could be one of… Read More
Looking for life: Scientists find 7 possibly Earthlike planets orbiting ultracool star A second look at an exoplanet system 40 light-years from Earth has brought a bonanza for astronomers: not two, not… Read More
Very Large Telescope joins Breakthrough search for Alpha Centauri’s planets One of the most powerful observing instruments on Earth, the Very Large Telescope, will join the search for potentially habitable… Read More
Video: How will we get to Alpha Centauri? Researchers work on an antimatter drive Project Blue’s scientists still have to raise more than $800,000 over the next 15 days to reach their initial crowdfunding goal… Read More
Project Blue kicks off $1 million crowdfunding campaign to seek out Alpha Centauri’s alien Earths How much would you pay to find out whether Alpha Centauri’s twin suns possess blue planets like Earth? Project Blue… Read More
Proxima’s progress: Why it’ll take years to learn what closest exoplanet is really like University of Washington astronomer Rory Barnes says Proxima Centauri b is the biggest discovery in 20 years for planet hunters like… Read More
Proxima Centauri b confirmed! Potentially habitable planet orbits the star next door The rumors you’ve heard are mostly true: Scientists say the star that’s closest to our solar system has a planet that… Read More
Revived Kepler mission confirms 104 new planets, and two could be a lot like Earth Astronomers say they’ve confirmed the existence of 104 worlds to add to the list of extrasolar planets detected by NASA’s… Read More
Youngest planet spotted around alien star Scientists say they’ve detected a giant planet circling a star that’s only 5 million to 10 million years old, which would make… Read More
1,284 new worlds! Kepler mission doubles its tally of planets in one fell swoop The scientists behind NASA’s Kepler mission are using statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software… Read More
NASA keeps its eye on a trio of potentially habitable planets just 40 light-years away Three potentially habitable and definitely weird planets have been detected orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that’s 40 light-years away from… Read More
Siberian unicorns? Five incredible science tales that aren’t April Fool’s jokes Unicorns are real! Scientists propose cloaking device to protect Earth from aliens! Glow-in-the-dark skin grown in lab! Those may sound… Read More
How to do a reality check on the search for life beyond our solar system The past decade has brought about a revolution in astronomers’ ability to detect potentially habitable planets, and there’s much, much… Read More
First spectral analysis of a super-Earth’s atmosphere shows it’s not super for life For the first time, astronomers have conducted a spectral analysis of a distant super-Earth’s atmosphere – and the results show… Read More
Galileo gets a planet: IAU astronomers reveal first batch of names for alien worlds After a crowdsourcing campaign that lasted more than a year, the International Astronomical Union has issued its first-ever list of… Read More
Red planet vs. blue planet: Lori Garver looks ahead to Mars and the future of space If we want to send astronauts to Mars, we better find a way to do it within 10 years. And if we want… Read More
