Your essential guide to the many breathtaking wonders of the universe
22 April 2023
An abridged inventory of everything there is in the universe – from rogue planets and exomoons to supernovae, supermassive black holes and the cosmic web.
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Found 675 results for dwarf planet
Exoplanets with a permanent day side may sometimes flip into night
11 April 2023
Some planets outside our solar system are thought to be tidally locked, with one side always facing their star, creating a world divided into hot and cold. Now, it seems this set-up may not be permanent after all, allowing the two sides to flip
Are there planets that are better for life than Earth?
7 April 2023
Philosophers have long debated whether Earth is the best of all worlds. More powerful telescopes are finally giving us a better chance of answering this question, writes astronomer Chris Impey
JWST finds the planet TRAPPIST-1b may not have an atmosphere
27 March 2023
Many researchers thought the worlds orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 would have thick atmospheres, but new observations of one of them show that it doesn’t
Dwarf planet Quaoar has a weirdly big ring of debris encircling it
8 February 2023
Quaoar, a dwarf planet in our solar system, has a ring of debris orbiting it that is far further out than we thought the laws of physics allow
‘Forbidden’ planet somehow escaped consumption by its dying host star
26 January 2023
The planet 8 Ursae Minoris b should have been destroyed when its star became a red giant, but it continues to orbit strangely close to it
Up to 74% of planets in the ‘habitable zone’ may not be good for life
19 January 2023
Many planets that have the right temperatures for liquid water on their surfaces used to be too hot or too cold, which may affect their ability to host life now
How a planet became a character in my new novel
18 January 2023
My new novel The Terraformers explores what you might include - and leave out - if you were building an Earth-like planet. I spoke to some scientists to see what might work, says Annalee Newitz
JWST has taken astonishing images of debris orbiting a nearby star
11 January 2023
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has observed a glowing disc of debris left over from planet formation around a nearby star called AU Microscopii
How JWST could find signs of alien life in exoplanet atmospheres
9 November 2022
The James Webb Space Telescope can peer into alien skies like never before. With six potentially habitable planets within its sights, astronomers are entering a new era in the search for biology beyond our solar system
