Astronomers have many theories about how planets are formed within the gas, dust, pebbles and gradually rocks of the circumstellar disks that encircle a star after it has been born. While the general outlines of this remarkable process are pretty well established, many questions large and small remain unanswered. One is how and when exomoons …
Continue reading "A Young Planet Found That May Well Be Making Moons"
Astronomers have found that Barnard's star -- a very close, fast-moving, and long studied red dwarf -- has a super-Earth sized planet orbiting just beyond its habitable zone. The discovery relied on data collected over many years using the tried-and-true radial velocity method, which searches for wobbles in the movement of the host star. …
Just as the number of planets discovered outside our solar system is large and growing -- more than 3,700 confirmed at last count -- so too is the number of ingenious ways to find exoplanets ever on the rise. The first exoplanets were found by measuring the "wobble" in their host stars caused by the …
Continue reading "Planets Still Forming Detected in a Protoplanetary Disk"
For reasons all too regrettable, it seems appropriate today to highlight the extensive work being done in France and by French scientists to move forward the science of exoplanets. The American public tends to view space observatories and exoplanet research as largely the domain of NASA and our nation. While we are leaders for sure, …
Many Worlds 