A Four Planet System in Orbit, Directly Imaged and Remarkable

Now on Facebook:  http://facebook.com/nexssmanyworlds/ The era of directly imaging exoplanets has only just begun, but the science and viewing pleasures to come are appealingly apparent. This evocative movie of four planets more massive than Jupiter orbiting the young star HR 8799 is a composite of sorts, including images taken over seven years at the W.M. …

Some Spectacular Images (And Science) From The Year Past

This is a golden era for space and planetary science, a time when discoveries, new understandings, and newly-found mysteries are flooding in.  There are so many reasons to find the drama intriguing:  a desire to understand the physical forces at play, to learn how those forces led to the formation of Earth and ultimately us, …

How Will We Know What Exoplanets Look Like, and When?

An earlier version of this article was accidently published last week before it was completed.  This is the finished version, with information from this week's AAS annual conference. Let's face it:  the field of exoplanets has a significant deficit when it comes to producing drop-dead beautiful pictures. We all know why.  Exoplanets are just too …