Latest Articles
Kepler-442b: Why It Remains a Strong Habitable-World Candidate
Kepler-442b is a habitable exoplanet 1,200 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. By one of the most rigorous mathematical measures of similarity to Earth, it is among the closest matches ever confirmed. Orbiting a calm, long-lived star in the habitable zone, it receives about 70 percent of the sunlight that warms our oceans. Its radius…
PSR J2322-2650b: Why This Pulsar Planet Is So Unusual
Imagine a world where the sky is choked with carbon soot, where the core may be packed with diamonds under unimaginable pressure, and where a full year lasts less than eight hours. Imagine this PSR J2322-2650b diamond planet is not a sphere but a lemon, stretched and squeezed by the gravitational grip of a stellar…
HD 137010 b: How a PhD Student Found a Hidden Planet in Kepler’s Archive
It sat unnoticed in the archive. In 2017, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope recorded a faint, ten-hour shadow crossing HD 137010, 146 light-years away, before it vanished. What would become known as the HD 137010 b Kepler discovery began with a single overlooked data point. The automated detection algorithms that sweep Kepler data for planets recorded…
TOI-700 e TESS Discovery: Two Earths in One Habitable Zone
The TOI-700 e TESS discovery has revealed a remarkable planetary system. Imagine standing on a planet where the sun never moves. It hangs fixed on the horizon, or directly overhead, or just below the edge of the world, forever. Half your planet is scorched in perpetual noon; the other half is locked in unending night.…
Beyond the Habitable Zone: Ocean Worlds and the New Search for Life
Beyond the Habitable Zone: Ocean Worlds and the New Search for Life For decades, the search for life beyond the habitable zone and extraterrestrial life has been guided by a single, elegant idea: look for planets in the habitable zone. This region around a star, often called the Goldilocks zone, marks the narrow orbital band…
Biosignatures vs Technosignatures: What Each Reveals in the Search for Life
A telescope aimed at a distant star may reveal faint chemical signs of life on a planet or waste heat from an artificial structure surrounding an alien sun. In the modern search for life beyond Earth, the debate over biosignatures vs technosignatures defines how scientists approach the discovery of extraterrestrial biology and advanced civilizations. These…
