Tag: exoplanets

Proxima b: Planet of Doubt

The good news is, nature has provided us with a planet startlingly similar to our own, orbiting almost within reach just 4.3 light-years from Earth. The bad news? It might not be a very good neighborhood. Despite being the best-studied exoplanet out there, scientists can scarcely make heads or tails of what it's really like,... Continue Reading →

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The Long, Dim Lives of Red Dwarfs

Below is a list of the known stars1 and stellar systems within a ten-light-year radius of the Sun. See if you can notice anything strange about them: Alpha Centauri (A and B, plus Proxima Centauri). Barnard's Star. Wolf 359. Lalande 21185. Sirius (A and B). Luyten 726-8 (A and B). Ross 154. There are familiar,... Continue Reading →

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The Many Planets of TRAPPIST-1

Wherever you see an alien planet in sci-fi films or television, there's always something weird going on in the sky. How else would you know you're not looking at Earth? So in everything from Avatar to Star Wars we get double stars, panoplies of moons, other planets in the same system---so many disks visible even... Continue Reading →

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An Obituary for Kepler

Post by Nic Quattromani: I’ve got some tragic news to share today: NASA’s Kepler space telescope, formerly our premier planet-hunter floating in the sky, has ceased operations. This was not due to any technical failure aboard the craft. Rather, it simply ran out of fuel, rendering it unable to conduct stationkeeping or even orient itself... Continue Reading →

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A Note on Extraterrestrials

Post by AJ Rise: Are we alone in this universe? Where are the space aliens? What do they look like? When, if ever, will we get to meet them? These questions all relate to the holy grail of astrobiology: discovering an intelligent alien species. Countless scientists and philosophers have attempted to tackle the question of... Continue Reading →

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