Citizen scientists sifting through data collected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a record-breaking world and given it a memorable nickname: Percival, after the father of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books. In more official terms, however, the extrasolar planet, or ‘exoplanet’, is called TOI 4633 c. … Read more
Scientists have discovered that a potentially habitable planet is being stripped of its atmosphere, a process that could ultimately make the world, Trappist-1e, inhospitable to life. The stripping appears to be caused by electrical currents created as the planet races around its red dwarf host star. It is an important discovery because the Trappist-1 system, … Read more
When it comes to detecting the presence of liquid water on planets outside the solar system, and thus the conditions necessary for life, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may want to look for what’s missing rather than what is is. This is what that means. A team of researchers, including scientists from the Massachusetts … Read more