The habitable zone concept is useful for understanding which worlds might, possibly, maybe, be habitable. It highlights exoplanets at the right distances from their stars for liquid water to potentially exist on their surfaces. But that alone can't determine habitability.
Additional planetary signals may be hidden in TESS data, say astronomers
Astrobites reports on whether we'd even know what we were looking at if our familiar red neighbor were a stranger light-years away.
Astronomers have found the first confirmed atmosphere around a rocky planet in another star’s habitable zone. The planet, LHS 1140 b, revealed its atmosphere through helium slowly leaking into space. Located 48 light-years away, the world may have preserved its atmosphere for…
White dwarfs with metals in their spectra preserve a record of planets that once orbited them. New research examines these spectra for signs that the metals underwent technological processing.
Astrobites reports on why dry planets may be missing the critical thermostat of the geologic carbon cycle, which has helped to stabilize Earth's climate over billions of years.
K2-18b is one of the most promising worlds for the search for extraterrestrial life, so astronomers conducted an unusually powerful radio survey using both the VLA and MeerKAT telescopes. Advanced software analyzed millions of signals, filtering out Earth-based interference and…
A planet with one side permanently roasting and the other frozen in endless darkness might still have a chance of supporting life. Researchers found that heat inside a tidally locked exoplanet could circulate in a stable, continuous loop, helping moderate temperatures in certain…
