Explore 30 years of exoplanet discoveries

A distant crumbling exoplanet spills its guts

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. — Astronomers have for the first time been able to see the innards of an exoplanet directly. Some 800 light-years away, this Neptune-sized world is spilling its guts into space. The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, recently spotted the event. Astronomers described what they’ve gleaned from those entrails here on January 14 and 15 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society. “If this is true, it’s super cool,” says …

Explore 30 years of exoplanet discoveries

In October 1995, after decades of serious effort, astronomers announced the first discovery of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star. Until then, the few planets known to exist beyond the solar system accompanied pulsars, the collapsed remnants of burnt-out stars, and had revealed themselves through glitches in the precise timing of the pulsars’ radio emission.Continue reading "Explore 30 years of exoplanet discoveries" The post Explore 30 years of …