Exoplanets news, articles and features

Space

Chaotically shifting planets could be a sign of advanced aliens

Simulations show planets that jockey for position around their star and appear to bounce off each other could survive in stable configurations - but it is unclear if they could occur naturally

News

Subscriber-only

Space

Absolutely enormous asteroid belt discovered around a nearby star

News

Free

Space

We've seen a star devouring a planet for the first time

News

Free

An artist's impression of a planet about to get munched by a star

Space

Distant world breaks record for heaviest element on an exoplanet

News

Subscriber-only

A planet, one side covered in water, the other in ice

Space

Exoplanets with a permanent day side may sometimes flip into night

News

Subscriber-only

Physics

Are there planets that are better for life than Earth?

Comment

Subscriber-only

$Trappist-1 is a red-dwarf star, the most common variety, located some 40 light-years away in Aquarius. In 2015, astronomers discovered that Trappist-1 was host to three earth-sized planets. Then it came under the spotlight again in 2017 when NASA scientists found an additional four planets, taking the total up to seven. This is the most terrestrial planets that have ever been found to orbit a single star, including our own Solar System. Trappist-1 is only fractionally larger than Jupiter in diameter. This image shows the star and six of the planets as they would appear from the vantage point of the fifth outermost planet, Trappist-1f. All of the planets and the Sun are to scale. One of the worlds is seen transiting in front of the star.$