The molten planet, with an atmosphere rich in sulfur-bearing gases, is unlike anything astronomers have ever smelled.

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON, March 16 (Reuters) - Astronomers have spotted a planet orbiting a star in our neighborhood of the ...

Alien solar systems that are home to so-called "hot Jupiters" — gas giants circling sizzlingly close to their stars — are unlikely homes for Earth-like planets, researchers say. Hot Jupiters get their ...

A new study shows that stars with low magnetic activity are likely to support exoplanetary systems, making the hunt for these ...

Astronomers have discovered a strange new world just 35 light-years from Earth – one permanently covered in a vast ocean of molten rock. The exoplanet, known as L 98-59 d, defies existing models of ...

Beyond that, in the decades to come, we might be able to see the colours of an exoplanet’s surface, and determine if plant life might be present there. And then we can search for changes in a planet’s ...

A newly discovered “super-Earth” planet could allow us to finally see alien life, researchers say. The world – named GJ 251 c and lying less than 20 light years away – is thought to be a “super Earth” ...

Scientists using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found a unique planet in another star system that’s shaped like a lemon. The lopsided Jupiter-style planet is so bizarre that it may blur the ...

Science fiction has imagined everything from little green men to tentacled monsters—but real biology may offer clearer clues. Evolution follows universal rules, meaning alien life on Earth-like ...