Topic description and stories

Synthesized false colour image of Venus

Hints of life discovered on Venus

14 Sep 2020

A UK-led team of astronomers has discovered a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus, pointing to the possibility of extra-terrestrial ‘...

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AI shows how hydrogen becomes a metal inside giant planets

09 Sep 2020

Researchers have used a combination of AI and quantum mechanics to reveal how hydrogen gradually turns into a metal in giant planets.

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Mystery orbits in outermost reaches of solar system not caused by ‘Planet Nine’, say researchers

21 Jan 2019

The strange orbits of some objects in the farthest reaches of our solar system, hypothesised by some astronomers to be shaped by an unknown ninth...

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An artist's impression showing the exoplanet WASP-19b

Inferno world with titanium skies

13 Sep 2017

An international team of astronomers has detected titanium oxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. The results , reported in the...

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Artist’s impression of the ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 from the surface of one of its planets

New exoplanet think tank will ask the big questions about extra-terrestrial worlds

05 Sep 2016

An international exoplanet ‘think tank’ is meeting this week in Cambridge to deliberate on the ten most important questions that humanity could...

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Planets similar to Jupiter are likely able to form on orbits shorter than the Earth’s

15 Jul 2016

After analyzing four years of Kepler space telescope observations, astronomers from the University of Toronto, and of the University of Cambridge...

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Illustration of the hot lava world 55 Cancri e

Map of rocky exoplanet reveals a lava world

30 Mar 2016

The most detailed map of a small, rocky ‘super Earth’ to date reveals a planet almost completely covered by lava, with a molten ‘hot’ side and solid...

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On a massive planet around a nearby star, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of the atmospheres of Earth and other planets in our solar system.

‘Sunscreen’ layer detected on distant planet

12 Jun 2015

On a blazing-hot exoplanet known as WASP-33b, a team of astronomers including researchers from the University of Cambridge has detected a...

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Left: Image of HD 115600 showing a bright debris ring viewed nearly edge-on and located just beyond a Pluto-like distance to the star. Right: A model of the HD 115600 debris ring on the same scale.

Discovery shows what the solar system looked like as a ‘toddler’

27 May 2015

Astronomers have discovered a disc of planetary debris surrounding a young sun-like star that shares remarkable similarities with the Kuiper Belt...

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The Esquel pallasite from the Natural History Museum collections, consists of gem-quality crystals of the silicate mineral olivine embedded in a matrix of iron-nickel alloy.

Death of a dynamo – a hard drive from space

21 Jan 2015

Hidden magnetic messages contained within ancient meteorites are providing a unique window into the processes that shaped our solar system, and may...

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This illustration is an artist’s impression of the thin, rocky debris disc discovered around the two Hyades white dwarfs. Rocky asteroids are thought to be perturbed by planets within the system and diverted inwards towards the star, where they break up,

‘Polluted’ stellar graveyard gives glimpse of our Solar System after Sun’s implosion

09 May 2013

Research indicates the existence of Earth-like planets in dead solar system through latest chemical analysis techniques

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An image of the star Gilese 581 (bottom of image), with an illustration of the debris disc superimposed to show its position.

Low-mass planets make good neighbours for debris discs

27 Nov 2012

Astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory have detected massive debris discs around two nearby stars hosting low-mass planets. The discovery...

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