Exoplanets

A planet-vaporizing impact is the leading explanation for a distant star’s curiously fluctuating light

Astronomers have found high-altitude clouds formed from quartz crystals on the gas-giant world WASP-17b

The James Webb Space Telescope’s infrared gaze sheds new light on the Orion nebula, an icon of the night sky

Thirty years ago, astronomer Carl Sagan convinced NASA to turn a passing space probe’s instruments on Earth to look for life — with results that still reverberate today

Of the thousands of stars visible to the eye, only a few hundred are known to have planets. But that number may be far higher in reality

Worlds around red giant stars—and others that don’t orbit any star at all—hint at an unexpected diversity of possibilities for planets and life in the universe

TRAPPIST-1 could make or break the extended push to make red dwarfs an astrobiological priority

This week—and any time there’s a new crescent moon—the lunar night is a little less dark, thanks to the bright reflected light of Earth

When looking for life in space, we should broaden our horizons

Tiny spheres of once-molten metal magnetically dredged from the seafloor could be pieces from IM1, a potential interstellar meteor that struck Earth in 2014

The discovery that life on Earth looks a lot like information propagating itself offers new clues, and new directions, to the hunt for life elsewhere

Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope suggest that TRAPPIST-1 c, the second world in a seven-planet system, lacks an atmosphere