Exoplanet news, features and articles

an illustration of many exoplanets
(Image credit: oorka via Getty Images)

There are estimated to be trillions and trillions of planets orbiting the stars beyond our solar system. These alien worlds are called exoplanets, and Live Science is as curious as you are about what might be on them.

That's why our expert writers and editors track interstellar research, whether it's the discovery of a new class of exoplanet, a mirror-like exoplanet that "shouldn't exist," or the possibility of the first exoplanet outside the Milky Way. So whether it’s extreme exoplanets or just memorable facts, get the latest exoplanet news, features and articles here.

Discover more about exoplanets

—Exoplanets: Alien worlds beyond our solar system

—How the Nobel Prize-winning exoplanet was found

Latest about Exoplanets

Five planets encircle a bright star in the darkness of space.

5th planet found orbiting nearby star may lie in habitable zone

By Samantha Mathewson Partner Content Created With Space. published

A super-Earth exoplanet has been detected within the habitable zone of a nearby red dwarf star, where liquid water might exist on its surface under the right atmospheric conditions.

The giant exoplanet TOI-2109b spirals into its parent star and its destroyed

A doomed exoplanet is caught in a 'death spiral' around its star. Can it survive?

By Robert Lea Partner Content Created With Space. published

A massive doomed exoplanet on a death spiral toward its parent star has three possible catastrophic fates.

An exoplanet host with several background stars. The square grid represents individual pixels from NASA’s TESS satellite.

Bad news for alien life? Earth-size planets may be less common than we thought

By Robert Lea Partner Content Created With Space. published

Up to 200 worlds investigated by NASA's exoplanet-hunting TESS satellite could be bigger than predicted, a finding that could impact our search for alien life.

An artist's illustration of HIP 67522 b's star launching a burst of plasma at the planet.

'A completely new phenomenon': Astronomers spot a planet causing its star to constantly explode

By Ben Turner published

Astronomers have spotted an alien planet orbiting so closely to its home star, the planet's magnetic field is triggering massive solar flares to erupt. This is the first time a planet has been seen influencing its host star.

Exoplanets
An illustration of double hot Jupiters orbiting a distant star

Astronomers discover origins of mysterious double hot Jupiter exoplanets: 'It is a dance of sorts'

By Robert Lea Partner Content Created With Space. published

Astronomers have discovered the strange dance that leads to the creation of rare "double hot Jupiters" in binary star systems that are "just right."

Image of the disk surrounding the star TWA 7 recorded using ESO’s Very Large Telescope’s SPHERE instrument. The image captured with JWST’s MIRI instrument is overlayed.

James Webb telescope discovers its first planet — a Saturn-size 'shepherd' still glowing red hot from its formation

By Ben Turner published

Nestled inside a planetary ring 110 light-years from Earth, a planet spotted by the James Webb telescope is the lightest exoplanet ever detected.

Exoplanets

Alcohol-soaked star system could help explain 'why life, including us, was able to form'

By Patrick Pester published

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array has detected methanol isotopes around a nearby star, which could help explain why the ingredients for life are present on Earth.

Exoplanets

JWST spies frigid alien world on bizarre orbit: 'One of the coldest, oldest and faintest planets that we've imaged to date'

By Sharmila Kuthunur Partner Content Created With Space. published

The James Webb Space Telescope has notched another milestone, capturing a direct image of one of the coldest and oldest known exoplanets.

A hidden 'super-Earth' exoplanet is dipping in and out of its habitable zone

By Keith Cooper Partner Content Created With Space. published

With 10 times the mass of our planet, and spending only part of its orbit in the habitable zone, Kepler-725c is very different to Earth.

See a young star potentially giving birth to a giant planet in new image from Very Large Telescope

By Patrick Pester published

New images of a young star, 2MASSJ1612, could have captured the birth of a giant gas planet larger than Jupiter.

Exoplanets
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