An alien Earth that just might be habitable has been discovered in years-old records, thanks to sharp-eyed astronomers who gave the data a second look. The exoplanet, known as Kepler-1649c,… Read More
NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting telescope now belongs to the ages, with its fuel completely spent and its instruments shut down — but the planet quest continues, thanks to a treasure trove of… Read More
With a lot of help from the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers now feel confident enough to publish their evidence for the first moon detected in orbit around a planet beyond… Read More
News Brief: NASA has hit the pause button on observations by its most prolific planet-hunting probe, the Kepler space telescope, so that it can download 51 days’ worth science data… Read More
We’re not alone. At least when it comes to solar systems with the same number of major planets as ours. NASA today announced details about the recent discovery of an… Read More
Astronomers say they’ve used NASA’s Kepler space telescope to discover 10 Earth-sized planet candidates where life could lurk. The 10 prospects are a part of a larger pool of 219… Read More
An international research team led by a University of Washington astronomer has worked out the intricate dance of seven planets circling an ultracool dwarf star known as TRAPPIST-1, nailing down… Read More
That mysterious “alien megastructure” star is still a mystery, but the most plausible explanations appear to be dense patches of interstellar gas or dust that just happened to pass in… Read More
Kepler Communications, a Techstars Seattle graduate building telecom infrastructure for space, just secured $5 million in seed funding. New York venture capital firm IA Ventures led the round. The Toronto-based startup… Read More
It’s been almost a year since astronomers first speculated that a strangely dimming star called KIC 8462852 might harbor an alien megastructure, and newly reported observations are making the case… Read More
Astronomers say they’ve confirmed the existence of 104 worlds to add to the list of extrasolar planets detected by NASA’s Kepler K2 mission, and at least two of them appear… Read More
Scientists say they’ve detected a giant planet circling a star that’s only 5 million to 10 million years old, which would make it the youngest exoplanet ever identified. The super-Neptune-sized planet traces… Read More
Observations made by NASA’s Kepler space telescope suggest that the icy world known as 2007 OR10 is bigger than astronomers thought –and that’s adding to the pressure to give the probable… Read More
If humans will one day live and work in outer space, there needs to be a better centralized telecommunications infrastructure — and Kepler Communications wants to help build it. The six-person Toronto-based startup,… Read More
The scientists behind NASA’s Kepler mission are using statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software that automates the process has verified 1,284 candidates as genuine… Read More
He’s not saying it’s aliens – but an astronomer has raised new questions about KIC 8462852, the strange star that stirred up a debate about “alien megastructures” months ago. In a paper… Read More
Recent infrared observations of a star that once showed a pattern of weird dimming have turned up no anomalous readings, astronomers say – and that supports the view that a comet blitz… Read More
The SETI Institute says it hasn’t detected any alien radio signals coming from a star whose light seems to be dimming in a weird way, but it’s too early to determine… Read More
One of the premier telescope arrays in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, is focusing its antennas on an anomalously blinking star, thanks in part to speculation that the… Read More
It ain’t Kepler, but an upgrade to Planetary Resources’ crowdfunded public telescope could hunt for alien planets. The Bellevue-based asteroid-mining company announced new Kickstarter stretch goals in its campaign to… Read More
They’re in the zone. The habitable zone, that is: In a paper published today in Science, a team of astronomers announced that they’ve identified two planets orbiting a star not… Read More