Search

To understand how life began on Earth billions of years ago, a global community must work collaboratively to study the emergence of the necessary molecular building blocks and how they evolved into complex life in different environments.

Simulations show that the system of three Neptune-mass planets is in a dynamically stable configuration, with theoretical calculations favouring a mainly rocky composition for both inner planets, but a significant gaseous envelope surrounding a rocky/icy core for the outer planet.

The detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting our neighbour star α Centauri B is reported; the planet has an orbital period of 3.236 days and is about 0.04 astronomical units from the star.

Analysis of data from multiple instruments reveals a giant exoplanet in orbit around the 0.2-solar-mass star TOI-6894. The existence of this exoplanetary system challenges assumptions about planet formation and it is an excellent target for atmospheric characterization.

The first Earth-sized planets orbiting a Sun-like star outside the Solar System have at last been detected. The discovery paves the way to finding Earth-like worlds. See Letter p.195

A planet with a mass lower than that of Neptune has been detected as its gravity bent the light from a remote star. This lensing technique adds to our arsenal for spotting small planets outside the Solar System.

A population of extrasolar planets has been uncovered with minimum masses of 1.9–10 times the Earth's mass, called super-Earths, but atmospheric studies can be precluded by the distance and size of their stars. Here, observations of the transiting planet GJ 1214b are reported; it has a mass 6.55 times that of the Earth and a radius 2.68 times the Earth's radius. The star is small and only 13 parsecs away, permitting the study of the planetary atmosphere with current observatories.

Precise mass and radius measurements of giant planet WASP-193 b find an extremely low density of 0.059 ± 0.014 g cm⁻³. Current evolutionary models cannot fully explain such a low density, but the extended atmosphere makes WASP-193 b very suitable for high-precision characterization via JWST.

The SPECULOOS project detected an Earth-sized planet in a short orbit around a nearby Jupiter-sized star. This planet, SPECULOOS-3 b, is one of the most promising rocky exoplanets for detailed emission spectroscopy characterization with JWST.

Observations of TOI-849b reveal a radius smaller than Neptune’s but a large mass of about 40 Earth masses, indicating that the planet is the remnant core of a gas giant.

Orbital parameters for the seventh Earth-sized transiting planet around star TRAPPIST-1 are reported, along with an investigation into the complex three-body resonances linking every member of this planetary system.

Three planets orbit the Sun-like star ν² Lupi. CHEOPS data show that all of them are transiting and show remarkable diversity. In particular, dry and gas-poor inner planet b has experienced extensive atmospheric loss, while planets c and d are water rich and have a small gaseous envelope of primordial origin.

2M1510 is an approximately 45-million-year-old triple system of brown dwarfs, two of which form a close binary in a 20-day orbit and have almost the same mass (3.82% and 3.75% of the mass of the Sun, respectively). Their physical parameters are in good agreement with evolutionary models except for luminosity, suggesting that we might be underestimating the masses of brown dwarfs and massive exoplanets by about 30%.

Last year, three Earth-sized planets were discovered to be orbiting the nearby Jupiter-sized star TRAPPIST-1; now, follow-up photometric observations from the ground and from space show that there are at least seven Earth-sized planets in this star system, and that they might be the right temperature to harbour liquid water on their surfaces.

Data from the Kepler spacecraft and the HARPS-N ground-based spectrograph indicate that the extrasolar planet Kepler-78b has a mean density similar to that of Earth and imply that it is composed of rock and iron.

Three Earth-sized planets—receiving similar irradiation to Venus and Earth, and ideally suited for atmospheric study—have been found transiting a nearby ultracool dwarf star that has a mass of only eight per cent of that of the Sun.

A longitudinal thermal brightness map of the super-Earth exoplanet 55 Cancri e reveals strong day–night temperature contrast, indicating inefficient heat redistribution consistent with 55 Cancri e either being devoid of atmosphere or having an optically thick atmosphere with heat recirculation confined to the planetary dayside.

LTT 9779 b is Neptune-sized planet rotating around its star with a period of 0.79 days and an equilibrium temperature of 2,000 K. It is not clear how it retained its atmospheric envelope, which contains ~10% of H/He, as it should have been photoevaporated by now.