A thick layer of haze around the ultra-low-density planet Kepler-51d likely obscures not only the strange planet's ...

After three years of searching, scientists have caught the elusive phenomenon. — -- The "brilliant flash" that occurs when a star dies and explodes has been captured for the first time in visible ...

Space-watchers saw the handwriting on the wall months ago, but now it’s official: NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, by far the most successful planet-hunting telescope in history, isn’t coming back. Engineers ...

Relative sizes of the newly discovered habitable-zone planets and Earth. Left to right: Kepler-69c, Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Earth (except for Earth, these are artists' renditions). Image credit: ...

Although astronomers have directly imaged a few dozen gas giants on the scale of Jupiter, Earth-sized planets are too small and dim to be directly imaged. That's not to say there's a shortage of Earth ...

An artistic concept of Kepler-452b, Earth's Bigger, Older Cousin.NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle It’s not easy being Earth. In order to become the vibrant ...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- An eighth planet has been found in a faraway solar system, matching our own in numbers. Even more amazing, machines and not humans made the discovery. NASA joined with Google ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American The prolific planet-hunting spacecraft that ...

It provides a dynamic, time-resolved view of planetary transformation, a missing link between young inflated worlds and the compact sub-Neptunes that populate the galaxy.