Featured
-
-
Article |
UV absorption by silicate cloud precursors in ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-178b
Analysis is presented that indicates that there is strong evidence that SiO or Mg, the major constituents of silicate condensates, must be present in gaseous form in the atmosphere of ultra-hot Jupiter WASP-178b.
- Joshua D. Lothringer
- , David K. Sing
- & Autumn T. Winch
-
Research Highlight |
Small young star hosts a mammoth newborn planet
The planet TOI 1227b is big — but might be in the process of deflating.
-
News |
Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
Shifts in starlight from Proxima Centauri, observed over more than 2 years, reveal its third planet.
- Davide Castelvecchi
-
Article |
A wide-orbit giant planet in the high-mass b Centauri binary system
A direct imaging study demonstrates the existence of a giant planet in a wide orbit around the high-mass b Centauri binary system, and uses measurements of the orbital properties to discuss its formation mechanism.
- Markus Janson
- , Raffaele Gratton
- & Joseph C. Carson
-
Article |
A solar C/O and sub-solar metallicity in a hot Jupiter atmosphere
The C/O ratio of the transiting hot Jupiter WASP-77Ab is measured here and found to be approximately solar, though the (C+O)/H ratio is subsolar.
- Michael R. Line
- , Matteo Brogi
- & Joost P. Wardenier
-
News |
Mysterious ‘alien beacon’ was false alarm
Radio signal seemed to originate from the star Proxima Centauri, and provided a helpful drill for future searches.
- Alexandra Witze
-
Article |
Carbon monoxide gas produced by a giant impact in the inner region of a young system
A carbon monoxide gas ring co-orbiting with dusty debris is observed in the outer terrestrial planet region of the star HD 172555, which indicates that a planetary-scale impact took place.
- Tajana Schneiderman
- , Luca Matrà
- & Mark C. Wyatt
-
Article |
A Jovian analogue orbiting a white dwarf star
The authors show not only that planetary bodies around white dwarfs can survive but also that more than half of white dwarfs might have Jovian planetary companions.
- J. W. Blackman
- , J. P. Beaulieu
- & J. B. Marquette
-
Article |
The 13CO-rich atmosphere of a young accreting super-Jupiter
Observations of 13CO in the atmosphere of a young, accreting super-Jupiter indicate a 13C-rich atmosphere, which is attributed to the accretion of carbon from ices enriched in 13C through fractionation.
- Yapeng Zhang
- , Ignas A. G. Snellen
- & Frans Snik
-
News |
The 2,000 stars where aliens would catch a glimpse of Earth
Scientists searching for extraterrestrial life should narrow their hunt to stars and planetary systems that have an occasional view of Earth as it passes in front of the Sun.
- Alexandra Witze
-
Article |
Past, present and future stars that can see Earth as a transiting exoplanet
The Gaia database is used to identify stars from which astronomers on orbiting planets could see Earth transiting the Sun in the past, present and future.
- L. Kaltenegger
- & J. K. Faherty
-
Article |
Gaseous atomic nickel in the coma of interstellar comet 2I/Borisov
Atomic nickel vapour is found in the cold coma of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov at a distance of 2.3 astronomical units, equivalent to an equilibrium temperature of 180 kelvin.
- Piotr Guzik
- & Michał Drahus
-
Article |
Five carbon- and nitrogen-bearing species in a hot giant planet’s atmosphere
The signatures of water, carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, methane, ammonia and acetylene are observed in the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter HD 209458b, with abundance ratios suggesting a super-solar carbon-to-oxygen ratio.
- Paolo Giacobbe
- , Matteo Brogi
- & Andrea Tozzi
-
Article |
Metastability of diamond ramp-compressed to 2 terapascals
X-ray diffraction measurements of solid carbon compressed to pressures of about two terapascals (approximately twenty million atmospheres) find that carbon retains a diamond structure even under these extreme conditions.
- A. Lazicki
- , D. McGonegle
- & J. S. Wark
-
Article |
Stellar clustering shapes the architecture of planetary systems
The architecture of planetary systems is shown to be strongly affected by stellar clustering in position-velocity phase space; hot Jupiters occur preferentially at high density, suggesting that their extreme orbits originate from environmental perturbations.
- Andrew J. Winter
- , J. M. Diederik Kruijssen
- & Mélanie Chevance
-
News & Views |
Early onset of planet formation observed in a nascent star system
Narrow rings and gaps have been seen in a particularly young disk of dust and gas around a nascent star, using the world’s most powerful radio telescope. The finding provides a potential glimpse of the earliest stages of planet formation.
- Patrick Sheehan
-
News & Views |
Planet discovered transiting a dead star
Evidence has been found of a planet circling the smouldering remains of a dead star in a tight orbit. The discovery raises the question of how the planet survived the star’s death throes — and whether other planets also orbit the remains.
- Steven Parsons
-
Article |
A giant planet candidate transiting a white dwarf
A giant planet candidate roughly the size of Jupiter but more than 14 times as massive is observed by TESS and other instruments to be transiting the white dwarf star WD 1856+534.
- Andrew Vanderburg
- , Saul A. Rappaport
- & Liang Yu
-
News Round-Up |
Ebola outbreak ends and a quiet star is found to host planets
The latest science news, in brief.
-
Article |
A remnant planetary core in the hot-Neptune desert
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.
- David J. Armstrong
- , Théo A. Lopez
- & Zhuchang Zhan
-
Article |
A planet within the debris disk around the pre-main-sequence star AU Microscopii
A transiting planet with a period of about 8.5 days and a radius 0.4 times that of Jupiter is reported within the debris disk around the star AU Microscopii.
- Peter Plavchan
- , Thomas Barclay
- & Perri Zilberman
-
Article |
Nightside condensation of iron in an ultrahot giant exoplanet
Absorption lines of iron in the dayside atmosphere of an ultrahot giant exoplanet disappear after travelling across the nightside, showing that the iron has condensed during its travel.
- David Ehrenreich
- , Christophe Lovis
- & Filippo Zerbi
-
News Round-Up |
A new illness, an Earth-size exoplanet and a 12-year prison sentence
The latest science news, in brief.
-
News Round-Up |
Indonesian fires, exoplanet telescope and the world’s oldest story
The latest science news, in brief.
-
News |
European space telescope to launch new era of exoplanet science
CHEOPS will be the first mission designed to study — rather than find — alien worlds.
- Jonathan O'Callaghan
-
Article |
Accretion of a giant planet onto a white dwarf star
Observations of an accretion disk around a hot white dwarf star reveal that the chemical abundances in its disk are similar to those thought to exist deep in icy giant planets, so the white dwarf must be accreting a giant planet.
- Boris T. Gänsicke
- , Matthias R. Schreiber
- & Christopher J. Manser
-
Letter |
Meridional flows in the disk around a young star
Three-dimensional gas velocities in the gapped disk around the young star HD 163296 show meridional flows from the surface of the disk towards its midplane at gap locations.
- Richard Teague
- , Jaehan Bae
- & Edwin A. Bergin
-
News & Views |
First exoplanet found around a Sun-like star
In 1995, astronomers detected a blisteringly hot Jupiter-mass planet orbiting closer to its host star than Mercury is to the Sun. This discovery recast our thinking of how planets form and led to a new era of exoplanetary exploration.
- Eliza Kempton
-
News |
Physics Nobel goes to exoplanet and cosmology pioneers
Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, who discovered the first extrasolar planet orbiting a Sun-like star, share award with theoretical cosmologist James Peebles.
- Elizabeth Gibney
- & Davide Castelvecchi
-
News |
Gigantic Chinese telescope opens to astronomers worldwide
FAST has superior sensitivity to detect cosmic phenomena, including fast radio bursts and pulsars.
- Elizabeth Gibney
-
Letter |
Absence of a thick atmosphere on the terrestrial exoplanet LHS 3844b
Phase curve measurements for the small (1.3 Earth radii) terrestrial exoplanet LHS 3844b show absence of a thick atmosphere, in agreement with theoretical predictions.
- Laura Kreidberg
- , Daniel D. B. Koll
- & Roland Vanderspek
-
News |
NASA exoplanet hunter racks up bizarre worlds and exploding stars
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has identified at least eight planets, including one with a mass more than 20 times that of Earth.
- Alexandra Witze
-
Letter |
A warped disk around an infant protostar
Observations at millimetre wavelengths reveal a young protostar surrounded by a disk with two differently tilted regions.
- Nami Sakai
- , Tomoyuki Hanawa
- & Satoshi Yamamoto
-
News Feature |
These dusty young stars are changing the rules of planet-building
Astronomers peer inside planetary nurseries for clues about how our Solar System and others came to be.
- Rebecca Boyle
-
News & Views |
A key piece in the exoplanet puzzle
The detection of a low-mass exoplanet on a relatively wide orbit has implications for models of planetary formation and evolution, and could open the door to a new era of exoplanet characterization.
- Rodrigo F. Díaz
-
Nature Podcast |
Podcast: Barnard’s Star, and clinical trials
Hear the latest science news, presented by Noah Baker and Benjamin Thompson.
-
Letter |
A candidate super-Earth planet orbiting near the snow line of Barnard’s star
Analysis of 20 years of observations of Barnard’s star from seven facilities reveals a signal with a period of 233 days that is indicative of a companion planet.
- I. Ribas
- , M. Tuomi
- & G. Anglada-Escudé
-
News |
NASA retires Kepler spacecraft after planet-hunter runs out of fuel
Telescope spotted thousands of worlds beyond the Solar System during nine years of observations.
- Alexandra Witze
-
News |
Suspected first exomoon comes into tantalizing focus
Hubble telescope spots faint changes in the light from a star that could signal the presence of a moon around a distant planet.
- Alexandra Witze
-
News |
NASA’s latest exoplanet hunter spots dozens of potential new worlds
Astronomers are poring over the candidates from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite to confirm how many are bona fide planets.
- Alexandra Witze
-
Letter |
Atomic iron and titanium in the atmosphere of the exoplanet KELT-9b
Cross-correlation analysis of high-resolution spectra obtained as the exoplanet KELT-9b transited its host star reveals neutral and singly ionized atomic iron and singly ionized atomic titanium in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.
- H. Jens Hoeijmakers
- , David Ehrenreich
- & Luca Di Fabrizio
-
News Q&A |
The researchers who study alien linguistics
Nature speaks to linguist Sheri Wells-Jensen who co-hosted a workshop about the challenges of communicating with extraterrestrials.
- Davide Castelvecchi
-
Letter |
An absolute sodium abundance for a cloud-free ‘hot Saturn’ exoplanet
The optical transmission spectrum for the ‘hot Saturn’ exoplanet WASP-96b reveals a clear atmosphere, an atmospheric sodium abundance and hence its metallicity, which is consistent with the metallicity trend observed in Solar System planets and exoplanets.
- N. Nikolov
- , D. K. Sing
- & J. J. Spake
-
Letter |
Helium in the eroding atmosphere of an exoplanet
A detection of helium absorption at 10,833 Å on the exoplanet WASP-107b reveals that its atmosphere is extended and eroding, and demonstrates a new way to study upper exoplanetary atmospheres.
- J. J. Spake
- , D. K. Sing
- & N. Madhusudhan
-
Nature Podcast |
AI in chemistry, and liquid droplets in living cells
Benjamin Thompson and Shamini Bundell bring you more stories from the world of science.
-
News |
First space mission dedicated to exoplanet atmospheres gets green light
Scientists hope to learn what makes a ‘typical’ solar system using the European Space Agency’s €450-million ARIEL probe.
- Elizabeth Gibney
-
Letter |
Orbital misalignment of the Neptune-mass exoplanet GJ 436b with the spin of its cool star
Mapping the three-dimensional trajectory of a Neptune-mass exoplanet across the disk of its cool star reveals that its orbit is nearly perpendicular to the stellar equator, implying the existence of a yet-undetected outer companion planet.
- Vincent Bourrier
- , Christophe Lovis
- & Francesco Pepe
-
News Feature |
The labs that forge distant planets here on Earth
High-pressure experiments explore what it might take to make exoplanets habitable
- Shannon Hall
-
Research Highlight |
Multi-planet systems come to order
Patterns emerge amid the wild diversity of exoplanets.