Documentary featuring Professor Sara Seager wins Emmy Award
“The Hunt for Planet B” follows Seager and others on their search for extraterrestrial life; three other nominated films feature MIT affiliates.
Study: Astronomers risk misinterpreting planetary signals in JWST data
Refining current opacity models will be key to unearthing details of exoplanet properties — and signs of life — in data from the powerful new telescope.
Astronomers discover a multiplanet system nearby
Just 33 light-years from Earth, the system appears to host two rocky, Earth-sized planets.
MIT welcomes two from the Heising-Simons Foundation 51 Pegasi b Fellowship for 2022
The fellowship supports research contributing to the field of planetary science and astronomy.
Look! Up in the sky! Is it a planet? Nope, just a star
Among thousands of known exoplanets, MIT astronomers flag three that are actually stars.
A “hot Jupiter’s” dark side is revealed in detail for first time
The planet’s night side likely hosts iron clouds, titanium rain, and winds that dwarf Earth’s jetstream.
TESS Science Office at MIT hits milestone of 5,000 exoplanet candidates
Catalog of planet candidates nearly doubles in size during 2020-21.
TESS discovers a planet the size of Mars but with the makeup of Mercury
The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date.
One year on this giant, blistering hot planet is just 16 hours long
A newly discovered “ultrahot Jupiter” has the shortest orbit of any known gas giant.
Astronomers detect signs of an atmosphere stripped from a planet during giant impact
Such planetary smashups are likely common in young solar systems, but they haven’t been directly observed.
TESS Science Conference II draws nearly 700 virtual attendees
Not just an exoplanet-finder anymore, TESS yields diverse astrophysics results at second science conference.
Research updates from TESS: Hunting for worlds beyond our solar system
MIT scientists present exoplanet data at the 237th American Astronomical Society meeting.
TESS discovers four exoplanets orbiting a nearby sun-like star
MIT-led NASA mission finds a multi-planetary system that could be an “ideal laboratory” to study planetary formation and evolution.
Professor and astrophysicist Sara Seager appointed officer to the Order of Canada
Pioneer in exoplanet research helped transform the burgeoning field into one of the fastest-growing and most exciting in space science.
Astronomers discover an Earth-sized “pi planet” with a 3.14-day orbit
The rocky world, with its baking-hot surface, is likely not habitable.