Stars

Kepler-11 is a sun-like star around which six planets orbit. At times, two or more planets pass in front of the star at once, as shown in this artist's conception of a simultaneous transit of three planets observed by NASA's Kepler.

3 Questions: Sara Seager on discovering a trove of new planets

NASA’s Kepler orbiting telescope has found hundreds of new possible planets, including 54 in the so-called 'habitable zone.'

February 3, 2011

$A transiting planet obscures just a tiny fraction of the light from its parent star, allowing astronomers to detect its presence.$

Explained: Transiting exoplanets

How astronomers learn whether a planet is habitable by observing slight changes in light emanating from its parent star.

January 27, 2011

Close up of the EDGES antenna. The four panels are made from aluminum sheet metal and supported by PVC legs. The white bag under the antenna encloses analog amplifiers and calibration circuits.

And then there was light

Astronomers probe ancient radio waves for clues about the universe’s first light.

January 13, 2011

For the past 15 years, Sara Seager, the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Planetary Science in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and professor in MIT’s Department of Physics, has been studying exoplanet atmospheres and interiors.

The final frontier

Now that an Earthlike planet has been discovered, the key to confirming that it can host life will be to study its atmosphere in detail

December 16, 2010

Joshua Winn, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Physics and a researcher for the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, has been studying “hot Jupiters” for six years.

Learning from hot Jupiters

By studying how massive planets may have formed, MIT astrophysicist sets the stage for studying smaller, more Earthlike planets.

December 15, 2010

Artist rendition of a distant planet with rings

Building a list of Earth candidates

MIT researchers increase their odds of detecting an Earthlike planet by working on a combination of satellite missions.

December 14, 2010

Artist concept of the extremely hot exoplanet WASP-12b and the host star.

Astronomers detect first carbon-rich exoplanet

Discovery opens door to new class of exoplanets, including rocky planets rich in diamond and graphite.

December 9, 2010

As depicted in this image, astronomers can detect an exoplanet thanks to the changes in Doppler shifts that the planet's gravitational pull exerts on its host star. Those shifts are seen as red or blue color changes in the spectrum of light emitted by the star.

Explained: the Doppler effect

The same phenomenon behind changes in the pitch of a moving ambulance’s siren is helping astronomers locate and study distant planets.

August 3, 2010

This artist’s impression shows the Jupiter-like transiting exoplanet around its host star.

In a first, astronomers detect strong winds on an exoplanet

Researchers see tempestuous atmosphere on a planet located 150 light years from Earth.

June 24, 2010

An artist's rendering of a Kuiper Belt object.

Coordinated stargazing

MIT astronomer leads the first team to study a Kuiper Belt object during a stellar occultation.

June 17, 2010

An unusual, methane-free world is partially eclipsed by its star in this artist's concept. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence that a hot, Neptune-sized planet orbiting a star beyond our sun lacks methane — an ingredient common to many planets in our own solar system.

In the search for Earthlike exoplanets, GJ 436b has much to tell us

First detailed analysis of the atmosphere of a Neptune-sized planet reveals surprisingly low methane levels, presents "new territory" for researching planets outside our solar system

April 22, 2010

Artist’s conception of the rotating disk of hot, ionized gas surrounding Orion Source I, blocking the star from our view. A cool wind of gas is driven from the upper and lower surfaces of the disk and is sculpted into an hourglass shape by tangled magnetic field lines.

A massive star is born

Time-lapse movie shows that massive stars — which may hold clues about the origins of life — form like their smaller siblings.

January 11, 2010

The panels show two possibilities for the bizarre orbit of HAT-P-7b. The top panel shows a "polar" orbit in which the planet goes over the north and south poles of the star. The bottom panel shows a "retrograde" orbit in which the planet revolves in the opposite direction as the star's rotation. Astronomers cannot distinguish these two possibilities because the exact orientation of the star's rota...

A faraway planet intrigues

An exoplanet with an extremely tilted orbit raises new interest in stellar astronomy.

November 12, 2009

An inside view of a neutron detector in development at MIT's Laboratory for Nuclear Science. Pappalardo Fellow Jocelyn Monroe, is seen through the detector.

The hunt for dark matter

MIT physicists are working on new detectors that may, at last, help them find the elusive particles thought to constitute up to a quarter of the universe.

September 17, 2009

This artist's conception of the double-star system DI Herculis illustrates the key findings from the new research. Spectroscopic observations showed that the two stars are both tipped over almost horizontally, relative to the plane of their orbits around each other. Because they are rotating rapidly which creates equatorial bulges, the tidal interactions between the two slows down a regular variat...

New observations solve longstanding mystery of tipped rotation. In addition to shedding light on how binary stars form, the explanation knocks down a possible challenge to Einstein's theory of relativity.