Last week’s announcement of two “super-Earth” type planets sharing the habitable zone around Kepler-62 ratcheted up our optimism that life-bearing planets are all over the galaxy. Continue reading →

The recent Kepler-62 discovery is like "exoplanetary gold" for SETI scientists who are on the hunt for extraterrestrial intelligences. ->

NASA has selected a $200 million mission to carry out a full-sky survey for exoplanets orbiting nearby stars. The space observatory, called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), is scheduled for a 2017 launch. ->

The Kepler space telescope's prime objective is to hunt for small worlds orbiting distant stars, but that doesn't mean it's not going to detect some extreme relativistic phenomena along the way. ->

Building a huge radar system to bridge vast interstellar distances may not be such a silly idea. ->

The ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured an infrared picture of the star HD100546 -- is that clump of gas a "baby bump"? ->

Giant aliens from super-exo-earths are in danger of evaporating in a puff of planetary science dust. A new model suggests super-Earths are really mini-Neptunes. ->

Artist's impression of GJ 1214b passing in front of its host red dwarf star. This red dwarf is approximately one-fifth the size of our sun (David A. Aguilar/CfA). A "super-Earth" has been discovered orbiting a red dwarf star on our cosmic doorstep, only 42 light years away. But here's the best bit:...