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Exoplanets

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Life Helps Make Almost Half of All Minerals on Earth

July 1, 2022

A new origins-based system for classifying minerals reveals the huge geochemical imprint that life has left on Earth. It could help us identify other worlds with life too.

What Is Life?

June 15, 2022

Without a good definition of life, how do we look for it on alien planets? Steven Strogatz speaks with Robert Hazen, a mineralogist and astrobiologist, and Sheref Mansy, a chemist, to learn more.

Astronomers Reimagine the Making of the Planets

June 9, 2022

Observations of faraway planets have forced a near-total rewrite of the story of how our solar system came to be.

A Solution to the Faint-Sun Paradox Reveals a Narrow Window for Life

January 27, 2022

We might have a past faint sun to owe for life’s existence. This has consequences for the possibility of life outside Earth.

The Webb Space Telescope Will Rewrite Cosmic History. If It Works.

December 3, 2021

The James Webb Space Telescope has the potential to rewrite the history of the cosmos and reshape humanity’s position within it. But first, a lot of things have to work just right.

Researchers Revise Recipe for Building a Rocky Planet Like Earth

November 3, 2021

Over the past decade, researchers have completely rewritten the story of how gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn form. They’re now debating whether the same process might hold for Earth.

Q&A

The Astronomer Who’s About to See the Skies of Other Earths

October 12, 2021

After the ultra-powerful James Webb Space Telescope launches later this year, Laura Kreidberg will lead two efforts to check the weather on rocky planets orbiting other stars.

Gas Giants’ Energy Crisis Solved After 50 Years

June 22, 2021

Jupiter and Saturn should be freezing cold. Instead, they’re hot. Researchers now know why.

Q&A

The Materials Scientist Who Studies the Innards of Exoplanets

June 15, 2021

Federica Coppari uses the world’s most powerful laser to recreate the cores of distant worlds.

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