Alien Planets

An alien planet that orbits a star other than our sun is referred to as an "exoplanet." Learn more about the types of alien planets, including exoplanets and extrasolar planets, and get the latest news.

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An artist's depiction of a distorted exoplanet.

Heavy-metal alien planet may be shaped like a football

By Charles Q. Choi

An exoplanet may be shaped like an American football due to the mighty gravitational forces it experiences close to its star, a new study finds.

NASA will again accept applications for new astronauts beginning March 2 through March 31, 2020. The new recruits, members of NASA's 23rd class of astronaut candidates, will train for expeditions to the space station and Artemis flights to the moon.

The top space stories of the week!

By Elizabeth Howell

These are the top space stories this week from Space.com.

An Earth-like world created by the Twitterbot. This planet is mainly covered with snow, with small pockets of ocean exposed.

You can build your own Earth 2.0 with the awesome website 'Earth-like'

By Nola Taylor Redd

You can now build your own "Earth-like" planet to see just how different it is from our own world.

NASA's Cassini spacecraft captured this view of Saturn's hazy moon Titan in January 2013, when it was about 895,000 miles (1.44 million kilometers) from the big moon.

Future space telescopes may probe Titan-like exoplanets

By Nola Taylor Redd

Planets like Saturn's moon Titan, one of the most potentially habitable places in the solar system, could reveal their secrets to future telescopes.

Artist's illustration of the three planets and two stars in the Kepler-47 system, which lies 3,340 light-years from Earth.

How common are Tatooine worlds?

By Paul Sutter

Double sunsets may be just as common in our galaxy as the solitary kind that we know on Earth, and this has big implications for our search for life outside the solar system.

This illustration shows a nightside view of the exoplanet WASP-76b. The ultrahot giant exoplanet has a dayside where temperatures climb above 4,350 degrees Fahrenheit (2,400 degrees Celsius), high enough to vaporize metals. Strong winds carry iron vapor to the cooler nightside where it condenses into iron droplets. To the left of the image, we see the evening border of the exoplanet, where it transitions from day to night.

Molten iron rain falls through the skies of scorching-hot exoplanet

By Mike Wall

Astronomers have spotted the exotic signature of iron rain in the atmosphere of the huge, scorching-hot exoplanet WASP-76 b.

An artist's interpretation of the water-rich atmosphere of K2-18b.

This gas-giant exoplanet has water-rich clouds. Here's why it thrills astronomers.

By Nola Taylor Redd

Three teams of astronomers have been fascinated by an alien world known as K2-18b. But what's all the fuss about?

An artist's depiction of a star and its planet.

What if scientists could find potentially habitable worlds just by looking at stars?

By Meghan Bartels

Looking for life traditionally starts with finding a planet with the right temperature — but scientists are working to find new criteria for tracking down potentially habitable worlds.

An artist's depiction of LUVOIR, one of four candidates for NASA's next flagship space telescope.

Meet LUVOIR, which might become one of NASA's next big space telescopes

By Meghan Bartels

NASA faces a difficult choice: What does the agency want to select as its next big space telescope, the instrument that will shape scientists' research in the 2040s?

Astronomers haven't found any exoplanets with rings, but researchers have found weirdly puffy alien worlds. What if they're one and the same?

'Superpuff' alien worlds could be ringed giant planets just like Saturn

By Paul Sutter

All four outer planets in our solar system sport at least a few rings, but so far, we haven't observed any such features around exoplanets. That's confusing.

An artistic visualization of a "hot Jupiter" orbiting close to a star.

This 'hot Jupiter' alien planet is dancing with death with its 18-hour year

By Elizabeth Howell

A newly found planet orbits so close to its parent star that it's close to being torn apart by the tidal forces induced by gravity.

One of the first images taken by CHEOPS of its target star, taken after its cover was opened. This star is 150 light-years from Earth.

Europe's planet-hunting CHEOPS telescope beams down its first image. It's better than expected

By Chelsea Gohd

A planet-hunting probe has taken its first photos, and they're better than expected!

White dwarfs are tightly compressed balls of glowing gas left after some stars die.

To find alien life, we should focus on white dwarf stars

By Paul Sutter

As far as we can tell, we're alone. But it could be that we're looking in the wrong places.

NASA's scientists are applying climate models developed on Earth to understand what other worlds might be able to host life.

'Planetary simulator' could help identify habitable alien worlds

By Meghan Bartels

Say what you will about winter's chill and summer's burn — Earth's climate is pretty great for life as we know it.

Researchers have found microscopic life in tiny bubbles within "flammable ice."

Could 'flammable ice' be the key to discovering alien life?

By Chelsea Gohd

In studying what's known as "flammable ice," researchers have discovered that microscopic bubbles within the strange material contain life.

PICTURE-C spotted a meteor during its test flight in September 2019.

Balloon-lofted camera built to hunt alien worlds aces first flight

By Meghan Bartels

Photographing an alien world is incredibly difficult. Now try doing it from a massive balloon high in Earth's atmosphere.

Farewell, Spitzer Space Telescope! NASA shuts down prolific observatory.

By Doris Elin Urrutia

One of NASA's great telescopes will go offline today (Jan. 30) after 16.5 years of observations that helped to paint a more complete picture of the universe.