May 13, 2013 New Method of Finding Planets Scores its First Discovery Detecting alien worlds presents a significant challenge since they are small, faint, and close to their stars. The two most prolific techniques for finding exoplanets are radial velocity (looking for wobbling stars) and transits (looking for dimming stars).   Read More...

April 18, 2013 Two Water Worlds for the Price of One In our solar system, only one planet is blessed with an ocean: Earth. Our home world is a rare, blue jewel compared to the deserts of Mercury, Venus and Mars. But what if our Sun had not one but two habitable ocean worlds?   Read More...

April 02, 2013 New Insights on How Spiral Galaxies Get Their Arms Spiral galaxies are some of the most beautiful and photogenic residents of the universe. Our own Milky Way is a spiral. Our solar system and Earth reside somewhere near one of its filamentous arms.  Read More...