With more than 5,000 known exoplanets, astronomers are shifting their focus from discovering additional distant worlds to identifying which are good candidates for further study.
Images of six candidate massive galaxies, seen 500–800 million years after the Big Bang.
NASA / ESA / CSA / I. Labbe
NASA has been gaining momentum in recent years as investment into space has ramped up in the US. In 2022, missions dealt with the farthest, closest, hottest and coldest conditions in the universe.
The Carina star-forming region imaged by the JWST.
NASA
A year on since the historic launch of the most powerful infrared telescope in human history, we admire and explore some of the best images it delivered in 2022.
The James Webb Space Telescope is providing astronomers with images and data that reveal secrets from the earliest era of the universe.
NASA/STScI
It has been one year since the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and six months since the first pictures were released. Astronomers are already learning unexpected things about the early universe.
The technology of an advanced alien civilization is likely to produce many signs that could be detected across the vastness of space. Two astronomers explain the search for technosignatures.
We should not rule out taking a closer look at exoplanets that have a poorly oxygenated atmosphere.
Astronomers think the most likely place to find life in the galaxy is on super-Earths, like Kepler-69c, seen in this artist’s rendering.
NASA Ames/JPL-CalTech
Newly discovered super-Earths add to the list of planets around other stars that offer the best chance of finding life. An astronomer explains what makes these super-Earths such excellent candidates.
NASA/ESA/CSA, A Carter (UCSC), the ERS 1386 team, and A. Pagan (STScI)
A new publication clarifies how existing legal frameworks apply to space exploration and development. The McGill Manual also highlights the catastrophic implications of conflict in space.
James Webb has peered into the distant Universe.
NASA
Why is the universe 13.8 billion years old, but 93 billion light-years across? It’s all about how light travels through the cosmos.
TRAPPIST-1e is a rocky exoplanet in the habitable zone of a star 40 light-years from Earth and may have water and clouds, as depicted in this artist’s impression.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/Wikimedia Commons
Life on Earth has dramatically changed the chemistry of the planet. Astronomers will measure light that bounces off distant planets to look for similar clues that they host life.