How to Confirm a (Tiny) Exoplanet Candidate
Barclay et al. find a “candidate” planet smaller than Mercury in the Kepler data…will it pass their tests and be confirmed as the smallest known planet?
Characterizing Planets with BEER
Faigler et al. apply their BEER algorithm to a collection of stars in the Kepler field and find a hot Jupiter missed by the Kepler Science Team, showing a new way to find and characterize planets without follow-up observations.
Checking Out Our New Neighbors
A new brown dwarf system has been discovered only 2 parsec away; Gillon et al. analyze its light curve to study clouds on the surfaces of these stars.
The Many Moons of Pluto
The number of known moons of Pluto has now reached five. What are they like, and how did they get there? Kenyon and Bromley use numerical simulations to answer these questions and determine what else New Horizons may find in 2015.
Three’s a Crowd: Potential Triple-Star Systems in the Kepler Field
By looking for variations in the observed periods for eclipsing binary stars, astronomers have found evidence that a sizable fraction of these systems are actually systems of three or more stars.