Hot Jupiters prefer long distance relationships
How can we explain hot Jupiters? The answer is not completely clear yet, but we are closing in on it: it seems that binaries may play an important role on the formation of these oddball planets.
The gruntwork behind Kepler’s new batch of exoplanets
The first Kepler mission observed hundreds of thousands of stars, and approximately 7500 of them are of potential interest. In this astrobite, we learn how astronomers are sifting through all these data in search for exoplanets.
Pursuing eternal youth: stellar cannibalism in the wilds of our galaxy
Recent surveys of the sky showed the presence of stars that seem to be too young for the population that they belong to. In today’s bite, we will see that cannibalism between two very close stars could be a viable way to produce these curious objects.
Tracing cosmic siblings in the Milky Way
Using data obtained from surveys of stars in the Milky Way and some clever programming, it is now possible to find stellar siblings scattered throughout our Galaxy, and thus obtain invaluable information on its evolution.
Optimizing the search for pale blue dots
How can we find other pale blue dots? Today’s paper studies what could be the most time-effective way to search for Earth-like exoplanets, just by looking at their colors.