Content tagged "atmosphere".
5 items (5 articles, 0 stories)
On the rocky exoplanet LHS 1140 b, 48 light-years away, astronomers have confirmed the first atmosphere ever detected on a habitable-zone rocky world. The clincher: catching helium from its upper layers escaping into space. SORABUMI unpacks the July 2026 milestone.
GJ 3378 b, a super-Earth found 25 light-years away, sits right in the middle of its habitable zone, soaking up about 90% as much starlight as Earth gets from the Sun. But the real test for finding life isn't distance — it's whether a planet can hold onto its atmosphere. SORABUMI explains the new yardstick astronomers call the cosmic shoreline.
Astronomers have discovered a super-Earth orbiting the red dwarf Ross 318, a mere 28 light-years from Earth. With six times our planet's mass, it sits inside the habitable zone where liquid water could exist — and hints of an atmosphere make it one of the most compelling nearby finds in years.
Astronomers have detected a thin atmosphere around 2002 XV93, a trans-Neptunian object just ~500 km across — smaller than Pluto. We break down why such a tiny body can hold onto gas at all, and how stellar occultation makes the detection possible.
JWST detected a thick atmosphere on TOI-561 b, a scorching rocky planet orbiting its star in just 11 hours. Here's why an atmosphere can survive in that environment — and why the discovery changes everything about how we study exoplanets.