Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than the sun and thus exist outside the solar system. The word "exoplanet" derives from the term "extrasolar planet," which hints at its existence beyond ...

Astronomers have been looking for exoplanets orbiting Barnard's Star – the nearest solitary star to our Solar System, at just 5.96 light-years away – since its discovery in 1916. Unconvincing signs of ...

This animation shows magnetic activity in an exoplanet. The planet is a gas giant like Jupiter, but it’s very close to its host star and tidally locked: one side always faces the star and is scorching ...

When a distant exoplanet transits, or crosses in front of its star, it causes a slight dip in the star’s brightness. The Kepler space telescope measures this dip in a star’s brightness over time.

The farthest planet from the Sun, Neptune, is the windiest place in the solar system, with winds that whip through at speeds reaching more than 0.3 miles per second (0.5 kilometers per second). That’s ...