Alpha Centauri, one of the two "Pointer Stars" that help stargazers find the Southern Cross in the Southern Hemisphere, may have a planet in orbit around it. If it does, the Webb Telescope will find ...

Exoplanets like Earth have been discovered but not all Earth-like planets are equal when it comes to alien life.

Scientists have discovered what they believe to be a new planet, the closest one ever detected outside our solar system. It is a small, rocky planet not unlike our own, orbiting the sun's closest ...

Within a few dozen light years of the Sun, the sky is crowded with stars that could, in principle, host living worlds. I want to know which of those neighbors are genuinely promising, not just famous ...

Some of the most promising places to look for extraterrestrials have remained, so far, mostly hidden from astronomers. Now a game-changing instrument called NIRPS (Near-Infrared Planet Searcher) is ...

The rocky planet circling the closest star to the sun got hammered by a superpowerful flare last year, a new study reports. That's a bit of bad news for anyone hoping that the alien world, known as ...

Astronomers have found nearly 6,000 exoplanets orbiting other stars. But for every confirmed detection, there are countless mere hints, inconclusive observations that could just as well be blips of ...

Just 4.3 light years from Earth lies a star called Alpha Centauri A, which is famous for being the nearest star that resembles our own Sun. In the popular Avatar movies, this star's system is home to ...