Interested in naming a planet? …(I’m not kidding)

You now have an opportunity to assist in the naming of a series of planets, and this is quite real. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is inviting anybody interested to help them in the name selection process for newly discovered ExoWorlds and so here is the timeline of it all (as explained on their website) … … Read more

Birth of a Planet

Observations that have been made of a nearby star at infrared wavelengths have apparently detected the ongoing birth of a planet. Detail have been published in in the journal Astrophysical Letters Within the above are two views of the gas and dust around star HD 100546, via PopSci. Left: a visible-light image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Right: … Read more