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...data about their sizes, masses and distances from the star. NASA/JPL-Caltech Transits reveal exoplanets’ sizes rather than their masses, but mass can be deduced when, as in the TRAPPIST-1 system, there are slight irregularities in transit timings attributable to neighbouring exoplanets perturbing each others’ orbits. This suggests that most of the family are...

...minimise contamination to the moon and to the Earth’s biosphere on return. However, it is important that this is balanced against our need to explore and investigate. Critically, though, the only way that data from samples of these worlds can be considered reliable, particularly in relation to the search for life, is by applying robust Planetary Protection requirements....

...data from that star, it doesn't sound like a whirring ball of gas. It sounds just like a steady human heartbeat. It is the ‘resting heart rate’ of the galaxy, and because these stars are the most accurate clocks in the universe, this heart will keep beating for millions of years. 3. Can a frozen world renew itself? [The planet Pluto]Pluto has a distinct heart shape on...