Planetary science and exploration

For the first time, astronomers have observed a star pulsing in response to its orbiting planet. The star, HAT-P-2, pictured, is one of the most massive exoplanets known today. The planet, named HAT-P-2b, tracks its star in a highly eccentric orbit, flying extremely close to and around the star, then hurtling far out before eventually circling back around.

The heart of a far-off star beats for its planet

Scientists observe first planet-induced stellar pulsations.

February 14, 2017

“There seems to be no shortage of exoplanets,” says Jennifer Burt, a Torres postdoctoral fellow in MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research. “There are a ton of them out there, and a ton of science to be done.”

Scientists make huge dataset of nearby stars available to public

Users can search database of 1,600 stars to find signs of new exoplanets.

February 13, 2017

Left: An artist’s conception of the Lucy spacecraft flying by the Trojan Eurybates — one of the six diverse and scientifically important Trojans asteroids to be studied. Right: Psyche, the first mission to a metal asteroid, will map features, structure, composition, and magnetic field, and examine a landscape unlike anything explored before.

Twin wins for planetary exploration

MIT scientists and alumni well represented on newly announced NASA asteroid missions Psyche and Lucy.

January 5, 2017

NASA’s New Horizons team has found evidence of any icy, slushy ocean beneath Pluto’s “heart."

Pluto’s icy, slushy heart

Data from New Horizons mission suggest a water-ice ocean lies beneath Pluto’s heart-shaped basin.

November 16, 2016

This image shows free-air gravitational anomalies and a shaded topographic relief of the Moon’s 930-km-diameter Orientale impact basin. Red corresponds to mass excesses and blue to mass deficits relative to a reference value. This gravitational field model, based on measurements acquired from the NASA GRAIL mission, shows the detailed structure of the central basin depression that is filled with...

Retracing the origins of a massive, multi-ring crater

Scientists reconstruct first hours after a giant impact created one of the largest craters on the moon.

October 27, 2016

This artist's depiction shows the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft contacting the asteroid Bennu with its Touch-And-Go Sample Arm. The mission aims to return a sample of Bennu's surface coating to Earth and to return detailed information about the asteroid and its trajectory.

MIT’s REXIS is bound for asteroid Bennu

Instrument will help OSIRIS-REx mission identify locations for collecting an asteroid sample.

September 8, 2016

An artist’s depiction of planets transiting a red dwarf star in the TRAPPIST-1 System

First atmospheric study of Earth-sized exoplanets reveals rocky worlds

Two potentially habitable planets in nearby system are confirmed to be rocky.

July 20, 2016

In the year since New Horizons flew past Pluto, scientists have discovered intriguing details about the dwarf planet's atmosphere. Seen here, haze particles form numerous intricate, horizontal layers, some extending for hundreds of miles around Pluto. The haze layers extend to altitudes of over 120 miles (200 kilometers).

3 Questions: Richard Binzel on what we've learned so far from New Horizons

Professor Richard Binzel, NASA New Horizons scientist, describes a year of discovery since the spacecraft's historic 2015 Pluto encounter.

July 14, 2016

An image, taken by MESSENGER during its Mercury flyby on Jan. 14, 2008, of Mercury’s full crescent.

Researchers trace Mercury’s origins to rare meteorite

Experiments show planet cooled dramatically in half a billion years.

June 27, 2016

This illustration depicts the view from outside of a rapidly-accreting black hole. The bright light toward the center represents the super-heating of gas as it falls onto the black hole. Emanating from the center is a jet of accelerated particles moving near the speed of light. Surrounding the black hold is cool, clumpy gas and dust, which are falling inwards and will eventually join the material ...

Scientists observe supermassive black hole feeding on cold gas

Findings suggest two dining styles for black holes.

June 8, 2016

MIT scientists say that the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), a period that scientists believe marked the beginning of oxygen’s permanent presence in the atmosphere, started as early as 2.33 billion years ago.

Study pinpoints timing of oxygen’s first appearance in Earth’s atmosphere

Beginning 2.33 billion years ago, atmospheric oxygen built up in just 10 million years.

May 13, 2016

This artist’s rendering shows an imagined view of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth that were discovered using the TRAPPIST telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory. In this view, one of the inner planets is seen in transit across the disc of its tiny and dim parent star.

Scientists discover potentially habitable planets

Just 40 light years from Earth, planets are best targets so far for search for extraterrestrial life.

May 2, 2016

This artist’s rendering shows the super-Earth 55 Cancri e in front of its parent star. The planet is essentially a heat-seeking fireball, orbiting extremely close to its star. It circles in just 18 hours, compared to Earth’s leisurely 365-day journey around the sun.

First temperature map of a “super-Earth” reveals lava world

Exoplanet lacks atmosphere, is covered in rivers of magma.

March 30, 2016

New Horizons color-enhanced view of Pluto

New Horizons data hint at underground ocean

Ice flows and water ice mountains spied by NASA spacecraft support the idea that an interior ocean may be driving geologic activity on Pluto.

July 29, 2015

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has revealed the first-ever close up images and scientific observations of distant Pluto and its system of large and small moons.

3 Questions: Richard Binzel on New Horizons’ closest view of Pluto

Spacecraft’s close-up images reveal a complex, frozen world.

July 14, 2015

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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