A guide to exoplanets

12 min read

How our knowledge of these worlds beyond the Solar System has exploded

This article is from...

How It Works Magazine

11 September, 2025

How It Works

Our weird universe

From colliding galaxies to supermassive black holes, we take a look at some of the strangest sights in the universe

How It Works

Chinese scientists hunt for alien radio signals in a ‘potentially habitable’ star system

TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star located about ...

BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Possible planet found at alpha centauri a

The number of planets discovered orbiting other stars stands at over 6,000 and counting, but that’s just the confirmed ones. Many more candidate exoplanets are awaiting verification, some of which are

BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Air clings to small planets after all

One of the most important features of extrasolar planets is whether they have an atmosphere or not. For astrobiology in particular, small, rocky planets blanketed with an atmosphere offer the best hop

BBC Sky at Night Magazine

Rogue planets host their own mini planetary systems

When we imagine planets, we usually picture them circling a fiery star like our Sun. But new evidence has now been found of a type of planetary system that instead forms around cold planets that float