Closest single star like our Sun may have a habitable planet

An international team of astronomers has found that Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars, may host five planets.

New super-Earth planet found in habitable zone of six-planet system

An international team of astronomers has discovered a new super-Earth planet in the habitable zone of a nearby star.

Kepler Explorer app puts distant planets at your fingertips

Kepler Explorer, an innovative app for iPads and iPhones, provides interactive displays of planetary systems discovered by the Kepler Mission.

New super-Earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star

An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star.

Astronomers confirm first planet orbiting two stars

A world with multiple suns is a common trope in science fiction, and scientific reality has now caught up, with a report from NASA's Kepler mission of a planet orbiting two stars.

'Big splat' may explain moon's mountainous far side

The mountainous region on the far side of the moon may be the remains of a collision with a smaller companion moon.

Six small planets orbiting a Sun-like star amaze astronomers

A remarkable planetary system discovered by NASA's Kepler mission has six planets around a Sun-like star, including five small planets in tightly packed orbits.

New analysis explains formation of bulge on farside of moon

A bulge of elevated topography on the farside of the moon may be the result of tidal forces acting early in the moon's history.

UCSC Astronomy Grad Student Kevin Schlaufman used computer models

to simulate a theoretical extrasolar planet population and found that a new breed of super-Earths are also suprisingly prevalent. Kevin and his colleagues' results will be published in The Astrophysical Journals.

Newly discovered planet may be first truly habitable exoplanet

A team of planet hunters has announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting a nearby star at a distance that places it squarely in the middle of the star's "habitable zone."

"Giant, Tilted Exoplanets Like It Hot"

UCSC Grad student Kevin Schlaufman did a statistical study of 75 exoplanet systems, and found that 10 of them should have tilted orbits. Several of the planets his computations picked out were already known to have funny orbits. And all of them circled large, hot stars. Read More as featured on Wired Science.

Earth and planetary scientist Gary Glatzmaier elected to National Academy of Sciences

Gary Glatzmaier, professor of Earth and planetary sciences, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of his excellence in original scientific research.

Massive planet is being torn apart by its own tides

An international group of astrophysicists has determined that a massive planet outside our Solar System is being distorted and destroyed by its host star.

UC Santa Cruz astronomy professor discusses the music he has created from stellar movements

Greg Laughlin is translating "sonifying" stellar movements into sound, allowing the public to listen in on thousands of years of gravitational interplay between a star and its orbiting planets.

UCSC astronomer joins composer Philip Glass to explore music of the universe

UC Santa Cruz Astronomer Gregory Laughlin joins acclaimed composer Philip Glass February 21 in a "Brainwave" discussion at the Rubin Art Museum in New York. Brainwave is a series of 20 sessions this winter and spring that bring together eminent thinkers f

A team using NASA's Kepler planet-finding telescope, including UCSC astrophysicist Jonthan Fortney, has found two new objects that orbit hot stars.

These objects may be a new class of compact, low mass companions. The work will appear in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Cassini data show Enceladus in motion

Blobs of warm ice that periodically rise to the surface and churn the icy crust on Saturn's moon Enceladus explain the quirky heat behavior and intriguing surface of the moon's south polar region.

New planet discoveries suggest low-mass planets are common around nearby stars

An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars.

Greg Laughlin tapes interview on the subject of extra solar planets for the History Channel program "The Universe".

Astronomer Greg Laughlin featured in a story about the VB 10 system as a glimpse into the very distant future of our own galaxy on PlanetQuest.

(PLANETQUEST) -- The discovery of a giant planet orbiting the tiny star VB10 made headlines earlier this year as the smallest star ever to be found harboring a planet. But Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at the University of California, Santa Cruz, suggests that the VB10 system could also be a glimpse into the very distant future of our own galaxy.

Astronomer Greg Laughlin was interviewed on........

NPR's Science Friday about the possibility of orbital chaos leading to collisions between the Earh and inner planets, and quoted in news stories on this subject including Newsweek

New Lick telescope will help us search for Earthlike neighbors

This week, Astonomer Steve Vogt and his team of University of California-Santa Cruz astronomers are assembling a sensitive new telescope on the summit of Mount Hamilton that will search the skies for any galactic neighbors.

Astronomers get a sizzling weather report from a distant planet

Astronomers have observed the intense heating of a distant planet as it swung close to its parent star, providing important clues to the atmospheric properties of the planet.

Doug Lin has a featured article in the May 2008 Scientific American entitled "The Chaotic Genesis of Planets."

UC Santa Cruz undergraduate Konstantin Batygin and Astronomy Professor Greg Laughlin find that Solar system could go haywire before the Sun dies

Nearby star should harbor detectable, Earth-like planets according to new study by UCSC Astronomers Javiera Guedes and Greg Laughlin

A team of astronomers including UCSC's Steven Vogt recently revealed the discovery of a record-breaking fifth planet orbiting a star beyond our solar system

NASA Develops Weather Map of a 'Hot Jupiter' Planet

Planet hunters wanted to help astronomers in the search for new worlds

UCSC scientists to discuss life on Earth in conjunction with world premiere of Frans Lanting's Life: A Journey through Time