So they improvised a solution: orient Kepler with respect to the sun so that the faint pressure of its light provides the stability needed to balance the spacecraft. Under this new configuration, ...

IMAGE: Among thousands of known exoplanets, MIT astronomers have flagged three that are actually stars. Pictured is an artist’s interpretation of stars and planets. CREDIT: NASA A new study published ...

Relative sizes of the newly discovered habitable-zone planets and Earth. Left to right: Kepler-69c, Kepler-62e, Kepler-62f and Earth (except for Earth, these are artists' renditions). Image credit: ...

Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.