An curved arrow pointing right. 55 Cancri e – a planet eight times the size of Earth – is 40 light-years away. Astronomers just found out what its air is made of. Produced by Matthew Stuart.

Artists' illustration of 55 Cancri e. Disclaimer ... or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

This light curve shows the change in brightness of the 55 Cancri system as the rocky planet 55 ... [+] Cancri e, the closest of the five known planets in the system, moves behind the star.

55 Cancri e is a rocky world about eight times ... red star Earth may have a long-lost twin in a nearby star system. Named ...

55 Cancri e is about 40 light-years away and orbits ... There are actually two stars in this system—something that sounds bizarre, but is actually very common. The main star is a little cooler ...

and astronomers need to be able to identify rocky planets that have atmospheres to search for life outside the solar system. However, 55 Cancri e is likely far too hot to have any life: Researchers ...

55 Cancri e is so close to its star that it whips ... It contains the largest valley—a system of canyons, really—that we’ve ...

But it seems to be the exception in our cosmic neighborhood, the solar system. Sure ... hospitable to creatures anything like us – like 55 Cancri e, the lava-world imagined by NASA artists ...

Whether discovering exoplanets or measuring the size of an asteroid, cubesats are affordable throughout the space community, even to small startup, private companies and university laboratories ...