A seemingly serene landscape of gas and dust is hopping with star formation behind the scenes. NASA, ESA, and K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of

The EAC-1 (top row), EAC-2 (middle row), and EAC-3 (bottom row) designs shown to relative scale. The left column shows the stowed, launch configuration for each architecture and its fit

Schematic diagram of typical initial conditions for a model run (not to scale). Temperature ranges from 100 to 273 K and is shown according to the color scale at right.

Deep layers of molten rock inside some super-earths could generate powerful magnetic fields—potentially stronger than Earth’s—and help shield these exoplanets from harmful radiation. (University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics

A graphical representation of glycine on a surface in the interstellar medium bombarded by cosmic rays to produce peptides, the building block of proteins. Credit Alfred Thomas Hopkinson. The stars

Currently known exoplanet population color-coded by detection technique in the companion mass vs. semi-major axis plane. The detection limits of various facilities are overlaid with solid lines. The boundary between