College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences

GIZMODO - Do we live in an unusual star system? Astronomers have been trying to figure out if the Solar System is unique compared to other stars and their orbiting planets, and they just took a major step towards answering the longstanding cosmic mystery. An international team of planet-hunting astronomers spent three years analyzing thousands...

ZME SCIENCE - A research team led by University of California Riverside researchers has unveiled a new member of the HD 104067 star system. Located approximately 66 light years from Earth, this is one of the hottest solar systems out there — quite literally. The newly identified fiery planet, designated TOI-6713.01, exhibits conditions so extreme...

LIVE SCIENCE - A newly discovered planet in a faraway star system appears to be erupting with so many volcanoes, it glows a fiery red when seen from space. No planet like this has ever been observed before, researchers say, and follow-up observations will be required to confirm the strange world's existence. The newfound planet...

NEWSWEEK - A roiling-hot exoplanet billions of miles away has been discovered, dotted with so many volcanos that it would visibly glow in the darkness of space. This planet, named TOI-6713.01, orbits a star situated around 66 light-years away from our solar system and is a rocky world around 30 percent larger than Earth, according...

FORBES - Media outlets widely reported last fall that a possible sign of life had been found on another planet. The evidence came from the James Webb Space Telescope, which identified the presence of a molecule called dimethyl sulfide on an exoplanet called K2-18b. On Earth, DMS is produced by phytoplankton in the oceans. Evidence...

COSMOS MAGAZINE: In 2023, an exoplanet made international headlines because James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) observations suggested that the planet has a “biosignature” – signs of gas in its atmosphere produced by “life.” A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters pricks a hole in this hypothesis. K2-18b is a planet orbiting a star...

UNILAD - Scientists have discovered $540 billion worth of 'white gold' sitting underneath a huge lake. Located in southern California, Salton Sea is the largest in the state and sits on a lithium reservoir. While scientists knew that the chemical element was there, they didn't know just how much lithium was beneath the lake -...

INTERESTING ENGINEERING - Earlier this year, reports emerged that NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) had likely found signs of life on a distant alien planet. Celebrations were premature, according to a new study on the findings. Not all hope is lost, though, as the new paper also outlines how the telescope might still verify...

SPACE.COM - Recent reports of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detecting signs of life of a distant planet outside the solar system are, unfortunately, somewhat premature. That's the conclusion of research conducted by scientists from the University of California Riverside (UCR). While likely to disappoint all of us eager for the confirmation of extraterrestrial...

LIVE SCIENCE - The contentious exoplanet, called K2-18b, is a warm, watery world with a hydrogen-based atmosphere. Located about 120 light-years from Earth, it sits in the habitable zone around its home star, where liquid water (and, therefore, potentially life) is possible. The distant world made headlines last year after observations with JWST's Near Infrared...