Since their first discovery in 1995, hot Jupiter exoplanets (hot Jupiters, for short) quickly challenged our understanding of exoplanet formation and evolution, including exoplanetary system architecture. This is because, as their name implies, they orbit at extremely close distances to their host stars, ranging from a few days to a few hours. Some of their orbits are even oval-shaped, called eccentric in the scientific community, meaning their orbit is oval-shaped. But could such an orbit cause a hot Jupiter to completely vanish from view, preventing astronomers from studying it?

Planetary scientists from Freie Universität Berlin have published two new studies that indicate that a spacecraft could identify evidence of life much more easily than previously thought.

An aerial view of the Kutuk River in Alaska's Gates of the Arctic National Park. (Ken Hill/National Park Service) An unexpected side effect of a thawing world.ScienceAlert stories are written, fact-checked, and edited by humans, never generated by AI. Don't miss a story, subscribe here.

(Francesco Carta fotografo/Moment/Getty Images) Not all fruit products are created equal.ScienceAlert stories are written, fact-checked, and edited by humans, never generated by AI. Don't miss a story, subscribe here.

The Universe has been making fewer stars lately and astronomers want to know why. The obvious answer is: there hasn't been enough starbirth material. But, is that true? Is some other process at play? An international team led by researcher Hong Guo of the Chinese Academy of Sciences decided to dig into the reasons why it looks like starbirth is falling off.