Russell Deitrick
June 25, 2018
UW part of NASA network coordinating search for life on exoplanets
![This image is an artist’s conception of what life could look like on the surface of a distant planet.](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/06/04124429/Habitable-Worlds-2017_wide_smaller-150x150.jpg)
Researchers with the UW-led Virtual Planetary Laboratory are central to a group of papers published by NASA researchers today in the journal Astrobiology outlining the history — and suggesting the future — of the search for life on exoplanets, or those orbiting stars other than the sun.
May 14, 2018
Orbital variations can trigger ‘snowball’ states in habitable zones around sunlike stars
![An artist’s impression of Earth as a frigid "‘snowball" planet. New research from the University of Washington indicates that aspects of a planet's axial tilt or orbit could trigger such a snowball state, where oceans freeze and surface life is impossible.](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2018/05/04125205/Snowball-Earth-150x150.jpg)
Aspects of an otherwise Earthlike planet’s tilt and orbital dynamics can severely affect its potential habitability — even triggering abrupt “snowball states” where oceans freeze and surface life is impossible, according to new research from UW astronomers.
March 11, 2015
‘Chaotic Earths’: Some habitable exoplanets could experience wildly unpredictable climates
![](https://uw-s3-cdn.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2015/03/04173152/ChaoticResonancePlanets041-150x150.jpg)
New research by UW astronomer Rory Barnes and co-authors describes possible planetary systems where a gravitational nudge from one planet with just the right orbital configuration and tilt could have a mild to devastating effect on the orbit and climate of another, possibly habitable world.