Discovery of new planet “over three times more massive than the Earth”

View of planet in distant solar system

OU researchers are part of an international team which has discovered a new planet orbiting the closest single star to the Sun. The paper, co-authored by three OU astronomers: Professor Carole Haswell, Post-Doctoral Researcher Dr John Barnes and former OU PhD student Dr Daniel Staab was published in Nature on Thursday 15 November.

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Three ladies and two men standing together in a row, with the words EDEN Best Research Paper Award 2026 on the bottom left-hand side of the image

OU researchers win prestigious EDEN Best Research Paper Award

Researchers from The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology have received international recognition at the 2026 EDEN Annual Conference in Porto, with two papers shortlisted for the prestigious EDEN Best Research Paper Award and one selected as the overall winner.

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