Earlier this week, I talked about some of the strange atmospheric conditions and possible weather on hot Jupiters – places where the rain is composed of iron, rubies, sapphires, and other materials not usually thought of as liquid molecules. Honestly, I love thinking about fascinating possibilities for exoplanets. These worlds must be a science fiction writer’s dream. You may not be able to host human life on them, but you sure can be creative about other forms of life and their adaptations.⠀ ⠀ However, the press releases about all these individual worlds might be overshadowing the forest for the trees, so to speak. In a story titled “Exoplanets in the Shadows”, Damond Benningfield takes a look at research areas that are as interesting, if not more so, than all these individual exoplanets we keep reporting on.⠀ ⠀ After years of focus on individual exoplanets and their systems, the time has come to focus on bigger picture sections of exoplanet research.⠀ ⠀ Read my full story: bu...