The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, like many science-driven U.S. government agencies, has felt under siege in the first weeks of Donald Trump's administration. A "rogue NASA" Twitter account has even launched, calling itself the "unofficial 'Resistance' team of NASA."

But morale is probably pretty high at the space agency anyway -- thanks to breakthrough "new findings on planets that orbit stars other than our sun, known as exoplanets."

NASA's official announcement is scheduled for 10 a.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday.

Exoplanets are "the major hope for life elsewhere in the universe, since many have been found that resemble our own Earth and could have the building blocks of life," Britain's The Independent points out.

NASA's big news is embargoed until the news conference, but CNet writer Eric Mack offered this tantalizing tease: "We've seen the research, and while we can't share details yet, let's just say it could very easily provide us with new settings for many future works of science fiction."

Major players in the field of astronomy will be participating in the news conference, including NASA senior administrator Thomas Zurbuchen, University of Liege astronomer Michael Gillon, Space Telescope Science Institute astronomer Nikole Lewis, NASA Spitzer Science Center manager Sean Carey and MIT physics professor Sara Seager.

NASA will live-stream the event.

The space agency also will answer questions over social media via the hashtag #AskNASA. It also plans to hold a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" Q&A.

-- Douglas Perry

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