Three elder sisters of the Sun with planets
An international team led by Prof. Dr. habil. Andrzej Niedzielski, an astronomer from the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (Poland), has discovered yet another three extrasolar planets. These planets revolve around the stars that can be called.....»»
The 60 best space photos of all time from Nasa, Hubble, and more
From distant galaxies to stunning portraits of planets close to home, there's nothing like an image of space to blow your mind. Here are 60 of our favorites......»»
Gravity helps show strong force strength in the proton
The power of gravity is writ large across our visible universe. It can be seen in the lock step of moons as they circle planets; in wandering comets pulled off-course by massive stars; and in the swirl of gigantic galaxies. These awesome displays sho.....»»
Simulations show that exoplanets heated at deeper depths by their host stars display markedly different weather patterns
For many years, most astrophysical models assumed that planets beyond our solar system, known as exoplanets, are heated at similar depths by their host stars (i.e., stars like the sun around which planetary systems are formed). Analyses of recent obs.....»»
Big planets don"t necessarily mean big moons
Does the size of an exomoon help determine if life could form on an exoplanet it's orbiting? This is something a February 2022 study published in Nature Communications hoped to address as a team of researchers investigated the potential for large exo.....»»
Planetesimals are buffeted by wind in their nebula, throwing debris into space: Study
Before planets form around a young star, the protosolar disk is populated with innumerable planetesimals. Over time, these planetesimals combine to form planets, and the core accretion theory explains how that happens. But before there are planets, t.....»»
Researchers reveal new findings on diamond rain on ice planets
An international team of researchers led by Dr. Mungo Frost from the SLAC research center in California has gained new insights into the formation of diamond rain on icy planets such as Neptune and Uranus, using the X-ray laser European XFEL in Schen.....»»
Space oddity: Uncovering the origin of the universe"s rare radio circles
It's not every day astronomers say, "What is that?" After all, most observed astronomical phenomena are known: stars, planets, black holes and galaxies. But in 2019 the newly completed ASKAP (Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder) telescope pi.....»»
Neptune isn’t really dark blue, new study demonstrates
Most people think of Uranus and Neptune as pale greenish blue and royal blue. But a new study shows the two planets are actually a very similar color......»»
Astrophysicists explore links between atmospheric oxygen and detecting extraterrestrial technology on distant planets
In the quest to understand the potential for life beyond Earth, researchers are widening their search to encompass not only biological markers, but also technological ones. While astrobiologists have long recognized the importance of oxygen for life.....»»
How many planets could be in the Kuiper Belt?
A recent study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters investigates the potential existence of Mars-sized free-floating planets (FFPs)—also known as rogue planets, starless planets, and wandering planets—that could have been captured by ou.....»»
Sodium"s high-pressure transformation can tell us about the interiors of stars, planets
Travel deep enough below Earth's surface or inside the center of the sun, and matter changes on an atomic level......»»
A carbon-lite atmosphere could be a sign of water and life on other terrestrial planets, study finds
Scientists at MIT, the University of Birmingham, and elsewhere say that astronomers' best chance of finding liquid water, and even life on other planets, is to look for the absence, rather than the presence, of a chemical feature in their atmospheres.....»»
The atmosphere of an exoplanet reveals secrets about its surface
As astronomers have begun to gather data on the atmospheres of planets, we're learning about their compositions and evolution. Thick atmospheres are the easiest to study, but these same thick atmospheres can hide the surface of a planet from view. A.....»»
Mapping magma chambers under the Hunga volcano before and after the 2022 eruption
A small team of geologists, volcanologists and Earth scientists from the Carnegie Institution for Science, Earth and Planets Laboratory, in the U.S., the GNS Science, Wairakei Research Center, in New Zealand, Auckland University of Technology, in New.....»»
Researchers use VLT exoplanet hunter to study Jupiter"s winds
For the first time, an instrument to find planets light years away was used on an object in the solar system, in a study on Jupiter's winds......»»
Astrophysicists publish Kepler Giant Planet Search, an aid to "figure out where to find life"
A team of astrophysicists led by Lauren Weiss, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, created the first-ever catalog of small, Earth-like planets with Jupiter-like siblings (planets that share.....»»
Webb identifies tiniest free-floating brown dwarf
Brown dwarfs are sometimes called failed stars, since they form like stars through gravitational collapse, but never gain enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion. The smallest brown dwarfs can overlap in mass with giant planets. In a quest to find the s.....»»
A 14-inch spacecraft delivers new details about "hot Jupiters"
A spacecraft the size of a cereal box has collected precise measurements of the atmospheres of large and puffy planets called "hot Jupiters." The findings, led by a team from the University of Colorado Boulder, could help reveal how the atmospheres a.....»»
Astronomers calculate which exoplanets are most likely to have water
Astronomers know of about 60 rocky exoplanets orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars. When they try to determine how habitable these planets might be, detecting water in their atmospheres plays a huge role. But what if there was another way o.....»»
Large exomoons unlikely around Kepler-1625 b and Kepler-1708 b, astronomers say
Only two of the more than 5,300 known exoplanets have so far provided evidence of moons in orbit around them. In observations of the planets Kepler-1625b and Kepler-1708b from the Kepler and Hubble space telescopes, researchers discovered traces of s.....»»