Tag: Exoplanets

Scientists find a surprise ingredient in exoplanet cake mix — sulfur dioxide

NeRD

A ‘hot Neptune’ exoplanet has been found to contain sulfur dioxide in its atmosphere — an atmosphere that’s also gushing into space as the planet loops over its star’s poles on a steeply inclined orbit every three-and-a-third days. The existence of sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of the exoplanet, dubbed GJ 3470b and located 96 light-years from Earth, came as a shock when it was spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). “We didn’t think we’d see sulfur dioxide on planets this small, and it’s exciting to see this…

Read More

Discovery Alert: Spock’s Home Planet Goes ‘Poof’

NeRD

Artist’s concept of a previously proposed possible planet, HD 26965 b – often compared to the fictional “Vulcan” in the Star Trek universe. Credit: JPL-Caltech The discovery A planet thought to orbit the star 40 Eridani A – host to Mr. Spock’s fictional home planet, Vulcan, in the “Star Trek” universe – is really a kind of astronomical illusion caused by the pulses and jitters of the star itself, a new study shows. Key facts The possible detection of a planet orbiting a star that Star Trek made famous drew…

Read More

NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet

NeRD

7 min read NASA’s Webb Hints at Possible Atmosphere Surrounding Rocky Exoplanet This artist’s concept shows what the exoplanet 55 Cancri e could look like. Observations by NASA’s Webb telescope suggest it may be surrounded by an atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, which could have bubbled up from of an ocean of magma on the planet’s surface. While the planet is too hot to be habitable, detecting its atmosphere could provide insights into the early conditions of Earth, Venus, and Mars. Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space…

Read More

This hellish exoplanet’s skies rain iron and create a rainbow-like effect

NeRD

There are many words that could be used to describe WASP-76b — hellish, scorching, turbulent, chaotic, and even violent. This is a planet outside the solar system that sits so close to its star it gets hot enough to vaporize lead. So, as you can imagine, until now, “glorious” wasn’t one of those words. This more positive descriptor was added to the list quite recently, as astronomers have detected hints of something called “glory” in the atmosphere of the ultra-hot Jupiter exoplanet. The glory effect, hinted at in data from…

Read More

1 in 12 stars might have swallowed a planet

NeRD

About one in every 12 stars may have swallowed a planet, a new study finds. Previous research had discovered that some distant stars possess unusual levels of elements, such as iron, which one would expect to make up rocky worlds such as Earth. This and other evidence suggested that stars may sometimes ingest planets, but much remained uncertain about how often that might happen. One way to uncover more about planetary ingestion is to look at two stars born at the same time. Such twins should have a virtually identical…

Read More

More Planets than Stars: Kepler’s Legacy

NeRD

4 min read Preparations for Next Moonwalk Simulations Underway (and Underwater) The Kepler mission enabled the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, revealing a deep truth about our place in the cosmos: there are more planets than stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The road to this fundamental change in our understanding of the universe, however, required almost 20 years of persistence before the mission became a reality with its selection in 2001. The Kepler spacecraft at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in Boulder, Colorado. The Kepler mission surveyed a region…

Read More

Discovery Alert: Glowing Cloud Points to a Cosmic Collision

NeRD

3 min read Discovery Alert: Glowing Cloud Points to a Cosmic Collision This illustration depicts the aftermath of a collision between two giant exoplanets. What remains is a hot, molten planetary core and a swirling, glowing cloud of dust and debris. Mark A. Garlick The Discovery:  A glowing cosmic cloud has revealed a cataclysmic collision. Key Facts: Even within our own solar system, scientists have seen evidence of giant, planetary collisions from long ago. Remaining clues like Uranus’ tilt and the existence of Earth’s moon point to times in our…

Read More

NASA exoplanet telescope discovers ‘super-Earth’ in its star’s Goldilocks zone

NeRD

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has spotted a ‘super-Earth’ planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a relatively nearby red dwarf star. The extrasolar planet or ‘exoplanet,’ which has been designated TOI-715 b, might have company in the form of an Earth-sized planet.  The discovery is significant because red dwarfs, which are smaller and cooler than the sun, are often suggested to be the stars most likely to host small rocky habitable planets. According to a NASA statement, TOI-715 b has a width around 1.5 times that of Earth…

Read More

Earth isn’t the only planet with seasons, but they can look wildly different on other worlds

NeRD

Spring, summer, fall and winter – the seasons on Earth change every few months, around the same time every year. It’s easy to take this cycle for granted here on Earth, but not every planet has a regular change in seasons. So why does Earth have regular seasons when other planets don’t? I’m an astrophysicist who studies the movement of planets and the causes of seasons. Throughout my research, I’ve found that Earth’s regular pattern of seasons is unique. The rotational axis that Earth spins on, along the North and South poles, isn’t…

Read More

Are they exomoons or not? Scientists debate existence of 1st moons seen beyond our solar system

NeRD

Astronomers always knew spotting moons around planets outside the solar system would be no mean feat — but a debate currently raging in planetary science circles shows just how tough detecting these so-called exomoons is going to be.  The story begins in 2018, when astronomers including David Kipping, an assistant professor of astronomy at Columbia University, believed they’d made their first detection of an exomoon. The subject was found around exoplanet Kepler-1625b, a Jupiter-like world located around 8,000 light years from Earth. It was initially spotted with the Kepler Space…

Read More