Category: Exoplanets

NASA’s Roman Mission Shares Detailed Plans to Scour Skies

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team shared Thursday the designs for the three core surveys the mission will conduct after launch. These observation programs are designed to investigate some of the most profound mysteries in astrophysics while enabling expansive cosmic exploration that will revolutionize our understanding of the universe. “Roman’s setting out to do […]

NASA Webb’s Autopsy of Planet Swallowed by Star Yields Surprise

Observations from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have provided a surprising twist in the narrative surrounding what is believed to be the first star observed in the act of swallowing a planet. The new findings suggest that the star actually did not swell to envelop a planet as previously hypothesized. Instead, Webb’s observations show the […]

Discovery Alert: Four Little Planets, One Big Step

The Discovery Four rocky planets much smaller than Earth orbit Barnard’s Star, the next closest to ours after the three-star Alpha Centauri system. Barnard’s is the nearest single star. Key Facts Barnard’s Star, six light-years away, is notorious among astronomers for a history of false planet detections. But with the help of high-precision technology, the […]

NASA’s Webb Images Young, Giant Exoplanets, Detects Carbon Dioxide

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of multiple gas giant planets within an iconic planetary system. HR 8799, a young system 130 light-years away, has long been a key target for planet formation studies. The observations indicate that the well-studied planets of HR 8799 are rich in carbon dioxide gas. This provides […]

NASA’s Webb Images Young, Giant Exoplanets, Detects Carbon Dioxide

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured direct images of multiple gas giant planets within an iconic planetary system. HR 8799, a young system 130 light-years away, has long been a key target for planet formation studies. The observations indicate that the well-studied planets of HR 8799 are rich in carbon dioxide gas. This provides […]

Discovery Alert: ‘Super-Earth’ Swings from Super-Heated to Super-Chill

The Discovery A possible “super-Earth” orbits a relatively close, Sun-like star, and could be a habitable world – but one of extreme temperature swings, from scorching heat to deep freeze. Key Facts The newly confirmed planet is the outermost of three detected so far around a star called HD 20794, just 20 light-years from Earth. […]

Cosmic Mapmaker: NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Ready to Launch

NASA’s latest space observatory is targeting a March 8 liftoff, and the agency’s PUNCH heliophysics mission is sharing a ride. Here’s what to expect during launch and beyond. In a little over a day, NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope is slated to launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. […]

NASA’s Webb Exposes Complex Atmosphere of Starless Super-Jupiter

An international team of researchers has discovered that previously observed variations in brightness of a free-floating planetary-mass object known as SIMP 0136 must be the result of a complex combination of atmospheric factors, and cannot be explained by clouds alone. Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to monitor a broad spectrum of infrared light emitted […]