exoplanets

SOFIA Spots Debris from Catastrophic Collision between Two Rocky Exoplanets 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 26, 2019
Astronomers using NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have observed an unusually warm, dusty debris disk around BD +20 307, a binary star system located 300 light-years away in the constellation of Aries. Their results suggest that an extreme collision between two rocky planetary bodies is the most likely origin for the warm dust in the BD +20 307 system.

By David Aragorn
Ancient stars shed light on Earth’s similarities to other planets 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 19, 2019
New method used to study planets’ geochemistry implies that Earth is not unique

By David Aragorn
Gas ‘waterfalls’ reveal infant planets around young star 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- October 18, 2019
For the first time, astronomers have witnessed 3D motions of gas in a planet-forming disk. At three locations in the disk around a young star called HD 163296, gas is flowing like a waterfall into gaps that are most likely caused by planets in formation. These gas flows have long been predicted and would directly influence the chemical composition of planet atmospheres.

By David Aragorn
Nobel prize in physics awarded to cosmology and exoplanet researchers 0
- From Around the Web, Science & Technology, Space
- October 9, 2019
James Peebles laid foundation for modern cosmology while Swiss pair found first exoplanet

By David Aragorn
Many gas giant exoplanets waiting to be discovered 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- September 28, 2019
There is an as-yet-unseen population of Jupiter-like planets orbiting nearby Sun-like stars, awaiting discovery by future missions like NASA’s WFIRST space telescope, according to new models of gas giant planet formation by Carnegie’s Alan Boss, described in an upcoming publication in The Astrophysical Journal. His models are supported by a new Science paper on the surprising discovery of a gas giant planet orbiting a low-mass star.

By David Aragorn
Water detected on an exoplanet located in its star’s habitable zone 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- September 12, 2019
Ever since the discovery of the first exoplanet in the 1990s, astronomers have made steady progress towards finding and probing planets located in the habitable zone of their stars, where conditions can lead to the formation of liquid water and the proliferation of life.

By David Aragorn
Astronomers discover giant planet with bizarre orbit 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- August 30, 2019
Astronomers have found a faraway giant planet with a strange slingshot orbit.

By David Aragorn
Space telescope offers rare glimpse of Earth-sized rocky exoplanet 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- August 22, 2019
Direct observations from a NASA space telescope have for the first time revealed the atmospheric void of a rocky, Earth-sized world beyond our own solar system orbiting the most common type of star in the galaxy, according to a study released on Monday.

By David Aragorn
NASA finds three alien planets, including the ‘missing link’0
- From Around the Web, Space
- July 31, 2019
If a planet with three suns isn’t your thing, what about a sun with three planets?

By David Aragorn
NASA’s TESS mission finds its smallest planet yet 0
- From Around the Web, Space
- July 4, 2019
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered a world between the sizes of Mars and Earth orbiting a bright, cool, nearby star. The planet, called L 98-59b, marks the tiniest discovered by TESS to date.

By David Aragorn