An astronomy lesson on binary stars could begin with a series of complex diagrams and data or with a clip from the movie Star Wars where Luke Skywalker looks up at the sky of his home planet, Tatooine, and sees two suns shining. ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 4, 2024
1
34
Discovering exoplanets is almost routine now. We've found over 5,500 exoplanets, and the next step is to study their atmospheres and look for biosignatures. The James Webb Space Telescope is leading the way in that effort. ...
Astrobiology
Feb 27, 2024
0
10
Physicists at ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich wanted to know whether the planned LIFE space mission could really detect traces of life on other planets. Yes, it can, say the researchers, with the help of observations ...
Astrobiology
Feb 26, 2024
0
18
Astrophysicists studying a popular exoplanet in its star's habitable zone have found that electric currents in the planet's upper atmosphere could create sufficient heating to expand the atmosphere enough that it leaves the ...
In the fall of 1989, the Galileo spacecraft was launched into space, bound for Jupiter and its family of moons. Given the great distance to the king of planets, Galileo had to take a roundabout tour through the inner solar ...
Astrobiology
Feb 9, 2024
0
54
A multi-institutional team of astronomers, Earth scientists and planetary physicists has found evidence, via data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), that some hycean exoplanets may have molten surfaces rather than ...
A recently discovered solar system with six confirmed exoplanets and a possible seventh is boosting astronomers' knowledge of planet formation and evolution. Relying on a globe-spanning arsenal of observatories and instruments, ...
Astronomy
Jan 26, 2024
3
161
Proxima Centauri b is the closest exoplanet to Earth. It is an Earth-mass world right in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star just 4 light-years from Earth. It receives about 65% of the energy Earth gets from the sun, and ...
Astronomy
Jan 24, 2024
1
83
The Large Interferometer for Exoplanets (LIFE) project is an ambitious plan to build a space telescope with four independent mirrors. The array would allow the individual mirrors to move closer or farther apart, similar to ...
Astrobiology
Jan 23, 2024
0
9
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). ...
