Nischal Kharel and Dikchhya Kharel in the NSF Center for Space, High-performance, and Resilient Computing. Credit: Aimee Obidzinski, University of Pittsburgh For many college students, satellites are faint dots crossing…
Category: Planetary Science
New telescope cuts through space noise in hunt for distant Earth-like worlds
Credit: Adam Krypel from Pexels EU researchers are developing powerful new telescopes to help uncover Earth-like planets around distant stars and advance the search for extraterrestrial life. Across the billions…
Mysterious molecule found on brown dwarf casts further doubt on potential signs of life on Venus
Brown dwarfs: too small to be stars, too big to be planets. Only discovered in the 1990s, these in-between cosmic objects aren’t big enough to burn as hot and bright…
Detection of phosphine in a brown dwarf atmosphere raises more questions
Schematic of the Wolf 1130ABC triple system, composed of the red dwarf star Wolf 1130A (l), its close and compact white dwarf companion Wolf 1130B (c), and the distant brown…
Dedicated amateur discovers supernova in remote galaxy
Filipp at his laptop. Credit: Filipp Romanov. Astronomy is increasingly becoming an online affair. Recent discoveries of interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS and R2 SWAN have highlighted this fact, when both were…
Simulations show Saturn’s moon Enceladus shoots less ice into space than previous estimates
Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus loses ice mass to space by cryovolcanic geyers, and new TACC supercomputer simulations have improved estimates of ice mass loss. These findings help with understanding and…
Icy planetesimal with high nitrogen and water content discovered in white dwarf’s atmosphere
Artist’s impression of white dwarf WD 1647+375 accreting icy planetary fragments from a pluto-like world, creating the chemical signature idenfitifed in this study. Credit: Snehalata Sahu / University of Warwick…
JWST searches for stars in a glowing gas cloud
Stars, gas and cosmic dust in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud glow in near-infrared light, captured by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). In this light, astronomers see more of the region’s…
Rogue planet SIMP-0136 displays strong auroral activity similar to Northern Lights
An artistic impression of SIMP-0136. Credit: Dr. Evert Nasedkin Strong Northern Lights-like activity is the standout feature of today’s weather report, which is coming at you from a strange, extrasolar…
