sciencenewsnet.in

MAROON-X instrument built by UChicago team measures its first planet, Gliese 486 b, which is located just over two dozen light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Virgo, and is also made out of rock—though it is hotter and three times larger than our home.

Feature Expert

Are we alone in the universe? UAH’s Dr. Gary Zank doesn’t think so

December 14, 2020 sarah Jonas Atmosphere, Exoplanet, Extraterrestrial Life, goldilocks zone, Planet Formation, Solar Wind, UAH, UAH Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Are we alone in the universe? Research by Dr. Gary Zank at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), a part of the University of Alabama System, and collaborators from UAH and other institutions has helped to inform the search for planets that could harbor life.

Research Results

Hubble Pins Down Weird Exoplanet with Far-Flung Orbit

December 10, 2020 sarah Jonas Exoplanet, Hubble Space Telescope, NASA, Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS)

Astronomers analyzing Hubble images of the double star, HD 106906, have discovered a planet in a huge 15,000-year-long orbit that sweeps it as far from its stellar duo as Planet Nine would be from our Sun. This is observational evidence that similarly far-flung worlds may exist around other stars. Researchers hypothesize that the planet wound up there in a game of planetary pinball where the gravitational pull of a passing star modified the orbit’s shape.

Research Results

Astronomers develop model for the distribution of inner planetary systems

November 30, 2020 sarah Jonas Astronomy, Astrophyics, Exoplanet, Solar system

Data from the Kepler space telescope, launched more than a decade ago, is still helping astronomers who study planets outside of our own solar system — exoplanets — and unravel the mysteries of planetary systems. Initially, astronomers were surprised that Kepler found so many exoplanets, including hundreds of planetary systems with multiple planets orbiting close to their host star. As astronomers developed models to explain the abundance of inner exoplanets, they encountered a new mystery: “Why did Kepler detect just one planet around so many stars, instead of planetary systems with multiple planets?”

Research Results

ALMA Discovers Misaligned Rings in Planet-Forming Disk Around Triple Stars

September 3, 2020 sarah Jonas ALMA telescope, Astronomy, astronomy & astrophysics, Exoplanet, Planet, Protoplanetary Disk, Science

Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), two teams of astronomers have for the first time discovered a planet-forming disk with

Research Results

VLBA Finds Planet Orbiting Small, Cool Star

August 4, 2020 sarah Jonas Exoplanet

Precision measurements made with the VLBA have revealed that a small, cool star 35 light-years from Earth is orbited by a Saturn-sized planet once every 221 days.

Research Results

Sulfur ‘Spices’ Alien Atmospheres

April 6, 2020 sarah Jonas Exoplanet, Planetary atmospheres, Simulation

They say variety is the spice of life, and now new discoveries from Johns Hopkins researchers suggest that a certain elemental ‘variety’—sulfur—is indeed a ‘spice’ that can perhaps point to signs of life.

Research Results

The Strange Orbits of ‘Tatooine’ Planetary Disks

March 19, 2020 sarah Jonas Astronomy, astronomy & astrophysics, Exoplanet, Planet, Space, Tatooine

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found striking orbital geometries in protoplanetary disks around binary stars. While disks orbiting the most compact binary star systems share very nearly the same plane, disks encircling wide binaries have orbital planes that are severely tilted. These systems can teach us about planet formation in complex environments.

Research Results

Exoplanet Axis Study Boosts Hopes of Complex Life, Just Not Next Door

November 19, 2019 sarah Jonas 0 Comments Exoplanet, habitable zone, Ice Age

There’s new hope that we aren’t alone in the universe, that advanced beings may exist on exoplanets. But they’re probably not close by, says a new study on the stability of planetary tilts – and orbits – needed to encourage the evolution of complex life.

Expert Pitch