Posted on

China Releases its First Roadmap for Space Science and Exploration Through 2050.

China’s space program has advanced considerably since the turn of the century. In addition to developing heavy-launch vehicles like the Long March 5 and building a modular space station in orbit, China has also embarked on an ambitious program of lunar exploration (Chang’e) – which has launched six robotic missions to explore the Moon’s surface …

Continue reading “China Releases its First Roadmap for Space Science and Exploration Through 2050.”

Posted on

Hubble and New Horizons Look at Uranus at the Same Time

Ever since the advent of space exploration we have seen some amazing images of the planets. New technology often brings with it a new perspective and we have been reminded of this again just recently with images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)  and New Horizons spacecraft. The two objects simultaneously imaged Uranus from different …

Continue reading “Hubble and New Horizons Look at Uranus at the Same Time”

Posted on

A Possible Exomoon Could be Volcanic, like Jupiter’s Moon Io

In 2012, astronomers detected a gas giant transiting in front of WASP-49A, a G-type star located about 635 light-years from Earth. The data obtained by the WASP survey indicated that this exoplanet (WASP-49 b) is a gas giant roughly the same size as Jupiter and 37% as massive. In 2017, WASP-49 b was found to …

Continue reading “A Possible Exomoon Could be Volcanic, like Jupiter’s Moon Io”

Posted on

Exoplanet Discovered in a Binary System Could Explain Why Red Dwarfs Form Massive Planets

In recent years, the number of known extrasolar planets (aka. exoplanets) has grown exponentially. To date, 5,799 exoplanets have been confirmed in 4,310 star systems, with thousands more candidates awaiting confirmation. What has been particularly interesting to astronomers is how M-type (red dwarf) stars appear to be very good at forming rocky planets. In particular, …

Continue reading “Exoplanet Discovered in a Binary System Could Explain Why Red Dwarfs Form Massive Planets”

Posted on

A New Way to Detect Rocky Exoplanet Atmospheres

The total number of exoplanets discovered to date totals 5,288. Among them are a host of rocky, Earth-like exoplanets but none of them seem to have atmospheres. It’s a fairly challenging observation to make but a team of researchers think they’ve come up with a new, simpler technique. It involves measuring the combined temperature of …

Continue reading “A New Way to Detect Rocky Exoplanet Atmospheres”

Posted on

TESS Finds a Triple Star System that Could Fit within Mercury’s Orbit

TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has been on the lookout for alien worlds since 2018. It has just hit the news again having identified an extreme triple star system where two stars orbit each other every 1.8 days. The third component circles them both in 25 days – this puts the entire system within …

Continue reading “TESS Finds a Triple Star System that Could Fit within Mercury’s Orbit”

Posted on

Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Peroxide on Pluto’s Moon Charon

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has revealed magnificent things about the Universe. Using its sophisticated infrared optics, it has peered deeper into space (and farther back in time) than any observatory to date, gathering data on the first galaxies to form in our Universe. It has also obtained spectra from exoplanets, revealing things about …

Continue reading “Webb Detects Carbon Dioxide and Hydrogen Peroxide on Pluto’s Moon Charon”

Posted on

The GALAH Fourth Data Release Provides Vital Data on One Million Stars in the Milky Way.

For the past ten years, Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) has been investigating star formation, chemical enrichment, migration, and mergers in the Milky Way with the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Their work is part of the GALactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) project, an international collaboration of more …

Continue reading “The GALAH Fourth Data Release Provides Vital Data on One Million Stars in the Milky Way.”

Posted on

Bernard's Star Has a Planet (Again)!

The red dwarf Barnard’s Star is the closest single star to the Sun, only six light-years away. Astronomers have announced the discovery of a planet with half the mass of Venus, orbiting the star every three days. This puts it too close to be in the habitable zone, with a surface temperature of 125 °C. The team also found a hint of three additional planets in the system but will require further observations to pin down their sizes and orbits.

Posted on

An Earth-like Planet Around a Dead Sun Provides Some Reassurance About the Future of Earth

In about five billion years, our Sun will exit its main sequence phase and transition to its red giant phase. At this point, the Sun will expand and consume the planets of the inner Solar System, including Mercury and Venus. What will become of Earth when this happens has been the subject of debate for …

Continue reading “An Earth-like Planet Around a Dead Sun Provides Some Reassurance About the Future of Earth”