Icy grain mantles are the main reservoir of the volatile elements that link chemical processes in dark, interstellar clouds with the formation of planets and composition of their atmospheres.
Astronomy & Telescopes
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Tidal Distortions As A Bottleneck On Constraining Exoplanet Compositions
Improvements in the number of confirmed planets and the precision of observations imply a need to better understand subtle effects that may bias interpretations of exoplanet observations.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release
James Webb Space Telescope Identifies Origins Of Icy Building Blocks Of Life
Interstellar molecular clouds are considered to be the birth sites of planetary systems.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
SwRI-Contributed Study Provides Darkest View Ever Of Interstellar Ices
An international team including Southwest Research Institute, Leiden University and NASA used observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to achieve the darkest ever view of a dense interstellar […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Neural Posterior Estimation For Exoplanetary Atmospheric Retrieval
Retrieving the physical parameters from spectroscopic observations of exoplanets is key to understanding their atmospheric properties.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Has The Dust Clump In The Debris Disk of Beta Pictoris Moved?
The edge-on debris disk of the nearby young star Beta Pictoris shows an unusual brightness asymmetry in the form of a clump.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Characterization Of A Set Of Small Planets With TESS And CHEOPS And An Analysis Of Photometric Performance
The radius valley carries implications for how the atmospheres of small planets form and evolve, but this feature is only visible with highly-precise characterizations of many small planets.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report
Biosignature Line Ratios Of [P II] In Exoplanetary And Nebular Environments
Being the backbone element of DNA, phosphorus is a key component in the search for life in the Universe.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Status Report
A Framework for Modeling Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission in Galaxy Evolution Simulations
We present a new methodology for simulating mid-infrared emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in galaxy evolution simulations.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, SETI & Technosignatures, Societal Issues, Status Report
Inferring The Rate Of Technosignatures From Sixty Years Of Nondetection
For about the last 60 years the search for extraterrestrial intelligence has been monitoring the sky for evidence of remotely detectable technological life beyond Earth, with no positive results to […]