![NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of what is thought to be the first ever recorded planetary engulfment event revealed a hot accretion disk surrounding the star, with an expanding cloud of cooler dust enveloping the scene. Webb also revealed that the star did not swell to swallow the planet, but the planet’s orbit actually slowly decayed over time. This illustration depicts the sequence of events that took place over millions of years, based on observations from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRSpec (NIR-Infrared Spectrograph). -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/A-Bayesian-Search.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.EP] We present a systematic Bayesian search for chemical fingerprints of planet engulfment in 113 solar twins and analogs with high-precision abundance measurements, 45 of which host known or candidate […]
Brown Dwarfs
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Free Floating Exoplanets or Merely Detached?
[Astrophysical Journal] Microlensing surveys suggest the presence of a surprisingly large population of free-floating planets, with a rate of about two Neptunes per star.
Posted inUncategorized
NASA’s Backyard Worlds: Binaries Project
Some stars have planets. Others are orbited by brown dwarfs, balls of gas too massive to be planets, but too low-mass to be stars. Astronomers love these brown dwarf-star pairs […]
Posted inBrown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
A Sunlike Star Ate A Planet
A team of astronomers, led by Brooke Kotten of the University of Michigan, has shown that TOI-5882—a sun-like star located some 1,300 light-years away—has likely eaten one of its planets.
Posted inAriel Mission, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Assessing Ariel’s Capabilities To Observe Free-floating Brown Dwarfs
The primary goal of the Ariel space telescope is to conduct the biggest spectroscopic survey of transiting exoplanets to characterize their atmospheres and weather.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
The Pan-Pacific Planet Search — IX. A Menagerie Of Companions Orbiting Evolved Stars
We present resolutions as to the nature of six speculative candidate companions proposed in the final data release of the Pan-Pacific Planet Search, a 6-year radial-velocity survey of 164 southern […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Brown Dwarfs, Gas Giants, Nomenclature, Systematics, Natural History, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Spectral Classification Of Brown Dwarfs Using Machine Learning
Brown dwarfs are compact objects that do not reach temperatures high enough to produce sustained hydrogen fusion. Consequently, they cool over time, gradually evolving through later spectral types.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Status Report
Chemistry And Isotope Ratios Of Substellar Atmospheres In The β Pictoris Young Moving Group
Measuring the chemical and isotopic compositions of gas giants and brown dwarfs provides insights into their formation pathways and birth environments. 2MASS J0249-0557 c is an L2-type planetary mass companion […]
Posted inBrown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
The Coldest Known Y Dwarfs: Estimates of their Effective Temperatures
For a decade there has been a factor of 2.5 gap in luminosity between the 275K WISE J085510.83-071442.5 (Luhman 2014) and all other Y dwarfs, with Teff >= 350K. Recently […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Press Release, Stellar Cartography, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
A New Spin On Planet Formation
Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, have confirmed a long-predicted relationship between planetary mass and rotation.