[Trinity College Dublin] Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have developed a powerful way to unravel the changing weather patterns on distant worlds.
Brown Dwarfs
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
JWST Color Sequence Of Transiting Exoplanets And Directly Imaged Substellar Objects
[astro-ph.EP] Color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) have been foundational across astrophysics, from galaxies and stars to brown dwarfs, and JWST now extends them to transiting exoplanets and self-luminous substellar objects at overlapping […]
![The top panel shows comparisons of the observed spectrum of JADES-GS-BD-11 (black with grey 1σ error bars) and the median retrieved spectrum for both the PH3 and non-PH3 petitRADTRANS (red and green, respectively, with 1σ central credible intervals shaded around the median). The bottom panel shows the difference between the retrieved and observed spectra, divided by the observed uncertainty. The two retrieved median spectra are generally within 1σ of each other everywhere except at 4.3 µm (the Q-branch of the PH3 feature).-- [astro-ph.SR]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/JWSTNIRSpec.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inBrown Dwarfs
JWST/NIRSpec Spectra for Three Ultracool Brown Dwarfs Detected in Extragalactic Surveys: Further Evidence for Phosphine Absorption
[astro-ph.SR] We present JWST NIRSpec prism spectra for three ultracool brown dwarfs discovered in extragalactic survey data, two from the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES), and one from Public […]
Posted inBrown Dwarfs
SMDET-1: A Nearby Y Dwarf Candidate
[astro-ph.SR] We present the discovery of SMDET-1, a red, fast-moving object (μ≈1.3″/yr) identified in time-resolved unWISE coadds using a pixel-level deep learning methodology called SMDET.
![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)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
A Bayesian Search for Planet Engulfment Signatures in Solar Analogs
[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 […]
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 […]