[astro-ph.EP] Giant planets orbiting low-mass M dwarfs challenge current planet formation theories, which predict that such planets are unlikely to form. Characterizing their atmospheres can provide key insight into their […]
Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Searching For Habitable Exoplanets With Relative Astrometry (SHERA). I. The Case For Searching For Planets In Binary Star Systems
[astro-ph.EP] Discovering Earth-like planets orbiting Sun-like stars was identified as a priority science goal of the Astronomy 2020 Decadal Survey.
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather
MarsCast: Transfer Learning Of AI Weather Foundation Models To Planetary Atmospheres
[astro-ph.EP] We investigate the transferability of Earth weather foundation models to planetary atmospheres by adapting the GraphCast graph neural weather forecasting model to Mars. While GraphCast achieves state-of-the-art performance for […]
Posted inJupiter
Self-consistent 1D Modelling Of Jupiter’s Upper Atmosphere As An Exoplanet Analogue
[astro-ph.EP] Jupiter’s upper atmosphere provides a real-world laboratory for validating first-principles models of giant gaseous exoplanets and for constraining the key physical processes that govern them.
![Evolution of impact-generated debris for the high-velocity impact cases. Rows correspond to different impact scenarios with varying orbital periods (Porb) and impact velocities (vimp), as labeled. Columns show snapshots at 0.35, 2.65, 14.69, and 18.05 hr after impact. Particles are shown in a midplane slice with |z| < 0.1 R⊕, and colors indicate material origin and composition. In the 2.65 and 14.69 hr snapshots, particles are additionally highlighted according to their final fate, identifying those incorporated into the disk and those that later escaped from the system.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/A-Formation.png?resize=1200%2C716&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
A Formation-Stage Bottleneck For Exomoons Around Close-in Rocky Planets
[astro-ph.EP] Massive moons around rocky exoplanets are expected outcomes of giant impacts, yet no exomoon has been securely confirmed.
![Vertical cut through the best-fit disk model on a logarithmic radial scale. Shown are temperatures, where the gas density, ϱdisk, exceeds an assumed ISM density of ϱISM = 2.7 × 10−24 g cm−3 (Ferrière 2001) by a factor of 1000. The snowline at Tsnow = 170 K and the 100 K-line, as well as the unity optical depth lines at a wavelength of 3.1 µm (computed for the best-fit model described in Sect. 5.2.2) measured from the star to the observer and from observer to the star, illustrate the temperature and dust density structure of the disk. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Spatial.png?resize=1200%2C715&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry
Spatial Distribution Of Water Ice In The Protoplanetary Silhouette Disk d216-0939
[astro-ph.EP] The composition of rocky planets depends on the dust in their natal protoplanetary disk (PPD), potentially containing water ice. Crystalline water ice was detected in the PPD d216-0939 in […]
![Life 2.0 mission concept and simulated biosignature spectroscopy. The distributed array observes a common target with many one-meter telescope modules. The example spectra illustrate UV-optical atmospheric signatures and the simulated recovery of O₃, O₂, and H₂O after calibrated spectral co-addition. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Life-2.0.jpg?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology
Life 2.0: A Scalable Distributed Space-Telescope Array For Biosignature Spectroscopy
[astro-ph.IM] Answering the question “Are we alone?” requires atmospheric spectroscopy of nearby terrestrial planets. For an Earth–Sun analog, even the strongest transmission signals are expected to be of order 1 […]
![[LEFT]: Schematic of the star–planet–observer geometry defining the phase angle α, measured between the star–planet and planet–observer directions. The hemisphere of the planet facing the star is fully illuminated (gold) at all times, while the opposite hemisphere remains in shadow. The observer sees only the portion of the illuminated hemisphere that is visible at a given α, with full illumination visible only at α = 0◦. [RIGHT]: Illustration of planetary phases along an edge-on orbit, with the star at the center and the observer direction indicated below the orbit. Although the star-facing hemisphere remains illuminated throughout the orbit, the visible fraction of this hemisphere changes with phase angle. Full phase occurs at α = 0◦, quadrature at α = 90◦, and new phase at α = 180 , with gibbous and crescent phases spanning the intermediate ranges. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-Impact.png?resize=1200%2C714&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
The Impact of Planetary Phase Functions On Exo-Earth Detectability With EXOSIMS
[astro-ph.EP] The under-development NASA Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) aims to provide breakthroughs in exoplanet science, yet the most effective approaches to modeling the detection and characterization of potentially Earth-like worlds […]
Posted inHabitable Zones
Quantifying Detection Bias And Recovering Habitable Zone Occurrence Rates In The NASA Exoplanet Archive
[Astronomy and Computing] Transit surveys tend to underestimate how often habitable zone (HZ) planets appear. The core reason is geometric: the chance that an Earth-like planet transits a sun-like star […]
![Latitude-longitude maps of column-integrated water clouds (panels a, b and c), outgoing longwave radiation (OLR, panels d, e and f) and albedo at the top of the atmosphere (TOA albedo, panels g, h and i) for Cases 2A, 2B and 2C. The variables are averaged over ∼50 orbits. The dashed white line on the albedo color bar corresponds to the surface albedo.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/A-broad.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
A Broad Exploration Of Climate And Observability Of Close-in Rocky Exoplanets: Applications To Ross 128 b
[astro-ph.EP] VLT/RISTRETTO, ELT/ANDES and ELT/PCS will soon enable atmospheric characterization of non-transiting, small rocky exoplanets orbiting closer than the inner edge of the Habitable Zone around M dwarfs, combining high-contrast […]