[astro-ph.EP] Binary stars are common and have the potential to host habitable planets, which may reside in more complex habitable zones as compared to planets orbiting single stars.
Stellar Cartography
![Left panel: Toomre diagram for the stars in our sample, color-coded by the TD/D value. Right panel: cumulative distribution function (CDF) of the TD/D values for stars with planetary systems classified into different categories. A system with at least one planet pair that is identified as plausible 1st-order (2nd-order) resonance by HS24 is labeled “w/ 1st MMR” (“w/ 2nd MMR”). The category, “w/ 1st MMR & Pin < 3 d”, corresponds approximately to the stars with plausibly 1st-order resonant and tidal decay timescale τe < 20 Myr in HS24. “USP” is the sample of planetary systems hosting ultra-short-period planets as identified in Schmidt et al. (2024).-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Are-Near.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Are Near Resonant Multiple-planet Systems From Kepler Young?
[astro-ph.EP] Recent studies have claimed that Kepler multi-planet systems hosting near-resonant planet pairs—particularly those near second-order mean-motion resonances (MMRs)—exhibit smaller stellar velocity dispersions than the general population of Kepler planet […]
![CH Ind timing and inference. Top: the six differential nodes 𝐷 from equation (1); subtracting primary and secondary O–C values removes their common ephemeris or LTTE trend and isolates the first-order apsidal signal. Bottom: Monte Carlo posteriors for the displayed 0.08-dex common log 𝑘2 systematic; horizontal segments show central 68 per cent intervals.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Stellar-Tidal.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inStellar Cartography
Stellar Tidal Systematics In Apsidal-motion Searches For Circumbinary Planets: CH Ind And SW CMa
[astro-ph.EP] Thornton et al. (2026) reported 27 non-transiting circumbinary-planet candidates from excess apsidal motion in TESS eclipsing-binary timings. The classical stellar contribution is sensitive to target-specific radii, apsidal constants k2, […]
Posted inPress Release
Habitable Worlds Observatory’s Concept and Technology Maturation: Initial Feasibility and Trade Space Exploration
[astro-ph.IM] The Habitable Worlds Observatory is the first telescope ever designed to search for life and will be a powerhouse of discovery across topics in astrophysics.
![Left: Sensitivity of TESS to transits in the full sample of single-star TOIs. Center: The sensitivity for all binary stars in our sample, with all planets presumed to transit the brighter star. Right: As with the top-center panel, except that all planets are assumed to transit the fainter star. The sensitivity of TESS to small planets around binary hosts is substantially lower than for single-star hosts, especially when the planet transits the secondary star.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-sensitivity.png?resize=1200%2C722&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
The Sensitivity Of TESS To Transiting Planets In TOIs With Close-in Stellar Companions
[astro-ph.EP] High resolution imaging with optical speckle interferometry has revealed that many transiting exoplanet host stars possess close-in stellar companions.
![Where the Dyson sphere on and off fits of M77 differ most, and how new photometry changes the comparison. In each panel, the upper sub-panel shows the median posterior AGENT-on (solid red) and AGENT-off (dashed blue) model spectra with shaded 16–84% posterior bands and the fitted photometry overplotted (open black circles), while the lower sub-panel shows the percent deviation of the AGENT-on model relative to the AGENT-off model, with the shaded band giving the 1σ uncertainty propagated in quadrature from the two independent fits. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-G.png?resize=1200%2C713&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
The Ĝ Infrared Search for Extraterrestrial Civilizations with Large Energy Supplies. V. When Galaxies Glow with Industry
[astro-ph.GA] We present the most robust stellar population synthesis (SPS)-based search for galaxy-spanning technological waste heat to date, applied to 129 nearby galaxies spanning a wide range of spectral energy […]
![Monte Carlo period simulations for each target. The v sin i values derived from species are used for randomly oriented (sinusoidally distributed) axial inclinations (green) and for a fixed i = 90o (light grey). The respective curves using the M16 v sin i estimates are also shown (orange and dark grey). The modal periods, Pˆ, are shown for each distribution. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Three-new.png?resize=1200%2C622&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Three New Exoplanet Systems From The Dispersed Matter Planet Project
[astro-ph.EP] We present a radial velocity analysis of three bright, low-activity stars identified by the Dispersed Matter Planet Project (DMPP).
Posted inStellar Cartography
Stellar Cartography: SDSS-V Releases Latest All-sky Spectra Including First Optical Spectra From The Southern Hemisphere
[Carnegie Institution for Science] The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) has announced its twentieth public data release (DR20), delivering a dramatic expansion of the Milky Way Mapper (MWM) scientific […]
![The mass-radius-period parameter spaces for short-period exoplanets. In (a), the radii and orbital periods of known planets are shown with systems coloured by the stellar effective temperature. The TASSIE II TOIs are highlighted as points with 3σ error bars for their radii. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/The-TASSIE-Program.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
The TASSIE Program. II: Three Close-In Companions Orbiting Sun-Like Stars
[astro-ph.EP] We present three southern transiting giant planet candidates alerted by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and investigated at the University of Tasmania Greenhill Observatory (UTGO).
![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 […]