CRIRES Archives

The upper limits on exosatellites around 𝛽 Pictoris b. The blue line represents the radial velocity limits for 50% retrieval of injected edge-on circular orbits. The red line is the outermost stable prograde orbit for an exosatellite around 𝛽 Pictoris b. The pale green line corresponds to astrometric limits from Macias et al. (2026). The Roche limits for rigid and fluid exosatellite bodies are shown in gray on the left. The predicted mass and location for an exomoon which could give Beta Pic b a high obliquity is indicated in purple (Poon et al. 2024). The predicted sensitivity for an additional 25 observations with CRIRES+ is shown in purple. -- astro-ph.EP

Astropharmacy / Biotechnology, Beta Pictoris, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Upper Limits On Exosatellites Around β Pictoris b

by Keith CowingJune 8, 2026June 10, 2026

β Pictoris b is one of the closest known directly-imaged gas giant exoplanets with an orbit that is almost edge-on to our line of sight, making it an ideal target […]

Two orders of high-resolution spectra with the best-fit model overplotted in yellow for each target. The observation on the first day (September 21, 2022) is chosen for 2MASS J0249-0557 c. The wavelength range is selected to include the 12CO and 13CO bandheads. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & 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

by Keith CowingMay 6, 2026May 6, 2026

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 […]

Predicted relative transit depth change from the equilibrium chemistry CO2-only model retrieved for CRIRES+ data (green). The model predictions are plotted in high-resolution in the wavelength region overlapping with the CRIRES+ measurements indicated by the grey shaded areas and in low-resolution for the rest of the wavelength range. Space-based measurements from HST (blue) and JWST (orange) are also shown. The 1σ and 1.5σ uncertainties of the model are indicated as darker and lighter green shaded areas, respectively. We also mark the lower 1.1σ uncertainty boundary with a dotted green line as a potential match to the amplitude of the CO2 bump in the JWST measurements at 4200 nm. The HST-WFC3 and JWST NIRSpec G359H measurements were taken from the online data provided by Schlawin et al. (2024) containing the HST data adapted from Kreidberg et al. (2014).-- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Cloudy With A Chance Of Metals: Indications Of CO2 In The Atmosphere Of GJ 1214 b From High-resolution K-band Spectroscopy

by Keith CowingApril 19, 2026April 19, 2026

Sub-Neptune exoplanets frequently exhibit muted transmission spectra, with GJ 1214 b being the most prominent example. Following years of intense observing campaigns yielding featureless planetary spectra, recent observations with JWST […]

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Atmospheric Constraints On GJ 1214 b From CRIRES+ And Prospects For Characterisation With ANDES

by Keith CowingFebruary 19, 2026February 19, 2026

In this study, we aim to constrain the atmospheric composition of GJ 1214 b using all available transits observed with the upgraded CRIRES+ spectrograph at the VLT by searching for […]

Comparison of K2 with other comets. In the upper panel, the comet is compared with C/2009 P1, C/1999 T1, and C/2013 R1, which show the closest relative abundance proportions. In the bottom plot, for each molecular species, we compare K2 (marked with a magenta star) with the box plot statistic from other infrared results relative to comets observed within 2 au from the Sun (Lippi et al. 2021). For each box, the middle line corresponds to the median, the box limits to the 25th and 75th percentiles, and the whiskers to the 5th and 95th percentiles. C/2009 P1, C/1999 T1, and C/2013 R1 are also shown with a gray square, diamond, and triangle, respectively. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Variations in Volatile-Driven Activity of Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) Revealed by Long-Term Multi-Wavelength Observations

by Keith CowingJuly 24, 2025July 24, 2025

Context. A comprehensive study of comets over a wide heliocentric distance range helps us understand the physical processes driving their activity and reveals compositional differences across dynamical groups. C/2017 K2 […]

This artist’s visualisation of WASP-127b, a giant gas planet located about 520 light-years from Earth -- ESO

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Extreme Supersonic Winds Measured On Exoplanet WASP-127b

by Keith CowingJanuary 21, 2025January 21, 2025

Astronomers have discovered extremely powerful winds pummeling the equator of WASP-127b, a giant exoplanet. Reaching speeds up to 33 000 km/h, the winds make up the fastest jetstream of its […]

Cross-correlation S/N map for H2O, showing a clear detection of β Pic b at its expected separation and velocity. The velocity is in the frame of reference of the planet itself. The separation changes between 536 mas and 558 mas during the observational baseline between 29 Nov 2022 and 1 Nov 2023. -- astro-ph.EP

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Beta Pictoris, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Deep High-resolution L Band Spectroscopy In The B Pictoris Planetary System

by Keith CowingJanuary 17, 2025January 17, 2025

The beta Pictoris system, with its two directly imaged planets beta Pic b and beta Pic c and its well characterised debris disk, is a prime target for detailed characterisation […]

This artwork highlights a pair of recently uncovered brown dwarf twins, named Gliese 229Ba and Gliese 229Bb. Gliese 229B, discovered in 1995, was the first-ever confirmed brown dwarf, but until now astronomers thought they were observing a single body not two. New observations from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile revealed that the orb is two brown dwarfs tightly orbiting around each other every 12 days (as indicated by the orange and blue orbital lines), with a separation only 16 times larger than the distance between Earth and the Moon. The brown dwarf pair orbit a cool M-dwarf star every 250 years. CREDIT K. Miller, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

Gas Giants, Jupiter, Press Release

Mystery Of Famed Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B Solved

by Keith CowingOctober 21, 2024

Hundreds of papers have been written about the first known brown dwarf, Gliese 229B, since its discovery by Caltech researchers at the Institute’s Palomar Observatory in 1995. But a pressing […]

CRIRES+ data: CCFo map for night 3, channel B, using the H2O template. The horizontal white lines represent the orbital phases of the HD 209458 b’s expected transit ingress (bottom) and egress (top). The slanted line represent HD 209458 b’s expected radial velocities, corrected from the barycentric velocities, with Vrest = 0 km·s −1 . Rest velocities lower than −25 km·s −1 and larger than +35 km·s −1 are not shown for clarity. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Four HD 209458 b Transits Through CRIRES+: Detection of H2O and Non-detections of C2H2, CH4, and HCN

by Keith CowingAugust 28, 2024August 27, 2024

HD 209458 b is one of the most studied exoplanets to date. Despite this, atmospheric characterisation studies yielded inconsistent species detections and abundances. Values reported for the C/O ratio range […]

Different scenarios of super-rotating atmospheric material. Panels a, b and c show the scenario of a homogeneously rotating planet. The purple solid line shows the velocity kernel of the material at rotation consistent with tidally locked rotation (panel b) and the resulting shape of the cross-correlation function (panel c). The turquoise dashed line shows the effect of the planet rotating approximately six times faster. Panels d, e and f show two cases of a super-rotating equatorial jet, with the poles rotating at tidally locked velocities. The difference between the two cases is the opening angle of the equatorial region (35◦ orange dashed, and 65◦ solid green). Panels g, h and i explore the case of the velocity kernel of a super-rotating equatorial jet (blue and red solid lines in panel h) with the polar region represented by the velocity kernel of super-rotating velocity (grey dash-dotted line) or tidally locked velocity (grey dotted line) but not contributing to the transmission spectrum due to muted atmospheric features, leading in both cases to only two peaks in the CCF (panel i). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

CRIRES+ Transmission Spectroscopy of WASP-127b. Detection Of The Resolved Signatures Of A Supersonic Equatorial Jet And Cool Poles In A Hot Planet

by Keith CowingApril 20, 2024April 20, 2024

General circulation models of gas giant exoplanets predict equatorial jets that drive inhomogeneities across the planetary atmosphere. We studied the transmission spectrum of the hot Jupiter WASP-127b during one transit […]

CRIRES

Upper Limits On Exosatellites Around β Pictoris b

Chemistry And Isotope Ratios Of Substellar Atmospheres In The β Pictoris Young Moving Group

Cloudy With A Chance Of Metals: Indications Of CO2 In The Atmosphere Of GJ 1214 b From High-resolution K-band Spectroscopy

Atmospheric Constraints On GJ 1214 b From CRIRES+ And Prospects For Characterisation With ANDES

Variations in Volatile-Driven Activity of Comet C/2017 K2 (PanSTARRS) Revealed by Long-Term Multi-Wavelength Observations

Extreme Supersonic Winds Measured On Exoplanet WASP-127b

Deep High-resolution L Band Spectroscopy In The B Pictoris Planetary System

Mystery Of Famed Brown Dwarf Gliese 229B Solved

Four HD 209458 b Transits Through CRIRES+: Detection of H2O and Non-detections of C2H2, CH4, and HCN

CRIRES+ Transmission Spectroscopy of WASP-127b. Detection Of The Resolved Signatures Of A Supersonic Equatorial Jet And Cool Poles In A Hot Planet

NASA Establishes Mars Forward Operational Risk and Contamination Evaluation (M-FORCE) Tiger Team to Shape Mars Planetary Protection Protocols

Opportunity to Contribute to NASA DARES Community White Paper on Phototrophic Biosignatures

The Search For Life Elsewhere: Avoiding Hype and Fostering Public Understanding

Panchromatic Spectra of Nearby Low-mass and Sun-like Stars with Directly Imageable Habitable Zones

Alfred: A Flexible, User-Friendly Python Package for Exoplanet Confirmation