The atmospheres of gas giant planets are thought to be inhomogeneous due to weather and patchy clouds. We present two full nights of coronagraphic observations of the HR 8799 planets […]
extrasolar
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Rogue Planets And Brown Dwarfs: Predicting Populations Of Free-floating Planetary Mass Objects Observable With JWST
Free-floating (or rogue) planets are planets that are liberated (or ejected) from their host systems. Although simulations predict their existence in substantial numbers, direct observational evidence for free-floating planets with […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
TOI-1452 b: An Extrasolar World Covered In Water?
An international team of researchers led by Charles Cadieux, a Ph.D. student at the Université de Montréal and member of the Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), has announced the […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Tricorders & Sensors
The UV-SCOPE Mission: Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Characterization Of Planets and their Environments
UV-SCOPE is a mission concept to determine the causes of atmospheric mass loss in exoplanets, investigate the mechanisms driving aerosol formation in hot Jupiters, and study the influence of the […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Stratified Distribution of Organic Molecules at the Planet-Formation Scale in the HH 212 Disk Atmosphere
Formamide (NH2CHO) is considered an important prebiotic molecule because of its potential to form peptide bonds. It was recently detected in the atmosphere of the HH 212 protostellar disk on […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Combining Photometry and Astrometry to Improve Orbit Retrieval of Directly Imaged Exoplanets
Future missions like Roman, HabEx, and LUVOIR will directly image exoplanets in reflected light. While current near infrared direct imaging searches are only sensitive to young, self-luminous planets whose brightness […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Chemical Evolution In Ices On Drifting, Planet-forming Pebbles
Image: Abundances of volatile ices on a drifting pebble as a function of radius (time), where the pebbles moves inwards with time. Left is drift from 128AU, right is drift […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Neptune, Press Release
Revising Properties of Planet-host Binary Systems II: Apparent Near-Earth Analog Planets in Binaries Are Often Sub-Neptunes
Left: Planetary radius if the primary star is the planet host, plotted against the instellation flux for the planet. The open circles denote the Kepler values, while the closed circles […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Alternative Methylated Biosignatures I: Methyl Bromide, A Capstone Biosignature
Comparison of emission features for atmospheres with methylated biogenic gases around a K6V, M3.5Ve and M5V star. From top to bottom: CH3Cl, CH3Br, combination of CH3Cl and CH3Br for a […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
The Molecular Composition Of Shadowed Protosolar Disk Midplanes Beyond The Water Snowline
Image: Pie charts of the percentage contributions of the dominant carbon-bearing molecules to the total elemental carbon abundance (= 1.4 × 10−4 , top panels), the dominant oxygen-bearing molecules to […]