Gaia Catalog of Nearby Stars Archives - Astrobiology

Masses and semi-major axes for known planets and simulated Gaia planets. In both cases, we have restricted the sample to planets with Porb and mp constrained to within 20% (i.e., P84th/P16th < 1.2 and m84th/m16th < 1.2). Blue and green points show known planets discovered with the Doppler and transit methods. Red and black points are from our mock Gaia planet catalogs for DR4 and DR5 (see Section 4). For comparison, the values of Jupiter and Saturn are highlighted with gray points labeled “J” and “S.” The Gaia planets are primarily super-Jupiters on multi-AU orbits. About 100 such planets are currently known; Gaia promises to expand this sample to thousands in DR4 and tens of thousands in DR5. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gaia Mission, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

On The Exoplanet Yield Of Gaia Astrometry

by Keith CowingNovember 18, 2025November 18, 2025

We re-examine the expected yield of Gaia astrometric planet detections using updated models for giant-planet occurrence, the local stellar population, and Gaia’s demonstrated astrometric precision.

Distributions of nominal and median encounter distances denc and encounter speeds venc for encounters with each 95% quantile of denc below 1.5 pc. The left panel represents the nominal values of denc and vnom enc . The right panel represents median values of dmedenc and v medenc. Error bars indicate 5% and 95% quantiles of denc and venc in MC results. The color bar is based on Equation 3 using the median of g. -- astro-ph.SR

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Search For Past Stellar Encounters And The Origin Of 3I/ATLAS

by Keith CowingSeptember 8, 2025September 8, 2025

3I/ATLAS, the third discovered interstellar object, has a heliocentric speed of 58 km/s and exhibits cometary activity.

Comparison between the database EHS masses with recomputed values adopting the database stellar radii and surface gravities (see text for details). The grey dotted line is the (1:1)-relation. If the database were fully consistent, all points would lie on this diagonal line. The most massive EHS are not shown for clarity reasons. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Interstellar, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

The Gaia Spectroscopic Catalogue Of Exoplanets And Host Stars

by Keith CowingJune 4, 2025June 4, 2025

Complete, accurate, and precise catalogues of exoplanet host star (EHS) properties are essential to deriving high-quality exoplanet parameters. This paper aims at homogeneously parameterising EHS and their exoplanets, using Gaia […]

Habitable Worlds Observatory -- NASA

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report

HPIC: The Habitable Worlds Observatory Preliminary Input Catalog

by Keith CowingFebruary 14, 2024April 30, 2024

The Habitable Worlds Observatory Preliminary Input Catalog (HPIC) is a list of ~13,000 nearby bright stars that will be potential targets for the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) in its search […]

The blue, orange, and red crosses represent the averaged RV of stars due to Earth-like planets located at the IHZ, CHZ, and OHZ, respectively. The green crosses represent the maximum RV of Earth-like planets at the IHZ, with an inclination of 90◦ . The right panel shows the histogram of the RV expectation and the CDF. -- astro-ph.EP

Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

The Potential of Detecting Nearby Terrestrial Planets in the HZ with Different Methods

by Keith CowingOctober 24, 2023October 24, 2023

Terrestrial planets in the habitable zone around nearby stars are of great interest and provide a good sample for further characteristics of their habitability.