The detection of small planets orbiting nearby stars is an important step towards the identification of Earth twins. In previous work using the Spitzer Space Telescope, we found evidence to […]
Hubble
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Hubble High Resolution Imaging of Kepler Small and Cool Exoplanet Host Stars
High resolution imaging is an important tool for follow-up study of exoplanet candidates found via transit detection with the Kepler Mission. We discuss here HST imaging with the WFC3 of […]
Posted inIcy Worlds
The Importance of Plumes
The Hubble Space Telescope is famous for finding black holes. It can pick out thousands of galaxies in a patch of sky the size of a thumbprint. The most powerful […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets
Microlensing Events by Proxima Centauri in 2014 and 2016: Opportunities for Mass Determination and Possible Planet Detection
We have found that Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our Sun, will pass close to a pair of faint background stars in the next few years. Using Hubble Space […]
Posted inIcy Worlds, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Transient Water Vapor at Europa's South Pole
In November and December 2012 the Hubble Space Telescope maged Europa’s ultraviolet emissions in the search for vapor plume activity. We report statistically significant coincident surpluses of hydrogen Lyman-α and […]
Posted inIcy Worlds
Hubble Sees Evidence of Water Vapor Venting off Europa
Hubble has observed water vapor above the frigid south polar region of Jupiter’s moon Europa, providing the first strong evidence of water plumes erupting off the moon’s surface. Previous scientific […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Hubble Traces Subtle Signals of Water on Hazy Worlds
Using the powerful eye of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, two teams of scientists have found faint signatures of water in the atmospheres of five distant planets. The presence of atmospheric […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Hubble Finds Dead Stars 'Polluted' with Planet Debris
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has found the building blocks for Earth-sized planets in an unlikely place: the atmospheres of a pair of burned-out stars called white dwarfs.