Newborn stars are surrounded by disks of gas and dust within which planets are born, known as protoplanetary disks. In the Orion Nebula, the brightest and most massive stars emit […]
Hubble
![[left] A Hubble Space Telescope false-color view of a 100-billion-mile-wide disk of dust around the summer star Vega. Hubble detects reflected light from dust that is the size of smoke particles largely in a halo on the periphery of the disk. The disk is very smooth, with no evidence of embedded large planets. The black spot at the center blocks out the bright glow of the hot young star. [right] The James Webb Space Telescope resolves the glow of warm dust in a disk halo, at 23 billion miles out. The outer disk (analogous to the solar system’s Kuiper Belt) extends from 7 billion miles to 15 billion miles. The inner disk extends from the inner edge of the outer disk down to close proximity to the star. There is a notable dip in surface brightness of the inner disk from approximately 3.7 to 7.2 billion miles. The black spot at the center is due to lack of data from saturation. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, S. Wolff (University of Arizona), K. Su (University of Arizona), A. Gáspár (University of Arizona) larger image](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Hubble-And-Webb-Study-The-Surprisingly.png?resize=1200%2C641&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Fomalhaut, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
Hubble And Webb Study The Surprisingly Smooth Disk Around Vega
In the 1997 movie “Contact,” adapted from Carl Sagan’s 1985 novel, the lead character scientist Ellie Arroway (played by actor Jodi Foster) takes a space-alien-built wormhole ride to the star […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
An HST Transmission Spectrum of the Closest M-Dwarf Transiting Rocky Planet LTT 1445Ab
Which rocky exoplanets have atmospheres, and which do not? This presumably simply question is the first that must be answered in the pathway toward understanding the prevalence of nearby habitable […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Ice Giant, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Stellar Cartography, Uranus
Exoplanet Analysis Practice Using Uranus, Hubble, And New Horizons
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
The Clear Sky Corridor: Insights Towards Aerosol Formation in Exoplanets Using An AI-based Survey of Exoplanet Atmospheres
Producing optimized and accurate transmission spectra of exoplanets from telescope data has traditionally been a manual and labor-intensive procedure.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
A Fourth Planet In The Kepler-51 System Revealed By Transit Timing Variations
Kepler-51 is a ≲1 Gyr-old Sun-like star hosting three transiting planets with radii ≈6-9R⊕ and orbital periods ≈45-130 days. Transit timing variations (TTVs) measured with past Kepler and Hubble Space […]
Posted inAstropharmacy / Biotechnology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
STScI Presents the Rocky Worlds Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) Science Advisory Council
As recently announced, a new 500-hour Director’s Discretionary Time (DDT) program will use JWST observations to search for atmospheres in more than a dozen nearby exoplanet systems. In tandem, around […]
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
ESCAPE Project: Investigating Active Observing Strategies and Post-processing Methods for Exoplanet High-contrast Imaging with Future Space Missions
The search for biosignatures in potentially habitable exoplanets is one of the major astrophysics’ drivers for the coming decades, and the prime science goal of the HWO NASA mission, a […]
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Mars, Press Release
Hubble Helps Solve The Mystery Of Mars’ Escaping Water
Scientists have discovered that the escape rates of hydrogen and “heavy hydrogen,” called deuterium, change rapidly when Mars is close to the Sun. This upended the classical picture that scientists […]
![The population of transiting exoplanets and brown dwarfs, as obtained from TEPCat [6], marker size corresponds to equilibrium temperature. Targets being observed in Cycle 1 and/or 2 are highlighted accordingly, their temperature is further indicated by their color, and the histogram shows the number of targets as a function of mass. The red line indicates the lowest mass objects being characterized through direct techniques to date. -- astro-ph.IM](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/The-Unrealised-Interdisciplinary.png?resize=1200%2C721&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report
The Unrealised Interdisciplinary Advantage of Observing High Mass Transiting Exoplanets and Brown Dwarfs — Strategic Exoplanet Initiatives with HST and JWST White Paper
We advocate for further prioritisation of atmospheric characterisation observations of high mass transiting exoplanets and brown dwarfs.