[ESA] On 15 May, whilst en route to a metallic asteroid, NASA’s Psyche mission flew just 4500 km above the surface of Mars. It was using the gravity of the […]
imaging
Posted inMars
Survival and Detectability of Mars-Derived Organic Carbon in Phobos Regolith: A Quantitative Hardness Taxonomy for MMX Sample Analysis
[eartharxiv.org] The Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission will return ≥ 10 g of Phobos regolith containing a small fraction of Mars-derived impact ejecta (Ramsley and Head, 2013; Chappaz et al., […]
![(Left) The aperture assumed in these simulations. Furthermore, the stellar radius is assumed to be 0.03 λ/D, and the planet is assumed to be at 1 λ/D in the positive X direction. Middle) The single-moded measurement shown in the pupil plane (top) and focal plane (bottom) obtained by using the highest information mode from the calculation of the SLD, denoted here as SLD Mode 0. Right) The single-moded measurement shown in the pupil and focal planes as calculated using a classical numerical optimization. Pupil plane extents are from -0.5 to 0.5 (with an aperture diameter normalized to 1), while focal plane extents are from -5 λ/D to 5λ/D. Both of these methods are described in Ref. 13, and achieve ηs ≈ 1 × 10−9 , with ηp at 1 λ/D of approximately 19%, and a maximum ηp of 73% at 1.8 λ/D. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Optimal-mode-sorting.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
Optimal Mode-sorting Coronagraphy: Limits Of Single-moded Measurements For The Habitable Worlds Observatory
[astro-ph.IM] Conventional coronagraph architectures struggle to reach the theoretical limit of exoplanet detection at close working angles. Spatial mode-sorting is capable of reaching the theoretical limit, which previous work has […]
![Multiwavelength images of the two > 4𝜎 SJH candidates. Top: KIC 6606183. Bottom: KIC 9834255. Columns: WISE W1–W4 and Aladin DSS colour composite. Nearby sources are visible but their physical association requires high-resolution imaging. -- [astro-ph.SR]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Stellar-J.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
Stellar J-Harvesting: A Novel Angular Momentum Technosignature And First Search In The Kepler Field
[astro-ph.SR] We introduce Stellar J-Harvesting (SJH), a technosignature in which an engineered system extracts rotational angular momentum from a star.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
The Exozodi Spectral Effect: Residual Habitable Zone Dust May Bias ExoEarth Characterization
[astro-ph.EP] All exoplanetary systems are expected to host exozodiacal dust, or exozodi, originating from planetesimals. For many stars, exozodi will likely be the largest source of astrophysical noise in direct […]
![The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) radio images of radio sources associated with candidates A (J1245-2652, top row) and B (J0356-4031, bottom row) are shown at three frequencies: 887.5 MHz (left), 1367.5 MHz (centre), and 1655.5 MHz (right), with each panel covering a field of view of 65" × 65" . White ellipses show the PyBDSF source fits from the RACS catalogues, with thick solid lines indicating the fits at the frequency of the image, while thin dashed lines show fits from the other radio frequencies for comparison. Large blue crosses (×) mark radio source positions for the corresponding frequency, and small blue plus signs (+) indicate positions at other frequencies. The red stars represent the Gaia positions propagated to the corresponding RACS observation epochs using the measured proper motions. -- [astro-ph.SR]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Archival-Diagnostics.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
Archival Diagnostics for Potential Background Contaminants Of Project Hephaistos Dyson Sphere Candidates
[astro-ph.SR] We report on the diagnostic inspection of nine Project Hephaistos Dyson Sphere candidate M-dwarfs based on archival data. By comparing the Gaia positions, propagated to the AllWISE epoch, with […]
Posted inBeta Pictoris
Webb Discovers A Hidden Planet In The Beta Pictoris Star System
[NASA] Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered a giant planet outside our solar system, called an exoplanet, hiding within one of the most intensely studied planetary systems […]
![Images in the JWST/MIRI F560W, F1000W and F1500W filters (central wavelength ≈ 5.6, 10 and 15 𝜇m) of candidates D (first row) and E (second row). White stars mark the Gaia positions of the M dwarfs, which in both cases are seen to be located ≈ 1 arcsec from the centres of background galaxies. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Project-Hephaistos.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inSETI & Technosignatures
Project Hephaistos — IV. James Webb Space Telescope Observations of Two Dyson Sphere Candidates
[astro-ph.GA] We report on JWST/MIRI imaging and spectroscopy of two M-dwarf stars previously singled out by project Hephaistos as potential Dyson-sphere candidates (their candidates D and E) due to the […]
![NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observations of what is thought to be the first ever recorded planetary engulfment event revealed a hot accretion disk surrounding the star, with an expanding cloud of cooler dust enveloping the scene. Webb also revealed that the star did not swell to swallow the planet, but the planet’s orbit actually slowly decayed over time. This illustration depicts the sequence of events that took place over millions of years, based on observations from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) and NIRSpec (NIR-Infrared Spectrograph). -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/A-Bayesian-Search.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
A Bayesian Search for Planet Engulfment Signatures in Solar Analogs
[astro-ph.EP] We present a systematic Bayesian search for chemical fingerprints of planet engulfment in 113 solar twins and analogs with high-precision abundance measurements, 45 of which host known or candidate […]
![Adaptive quantum measurement framework and exoplanet detection challenge. (a) Schematic of the proposed method. Photons from an unknown multi-source scene are projected by an adaptive mode sorter onto a basis {ϕ1, . . . , ϕM} maximizing QFI for the current scene estimate and read out as photon counts {n1, . . . ,nM}. These counts drive a maximum-likelihood update of the source parameters (xn, yn, bn), from which the basis is reconstructed to maximize the quantum Fisher information, closing the measure–estimate–adaptive mode calculation loop. (b) Photon-level view of the detection problem as the host– companion contrast deepens from 1:102 to 1:106 (105 photons per panel; red and yellow points denote stellar and planetary photons, crosses mark true positions). The planetary cluster, recognizable at 1:102 , is progressively buried in the stellar halo and becomes unrecognizable, illustrating the failure of direct imaging in the ultra-high-contrast regime. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Exoplanet-Detection-Using.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Exoplanet Detection Using Adaptive Quantum-Optimal Measurement
[astro-ph.IM] Detecting terrestrial exoplanets in the habitable zones of nearby stars remains a critical challenge. Such planets can be 10^8 10^10 times fainter than their host stars and lie at […]