![Binding energies of CO, CO2 and NH3 on pristine and cavity-containing ice clusters consisting of 100 and 97 H2O molecules, respectively. The error bars represent the spread in adsorption energies across the three clusters. Dispersion energy as fraction of the total binding energy per species, site and functional. -- [astro-ph.GA]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/How-Small.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
[astro-ph.GA] Binding energies of molecules on ice mantles are important to understand the evolution of molecular complexity in molecular clouds.
imaging
![Overview of the gas-phase oxygen and carbon chemistry in hydrogen-dominated planetary atmospheres.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/The-atomic.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
The Atomic C/O Ratio Of Exoplanet KELT-9b
[astro-ph.EP] The carbon-to-oxygen (C/O) ratio of a giant planet’s atmosphere has long been theorised to hold compositional information that can be traced back to its formation history.
Posted inCeres
Spectral Evolution Of Ceres’ Surface and Implications For Space Weathering
[astro-ph.EP] The surface of Ceres exposed to the space environment will be gradually altered, but the evolution of its spectral properties remains poorly understood. Here we analyze visible and infrared […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
Photonic Integrated Circuits for the Habitable Worlds Observatory: Science Drivers, Material Platforms, Arrayed-Waveguide Spectrographs, and a Space-Qualification Roadmap
[astro-ph.IM] NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will require ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared instruments that are simultaneously compact, mechanically and thermally stable, high-throughput, and replicable at large channel counts.
![Illustration of the astro-calibration method. The four reference frames are represented. The three models (s, a, and c) that link them and constitute the parameter vector x are also represented. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Calibrations.png?resize=1200%2C714&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
Calibrations For High Precision Differential Astrometry Onboard Theia And HWO
[astro-ph.IM] Future space astrometry missions such as Theia and an astrometric mode of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) require detector calibration and instrumental characterization at an unprecedented level to achieve […]
Posted inPLATO
Detecting Transiting Exoplanets In Simulated PLATO data: A Comparison Of Light Curve Filter And Transit Search Algorithms
[astro-ph.EP] Aims: Our goal is to test and compare transit search methodologies, and provide recommendations as to the best practices to be implemented by the upcoming ESA PLATO mission, in […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
WINERED Detects a Strong Atmospheric Outflow on the Sub-Neptune GJ 3090b
[astro-ph.EP] Sub-Neptunes are the most common short-period (P<100 d) planets known. A major goal for the field is to build a comprehensive understanding of their compositions and evolutionary histories, and […]
![Sensitivity of the adopted contrast curves for the newly validated planets, separated by technique. Each pixel gives the fraction of curves sensitive to a companion of the given magnitude contrast (∆mag) at the given angular separation (∆arcsec), shading from white (all curves sensitive) to black (none sensitive). Speckle observations are confined to their ∼ 1.2 ′′ field of view, while the adaptive-optics curves extend to wider separations. Contrasts are in each observation’s native band and are not directly comparable across instruments (cf. Table 2).-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/Assessing-the.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Assessing the Impact of High-Resolution Imaging on Statistical Validation of TESS Planet Candidates
[astro-ph.EP] High-resolution imaging is widely used to constrain false-positive scenarios in exoplanet validation, but it is a finite follow-up resource that reaches only a subset of candidates, and its population-level […]
Posted inMars
Mars Rover Curiosity’s Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) Calibration
[NASA]. NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity acquired this image using its Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI), located on the turret at the end of the rover’s robotic arm, on September 7, […]
![RMS vs bin-size of the residuals from our TTV fits (see Section 4.1). The four panels show the 2x2 different reduction-likelihood pairings considered in this work. The two jitter treatments find binning behavior worse than that expected from pure Gaussian noise (dashed line), and instead have a slope of ∼ − 1/3, similar to other NIRSpec PRISM results (e.g. Kipping et al. 2025). The inclusion of a GP to absorb time-correlated noise greatly reduces the slopes, as again expected.-- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/JWST-Excludes.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
JWST Excludes Exomoons Down to 0.1 Earth Radii Around a Rocky, Temperate Exoplanet
[astro-ph.EP] To date, even with JWST, it has not been possible to test for exomoons as small as the Moon. Only two reported searches for exomoons around bound planets have […]