After completing a series of tests and carefully considering the options, NASA announced Tuesday work is underway to transition its Hubble Space Telescope to operate using only one gyroscope (gyro). […]
imaging
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Citizen Science / Open Science, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Enhancing Exoplanet Ephemerides by Leveraging Professional and Citizen Science Data: A Test Case with WASP-77A b
We present an updated ephemeris and physical parameters for the exoplanet WASP-77 A b. In this effort, we combine 64 ground- and space-based transit observations, 6 space-based eclipse observations, and […]
![Comparison of SPECULOOS-3 b with other rocky exoplanets. a) Sizes of host stars and incident stellar flux of known sub-Neptune-sized exoplanets. The size of the symbols scales linearly with the radius of the planet. The background is colour-coded according to stellar size (in units of the Sun’s size), with the ultra-cool dwarf regime shown in orange. The positions of the Solar System terrestrial planets are shown for reference. One can see on this Figure that SPECULOOS-3 b extends the unique planet sample of TRAPPIST-1 to a larger stellar flux. b) SPECULOOS-3 b in the context of other known transiting terrestrial exoplanets (Rp < 1.6R⊕) that are cool enough (Teq < 880 K [80]) to have a dayside made of solid rock (in contrast to hotter magma worlds with molten surfaces). The planets are shown as a function of their radius and their Emission Spectroscopy Metric [62]. They are color-coded as a function of their equilibrium temperature. The shaded green area highlights planetary radii most similar to Earth’s (0.9–1.1 R⊕). The dashed horizontal line represents the threshold of ESM=7.5 recommended by ref. [62] to identify the top targets for emission spectroscopy with JWST. SPECULOOS-3 b is one of the smallest planets amenable to emission spectroscopy with MIRI/LRS. Data from https://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu (16th of October 2023). -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Detection-Of-An-Earth-sized-Exoplanet.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Detection Of An Earth-sized Exoplanet Orbiting The Nearby Ultracool Dwarf Star SPECULOOS-3
Located at the bottom of the main sequence, ultracool dwarf stars are widespread in the solar neighbourhood. Nevertheless, their extremely low luminosity has left their planetary population largely unexplored, and […]
![Left: An example of PSF matching between the [O III] λ5007 PNB image from Keck/KCWI (top-left) and the [O III] 88 µm PNB image from Herschel/PACS (bottom-left). The KCWI PNB image has been convolved with a 2D Gaussian kernel (top-right) to match the PACS PNB image’s PSF. The resulting residual is shown in the bottom-right panel. The red dashed circles indicate the apertures from which the 1D spectra were extracted. Right: Modeling of dust attenuation based on the observed flux ratios of hydrogen Balmer and Paschen lines. In the top panel, the data points represent the correction factors needed to align the observed flux ratios with those predicted by Case B recombination. The best-fit attenuation models are represented by solid curves, while the shaded areas denote their 1σ uncertainties. The blue (orange) color indicates the 1D spectra before (after) PSF matching. The steep slope at the lower wavelengths is primarily due to contributions from stellar absorption. The lower panel shows the fractional deviations between the observed and best-fit flux ratios, for the same data points. Data points near unity indicate a good agreement with the attenuation model. -- astro-ph.GA](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Robust-Nitrogen-and-Oxygen.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report
Robust Nitrogen and Oxygen Abundances of Haro 3 from Optical and Infrared Emission
Accurate chemical compositions of star-forming regions are a critical diagnostic tool to characterize the star formation history and gas flows which regulate galaxy formation.
![Left: C/O as a function of projected separation or semi-major axis for the eight companions in this study. The points are sized by companion mass, using the mass legend in the right panel. The blue line and region show the solar C/O value from Asplund et al. (2021). Right: In color: 1σ contours of C/O and [C/H] for the eight companions, which are all consistent with solar composition (intersection of dashed gray lines) to the 2σ level. In § 6.4.1, we justify that their host stars likely have solar composition as well. We overplot hot Jupiters which have abundance measurements for at least one oxygen-bearing and one carbon-bearing species from JWST or high-resolution spectroscopy as black points (Alderson et al. 2023; August et al. 2023; Bean et al. 2023; Bell et al. 2023; Brogi et al. 2023; Finnerty et al. 2024; Xue et al. 2024), which are also sized by mass. The hot Jupiters show considerable scatter and super-solar (and super-stellar) metallicities except for one planet, unlike our companions which cluster around solar (and stellar) composition. -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Are-These-Planets.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Are These Planets Or Brown Dwarfs?
Using Keck Planet Imager and Characterizer (KPIC) high-resolution (R~35000) spectroscopy from 2.29-2.49 μm, we present uniform atmospheric retrievals for eight young substellar companions with masses of ~10-30 MJup, orbital separations […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Mars, Missions & Hardware, Phobos, Press Release, Sample Return
Phobos Photometric Properties From Mars Express HRSC Observations (Comet Capture?)
This study aims to analyze Phobos’ photometric properties using Mars Express mission observations to support the Martian Moons eXploration mission.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
Stellar Cartography: New Ultralow-noise Superconducting Camera for Exoplanet Searches
When imaging faint objects such as distant stars or exoplanets, capturing every last bit of light is crucial to get the most out of a scientific mission.
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
NotPlaNET: Removing False Positives from Planet Hunters TESS with Machine Learning
Differentiating between real transit events and false positive signals in photometric time series data is a bottleneck in the identification of transiting exoplanets, particularly long-period planets.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biophysics, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Origin & Evolution of Life, Panspermia, Status Report
On The Origin Of Infrared Bands Attributed To Tryptophan In Spitzer Observations Of IC 348
Infrared emission features toward interstellar gas of the IC 348 star cluster in Perseus have been recently proposed to originate from the amino acid tryptophan.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
TOI-1685 b is a Hot Rocky Super-Earth: Updates to the Stellar and Planet Parameters of a Popular JWST Cycle 2 Target
We present an updated characterization of the TOI-1685 planetary system, which consists of a Pb = 0.69 day USP super-Earth planet orbiting a nearby (d = 37.6 pc) M2.5V star […]