While no conclusive detections of exomoons have been reported to date, planet formation theories predict that satellites should be a common outcome of the collisional dynamics in early extrasolar systems.
JWST
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Giant Planet TOI-5205 b Orbits A Small Red Star
Massive exoplanet reveals new insights into the formation of planets and their relationship to a host star.
Posted inAstrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography
Unusually Hot Interiors Could Reconcile the Missing Methane Problem for Warm-to-Hot Exoplanets with Hydrogen Atmospheres
JWST is revolutionizing the field of exoplanet atmospheres by delivering unprecedented spectroscopic constraints on their chemical compositions. It has provided tight constraints on the abundances of dominant carbon- and oxygen-bearing […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Information Content Of JWST Transmission Spectroscopy Of The Exoplanet HAT-P-12b From The Optical To The Mid-infrared
Marginal posterior distributions of the chemical abundances for all included molecules, retrieved using different JWST instrument combinations. The shown distributions were derived from the samples via kernel density estimation (KDE; […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
A Pair Of Planet-forming Disks
This month’s ESA/Webb Picture of the Month offers us a two-for-one on brand new stars — with some potential planets thrown in as well! This visual highlights views from the […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Hot Rocks Survey V: Secondary Eclipse Photometry of GJ 3473 b with JWST/MIRI
JWST is transforming our ability to characterise small exoplanets, from sub-Neptunes to rocky worlds. A key open question is whether highly irradiated rocky planets can retain atmospheres or are stripped […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Status Report
Weighing The Mass Of LHS 3844 b
Context: LHS 3844 b (TOI-136 b) is a ultra short-period, Earth-size exoplanet detected by TESS. It is one of the most favourable object for atmospheric characterisation and the study of […]
Posted inAstrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
The Atmosphere Of K2-18 b: The Role Of Hazes, Clouds And Photoelectrons
The atmospheric characterisation of temperate exoplanets is becoming accessible with JWST, providing a critical connection between Solar System planets and the more commonly observed hot-Jupiters.
Posted inAstrochemistry, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report
Coma Physics Of An Interstellar Object: JWST Spatial-Spectral Mapping Of 3I/ATLAS
We report a survey of molecular emission from cometary volatiles using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) toward interstellar object 3I/ATLAS carried out on UT 2025 December 22 and 23 […]
Posted inBrown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
The Coldest Known Y Dwarfs: Estimates of their Effective Temperatures
For a decade there has been a factor of 2.5 gap in luminosity between the 275K WISE J085510.83-071442.5 (Luhman 2014) and all other Y dwarfs, with Teff >= 350K. Recently […]