[NASA] Pandora, NASA’s newest exoplanet mission and the first satellite to launch through the agency’s Astrophysics Pioneers program, is now making unique observations of worlds beyond our solar system and […]
JWST
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
JWST Reveals A Race Against Time For Forming Planets
[SETI Institute] Planets form from disks of gas and dust around young stars, but the gas needed for growth does not last forever. New observations from NASA’s James Webb Space […]
![An artist’s rendering of “cosmic sandbar” planet TOI-561b orbiting its star, with its atmosphere illuminated. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Ralf Crawford [STScI])](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Why-Some.jpg?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inLava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds
Why Some Planets Have Theory-defying Atmospheres
[Stanford University] Stanford researchers have offered a compelling explanation for why some sizzling, lava-covered worlds nestled tightly around their stars can keep hold of their atmospheres. At such close quarters, […]
![JWST Cycle 6 -- [NASA / STSCI]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/JWST-Cycle-6.jpg?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inPolicy
JWST Cycle 6 Call for Proposals Policy Update [China]
[NASA / STSCI] Proposals involving only investigators based in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or involving only PRC-based and U.S. investigators are subject to the NASA restriction on bilateral […]
![Differences in the TLS effect for the TRAPPIST-1 planets for our minimal two-zone model. The left panel shows a representative diagram of the stellar surface with increased spottedness in the polar regions. Lines are drawn to represent the center of the transit chord for each of the TRAPPIST-1 planets. As a representative example, the width of planet b’s transit chord is shaded in blue. In the right panel, the relative transit depth is shown assuming only stellar heterogeneity made up of cooler regions (upper) and hotter regions (lower) with no contribution from a planetary atmosphere over the wavelength range relevant to JWST NIRSpec/PRISM. The higher impact parameter planets (f, g, and h) are less impacted by the TLS effect than the lower impact parameter planets given our choice of zonal boundary. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Leveraging-Impact.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inTRAPPIST-1
Leveraging Impact Parameter to Mitigate the Transit Light Source Effect: Early Insights from TRAPPIST-1
[astro-ph.EP] Stellar activity complicates exoplanet transmission spectra, particularly for smaller planets around M dwarfs with JWST.
![Upper Panels. Maps of N × ρ for ortho-H2O and para-H2O, the derived OPR, and Trot(H2O) for the 6 µm band measured on February 28. Note that N for each species has been corrected for the derived OPR. Lower Panels. As in the upper panels for the 2.6 µm H2O bands measured on March 1. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/JWST-Spatial.png?resize=1200%2C727&ssl=1)
Posted inComets and Asteroids
JWST Spatial-Spectral Mapping of Green Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF)
[astro-ph.EP] We report a survey of molecular emission from cometary volatiles using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) toward Oort cloud comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) carried out on UT 2023 […]
![The best-fit chemical equilibrium models to our co-added data performed with three different retrieval suites. For all chemical equilibrium fits, the models produced poor fits to several features on the spectrum, namely near 3 µm and between 4 − 5 µm region. For the 4.3 micron region, the differences between features are due to a combination of differences in the retrieval framework (namely prior constraints) and chemical networks used (FastChem vs GGChem) for each retrieval suite. -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/GEMS-JWST.png?resize=1200%2C719&ssl=1)
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
GEMS JWST: HATS(-6 b): A Sub-solar Metallicity Giant Planet With Water, Methane And Ammonia In Its Atmosphere
[astro-ph.EP] HATS-6 b is one of several recently discovered Giant Exoplanets orbiting M-dwarf Stars (GEMS) and is part of a JWST survey that aims to compare bulk and atmospheric properties […]
![Simulations of the external planets’ (d to h) contributions at the times of JWST observations (represented in color over the bare rocks total curve). Relative fluxes were simulated using the SPHINX spectrum at 12.8 microns. The contributions of each planet are shown in colored dotted lines and the case of all planets with thick atmospheres in dashed grey. The total phase curves correspond to the total contribution of the external planets. Eclipses are displayed but not transits. Visit 1 of GTO 1279 is not displayed as the observational strategy from this visit was different from the others and less precise (Ducrot et al. 2024) -- [astro-ph.EP]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Looking.png?resize=1200%2C717&ssl=1)
Posted inTRAPPIST-1
Looking For TRAPPIST-1 External Planets’ Emission In JWST Archival Data
[astro-ph.EP] The TRAPPIST-1 system has been thoroughly observed with JWST. Unfortunately, stellar contamination issues strongly limit the interpretation of transit observations.
Posted inTRAPPIST-1
Atmospheric Reconnaissance of TRAPPIST-1 f with JWST NIRISS SOSS: No Evidence for the Transit Light Source Effect
[astro-ph.EP] In just over three years of operation, JWST has observed all seven planets of the TRAPPIST-1 system. The two innermost planets were found to have little to no atmosphere, […]
Posted inStellar Cartography
A High-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Directly Imaged Companion Hosts: III. Characterization of the Cold Imaged Planet Hosts AF Lep A and ε Indi A
[astro-ph.EP] JWST has enabled the measurement of carbon, oxygen, and sulfur abundances in the atmospheres of directly imaged planets. Interpretation of these abundances from a planet formation standpoint requires the […]