[University of Chicago] In the search for extraterrestrial life, it makes sense to first look for rocky planets with an atmosphere, like Earth. Without an atmosphere, a planet can’t have […]
JWST
Posted inVenus
The Venus Benchmark: Resolving Degeneracies in Terrestrial Exoplanet Spectra with DAVINCI
[astro-ph.EP]. The characterization of terrestrial exoplanets with thick, CO2-dominated atmospheres via transmission and emission spectroscopy is limited by degeneracies between atmospheric composition, cloud structure, and surface conditions.
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Stellar Flares Rather Than High Tint As Possible Cause For the Missing Methane In Young Exoplanets: The Case Study of V1298-Tau b
[astro-ph.EP] Recent observations of V1298-Tau b, a warm sub-Neptune (R=9.85±0.3R⊕, M=13.1±5.3,M⊕, Teq=670K) orbiting a young (10-30Myr) K star, show depleted methane and surprising abundances of CO2 in its atmosphere.
![Schematic diagram of the simulated architecture. It includes the segmented primary mirror, an APLC coronagraph with an apodizer, a focal plane mask and a Lyot stop, two deformable mirrors, and an out-of-band and a low-order Zernike wavefront sensor. -- [astro-ph.IM]](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/JWST-telemetry.png?resize=1200%2C712&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes
JWST Telemetry Combined With Active Coronagraphy: Raw Contrast Predictions For Exoplanet Imaging With The Habitable Worlds Observatory
[astro-ph.IM] We provide a quantification of the technological gap between the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) for the goal of exo-Earth imaging around Sun-like […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
A Clearer View of HAT-P-1 b: JWST NIRSpec G395H Reveals Water, Carbon Dioxide, and Possibly Hydrogen Sulfide
[astro-ph.EP] As part of JWST’s Exoplanet Grand Tour Survey, we use panchromatic transmission spectroscopy to connect HAT-P-1 b’s previously studied optical and near-infrared atmosphere to the longer-wavelength molecular bands accessible […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather
Atmospheric Retrieval of Combined JWST, HST, and Ground-Based Observations Reveals a Featureless Transmission Spectrum for GJ 1132 b
[astro-ph.EP] We present a panchromatic transmission spectrum of GJ1132b spanning 0.71–5.16 μm, combining published transit observations from Magellan/LDSS3C, HST/WFC3 G141, and JWST/NIRSpec (G395H and G395M).
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
JWST Color Sequence Of Transiting Exoplanets And Directly Imaged Substellar Objects
[astro-ph.EP] Color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) have been foundational across astrophysics, from galaxies and stars to brown dwarfs, and JWST now extends them to transiting exoplanets and self-luminous substellar objects at overlapping […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
An Evolving Cosmic Shoreline and Sandbar Bounding the Rocky Airless Valley
[astro-ph.EP] Recent JWST observations challenge the traditional ‘cosmic shoreline’ from both sides, revealing thick volatile atmospheres on the hottest close-in ‘lava worlds,’ where irradiation should drive the most extreme escape, […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Pandora Mission Begins A Study Of Exoplanets And Their Host Stars
[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 […]
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 […]