![[LEFT:] A Rare Brown Dwarf: HIP 71618 B [RIGHT:] A New Giant Planet: HIP 54515 b -- W. M. Keck Observatory and the Subaru Telescope.](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Discoveries-From-Maunakea-Reveal-1.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory and the Subaru Telescope on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island have discovered a massive planet and a brown dwarf orbiting distant stars—two rare companions that deepen […]
Roman Space Telescope
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
First Results From The Subaru Telescope’s OASIS Survey: Direct Imaging Of New Worlds Around Unexplored Stars
The discovery of two remarkable substellar companions orbiting distant stars has been announced by an international team of astronomers using the Subaru Telescope’s sharp adaptive-optics imaging together with precision stellar […]
![Maps of average lensing parameters of simulated microlensing events due to different BFFPs over the 2D space log10[s(AU)]−log10[Mtot(M⊕)]. Here, Fi and Fw are fractions of simulated microlensing events due to BFFPs with intermediate and wide caustic topologies, respectively. ρ? shows the source radius projected on the lens plane and normalized to the Einstein radius, Lc is a length scale for caustic curves, ∆c represents the caustic area, τ is a time scale for microlensing events due to BFFPs, and P is the orbital period of binary lenses. -- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/On-the-Detection-of-Binary-Free-Floating-Planets.png?resize=1200%2C720&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
On the Detection of Binary Free-Floating Planets in the Roman Galactic Exoplanet Survey
The recent discovery of 40 binary Jupiter-mass free-floating planets in the Trapezium cluster by the James Webb Space Telescope (Pearson & McCaughrean 2023) has opened new windows and questions in […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
NASA’s Exoplanet Discovery Exceeds 6,000 Worlds
The official number of exoplanets — planets outside our solar system — tracked by NASA has reached 6,000. Confirmed planets are added to the count on a rolling basis by […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Predictions of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Galactic Exoplanet Survey. III. Detectability of Giant Exomoons of Wide Separation Giant Planets
Roman should be sensitive to lenses with mass down to ~ 0.02 M⊕, or roughly the mass of Ganymede. Thus the detection of moons with masses similar to the giant […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Moon, Status Report
Identifying Habitable Exoplanets With Radio Telescopes On The Lunar Farside
The search for habitable conditions beyond Earth is a top priority in astrophysics.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Reconstructing The Free-floating Planet Mass Function With The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
Free-floating planets comprise one of the most enigmatic populations of exoplanets in the Galaxy. Though ground-based observations point to a large abundance of these worlds, little is known about their […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Stellar Cartography
Stellar Cartography: SPHEREx Begins Capturing The Entire Sky
Launched on March 11, NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory has spent the last six weeks undergoing checkouts, calibrations, and other activities to ensure it is working as it should.
![The [Na/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] abundance plot (Ensemble 4) showing the stars that are most likely to host a planet (green), the known planet hosts (blue), and the stars less likely to host a planet (orange). Histograms are also included that show the [Na/Fe] relative distribution to the right of the scatterplot and [Fe/H] relative distribution at the top. We note the clear sub-solar Na abundances for each experiment’s known and predicted planet hosts (see Section 5). - Small planets -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Utilizing-Machine-Learning-to-Predict.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inAI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Utilizing Machine Learning to Predict Host Stars and the Key Elemental Abundances of Small Planets
Stars and their associated planets originate from the same cloud of gas and dust, making a star’s elemental composition a valuable indicator for indirectly studying planetary compositions.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Brown Dwarfs, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Icy Worlds, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release
Webb Exposes Complex Atmosphere of Free-Floating Super-Jupiter SIMP 0136
An international team of researchers has discovered that previously observed variations in brightness of a free-floating planetary-mass object known as SIMP 0136 must be the result of a complex combination […]