solar system Archives

General chronology of the early solar system.

Setting The Stage: The Early History Of The Solar System

by Keith CowingAugust 11, 2026August 11, 2026

[astro-ph.EP] This article reviews the early history of our solar system from an astrobiological perspective and presents evidence from meteorites and astronomical observations. The purpose is to trace the formation […]

Detection of HD 135344 Ab with VLT/SPHERE. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Direct Imaging Discovery Of A Young Giant Planet Orbiting On Solar System Scales

by Keith CowingJuly 9, 2025July 9, 2025

HD 135344 AB is a young visual binary system that is best known for the protoplanetary disk around the secondary star. The circumstellar environment of the A0-type primary star, on […]

α Cen’s orbit about the Galactic Centre viewed on the xy and yz planes (top row), as well as the orbits of the ejecta from α Cen viewed in a comoving frame (bottom row). Our Sun (Sol) is marked by a black hexagon and its orbital path indicated by a grey solid line (top row only). α Cen’s location and path are shown by a yellow star and blue solid line (top row only). In the bottom row, the comoving frame follows α Cen around its orbit while maintaining its orientation with the y-axis pointing towards the Galactic Centre (blue arrow) and α Cen’s velocity pointing in the -x direction (black arrow). This still frame is taken at t ≈ 3, 000 yr (that is, +3,000 years from the current epoch) after ∼ 100 Myr of integration. The colours of the ejecta represent the 3rd dimension of position, except that any particle that will at any point come within 100, 000 au of Sol are plotted in red. The full animation is available in the HTML version of this publication which shows the time evolution from t ≈ −100 Myr to t ≈ 10 Myr. The duration of the animation is 11 s. https://youtu.be/YABoYgNKr-I -- astro-ph.EP

Alpha Centauri, Comets and Asteroids, Interstellar, Meteorites & Asteroids, Panspermia, Press Release

A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri

by Keith CowingFebruary 6, 2025February 6, 2025

Interstellar material has been discovered in our Solar System, yet its origins and details of its transport are unknown. Here we present α Centauri as a case study of the […]

Cross-correlation maps of spurious H2O-like signals shown in S/N units, plotted against exoplanet rest-frame velocity (Vrest, horizontal axis) and projected orbital velocity (KP , vertical axis). These maps are derived from cross-correlation function (CCF) analyses between BL19-prepared noise matrices and the nominal H2O template. The white lines mark the expected KP and Vrest values of HD 189733 b. Panels A and B display the results for ϵN,,max and ϵN,,min, representing the spectral noise matrices of the nights yielding maximum and minimum S/N in Fig.,1, respectively. Lighter (yellow) regions denote strong correlations, while darker (dark blue) areas indicate anticorrelations, as shown by the colorbar. Minute differences in the noise matrices of two nearly identical nights can lead to either strong correlations (panel A) or anticorrelations (panel B) around the ground-truth KP –,vrest. Similar trends are observed in Welch’s t-test analyses (not shown). -- astro-ph.EP

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

On The Robustness Of Exoplanet Atmospheric Detections: Insights From Extensive Simulations

by Keith CowingJanuary 18, 2025January 18, 2025

The classical picture of our Solar System being the archetypal outcome of planet formation has been rendered obsolete by the astonishing diversity of extrasolar-system architectures. From rare hot-Jupiters to abundant […]

Trajectories of the Sun on the R-tbk planes for the evolving model. The orange lines show the trajectories of “trapped migrators,” while the green lines depict “untrapped migrators.” Thick lines represent the trajectories of Sun-like particles, while thin lines show orbits similar to those indicated by the thick lines. The background colors with contours indicate (a) the SFR density (ΣSFR) and (b) lethal GRB event rates (NGBR), based on the Galactic chemical evolution model (Baba et al. 2023). The black dashed lines indicate the locations of the bar’s CR and OLR radii. -- astro-ph.GA

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Status Report, Stellar Cartography

Solar System Migration Points to a Renewed Concept: Galactic Habitable Orbits

by Keith CowingDecember 5, 2024December 5, 2024

Astrophysical evidence suggests that the Sun was born near 5 kpc from the Galactic center, within the corotation radius of the Galactic bar, around 6-7 kpc.

NASA New Horizons Visits a Kuiper Belt Object -- NASA

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Comets and Asteroids, Icy Worlds, Press Release

Our Outer Solar System Is More Populated With Icy Worlds Than We Thought

by Keith CowingSeptember 6, 2024September 6, 2024

Observations of the outer Solar System with the Subaru Telescope have discovered new bodies where none were expected. The new objects are likely members of a much larger population waiting […]

Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Gas Giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Status Report

The Solar System Could Have Formed in a Low-viscosity Disc: A Dynamical Study From Giant Planet Migration to the Nice Model

by Keith CowingJuly 3, 2024July 1, 2024

In the context of low-viscosity protoplanetary discs (PPDs), the formation scenarios of the Solar System should be revisited. In particular, the Jupiter-Saturn pair has been shown to lock in the […]

Illustration of the uncertainty of Earth's orbit 56 million years ago due to a potential past passage of the Sun-like star HD7977 2.8 million years ago. Each point's distance from the center corresponds to the degree of ellipticity of Earth's orbit, and the angle corresponds to the direction pointing to Earth's perihelion, or closest approach distance to the Sun. 100 different simulations (each with a unique color) are sampled every 1,000 years for 600,000 years to construct this figure. Every simulation is consistent with the modern Solar System's conditions, and the differences in orbital predictions are primarily due to orbital chaos and the past encounter with HD 7977. Credit: N. Kaib/PSI.

Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Habitable Zones, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

Stellar Cartography: Passing Stars Altered Orbital Changes For Earth And Other Planets

by Keith CowingFebruary 15, 2024February 15, 2024

Stars that pass by our Solar System have altered the long-term orbital evolution of planets, including Earth, and by extension modified our climate.

Magnification: 160x, bright field (negative image), stacked image Fundort / Site: Barbados Alter / Age: approx. 32-35 million years (late Eocene - early Oligocene) Präparation / Preparation: Andreas Drews Radiolarians are unicellulars of diameter 0.1–0.2 mm that produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ectoplasm.The elaborate mineral skeleton is usually made of silica. They are found as zooplankton throughout the ocean, and their skeletal remains make up a large part of the cover of the ocean floor as siliceous ooze. Due to their rapid turn-over of species, they represent an important diagnostic fossil found from the Cambrian onwards. -- Wikipedia

Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Microbiology & Virology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Status Report, Stellar Cartography, Water/Hycean Worlds & Oceanography

Cosmic Radiation Drives Quasi-periodic Changes In The Diversity Of Siliceous Marine Microplankton

by Keith CowingFebruary 15, 2024

Radiolarians are significant contributors to the oceanic primary productivity and the global silica cycle in the last 500 Myr. Their diversity throughout the Phanerozoic shows periodic fluctuations.

solar system

Setting The Stage: The Early History Of The Solar System

Direct Imaging Discovery Of A Young Giant Planet Orbiting On Solar System Scales

A Case Study of Interstellar Material Delivery: Alpha Centauri

On The Robustness Of Exoplanet Atmospheric Detections: Insights From Extensive Simulations

Solar System Migration Points to a Renewed Concept: Galactic Habitable Orbits

Our Outer Solar System Is More Populated With Icy Worlds Than We Thought

The Solar System Could Have Formed in a Low-viscosity Disc: A Dynamical Study From Giant Planet Migration to the Nice Model

Stellar Cartography: Passing Stars Altered Orbital Changes For Earth And Other Planets

Cosmic Radiation Drives Quasi-periodic Changes In The Diversity Of Siliceous Marine Microplankton

What The Solar System Can Teach Us About Rocky Exoplanets

Youngest Exoplanet Yet Discovered Found Hiding in Keck Observatory Data

Decoding The Weather On Brown Dwarf SIMP 0136

Glycine In The Interstellar Medium Revisited: Resolving Conformational Complexity Kinetically

The Abiotic Background: Challenges and Opportunities in the Search for Evidence of Life Beyond Earth