telescope Archives

Reconstructed maps of the large-scale field of GJ 876 in 2019 (top) and 2020 (bottom). The left, middle and right columns represent the radial, azimuthal, and meridional field components in spherical coordinates. The color bar is expressed in Gauss. The maps are shown in a flattened polar projection down to latitude –60◦ with the pole at the center and the equator depicted as a bold line. Outer ticks indicate phases of observations, assuming a rotation period of 83.7 d. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Characterizing Planetary Systems With SPIRou: M-dwarf Planet-search Survey And The Multiplanet Systems GJ 876 And GJ 1148

by Keith CowingJuly 26, 2023July 26, 2023

SPIRou is a near-infrared spectropolarimeter and a high-precision velocimeter. The SPIRou Legacy Survey collected data from February 2019 to June 2022, half of the time devoted to a blind search […]

TESS exoplanets as a function of planet type and orbital period, separated into planet candidates (black), false positives (red), previously known planets discovered by other missions than TESS (blue), and confirmed planets verified through additional observations using other telescopes (green). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, PLATO, Status Report

Estimating The Number Of Planets That PLATO Can Detect

by Keith CowingJuly 26, 2023April 27, 2026

The PLATO mission is scheduled for launch in 2026. This study aims to estimate the number of exoplanets that PLATO can detect as a function of planetary size and period, […]

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

The Tianlin Mission: A 6m UV/Opt/IR Space Telescope To Explore The Habitable Worlds And The Universe

by Keith CowingJuly 25, 2023July 25, 2023

It is expected that the ongoing and future space-borne planet survey missions including TESS, PLATO, and Earth 2.0 will detect thousands of small to medium-sized planets via the transit technique, […]

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Status Report

Complex Organic Molecules In A Very Young Hot Corino, HOPS 373SW

by Keith CowingJune 29, 2023

We present the spectra of Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) detected in HOPS 373SW with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). HOPS 373SW, which is a component of a protostellar binary […]

The geometry of specular reflection from the structures present on the surface of the planet. The artificial structures are drawn on the surface (marked as A1, A2, and A3). The star has a finite size as seen from the planet; hencethe incident rays will have a variation in incident angles. The reflected rays, however, are parallel in the direction of theobserver as the distance of the planet from the observer is very large. Only those rays that are reflected in the direction of theobserver are shown here. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Specular Reflections From Artificial Surfaces As Technosignature

by Keith CowingJune 23, 2023June 23, 2023

Direct imaging of exoplanets will allow us to directly observe the planet in reflected light. Such a scenario may eventually allow for the possibility to scan the planetary surface for […]

Illustration of a dataset form the SPHERE-IFS instrument. Left: images at different wavelengths. Right: images at different times (at λ25 = 1.4 µm). Red circles represent the locations of three known exoplanets whose signatures are too faint to be detected without additional processing. Bottom: spatio-spectral and spatio-temporal slice cuts along the white dashed line. -- astro-ph.IM

AI - Data - Apps - Cybernetics, Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Combining Multi-spectral Data With Statistical And Deep-learning Models For Improved Exoplanet Detection In Direct Imaging At High Contrast

by Keith CowingJune 21, 2023June 21, 2023

Exoplanet detection by direct imaging is a difficult task: the faint signals from the objects of interest are buried under a spatially structured nuisance component induced by the host star. […]

Astronomers using the Webb telescope discovered evidence of complex organic molecules in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away. The galaxy lines up almost perfectly with a second galaxy only 3 billion light-years away from our perspective on Earth. In this false-color Webb image, the foreground galaxy is shown in blue, while the background galaxy is red. The organic molecules are highlighted in orange. Graphic courtesy J. Spilker / S. Doyle, NASA, ESA, CSA

Astrochemistry, Astronomy & Telescopes, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Interstellar, Press Release

Webb Detects The Universe’s Most Distant Complex Organic Molecules

by Keith CowingJune 5, 2023June 5, 2023

Researchers have detected complex organic molecules in a galaxy more than 12 billion light-years away from Earth – the most distant galaxy in which these molecules are now known to […]

Left: HAT-P-33b observational and theoretical light curves using TESS sector 45 data; Right: The observational light curve of HAT-P-32b from this study in the 𝑉 filter and the theoretical light curve. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Ephemeris Updates For Seven Selected HATNet Survey Transiting Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2023June 2, 2023

We refined the ephemeris of seven transiting exoplanets HAT-P-6b, HAT-P-12b, HAT-P-18b, HAT-P-22b, HAT-P-32b, HAT-P-33b, and HAT-P-52b. We observed 11 transits from eight observatories in different filters for HAT-P-6b and HAT-P-32b.

Transmission and weighting functions in the longwave TIR (CO2 𝜈2 band at 15 𝜇m, nadir view, Earth’s midlatitude summer (MLS) atmosphere (Anderson et al. 1986), Gaussian response function of half width Γ = 0.25 cm−1 corresponding to a resolution 𝑅 ≈ 2800.). The upper panels show the transmission as a function of wavenumber for several atmospheric paths (right) and transmission vs. altitude (related to path length 𝑠 = 𝑧ToA − 𝑧) for selected wavenumbers (left). The lower panel shows individual weighting functions for selected wavenumbers (left) and a contour plot. Numbers in the left legends indicate the wavenumber [cm−1 ] and the corresponding peak altitude [km] (bottom-left). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Assessment of a Physics-based Retrieval of Exoplanet Atmospheric Temperatures from Infrared Emission Spectra

by Keith CowingJune 2, 2023June 2, 2023

Atmospheric temperatures are to be estimated from thermal emission spectra of Earth-like exoplanets orbiting M-stars as observed by current and future planned missions.

WASP-18 b, seen in an artist concept, is a gas giant exoplanet 10 times more massive than Jupiter that orbits its star in just 23 hours. Researchers used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to study the planet as it moved behind its star. Temperatures there reach 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,700 C). Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (K. Miller/IPAC)

Astrochemistry, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release

Webb Maps and Finds Traces of Water in an Ultra-hot Gas Giant’s Atmosphere

by Keith CowingMay 31, 2023May 31, 2023

There’s an intriguing exoplanet out there – 400 light-years out there – that is so tantalizing that astronomers have been studying it since its discovery in 2009. A year for […]

telescope

Characterizing Planetary Systems With SPIRou: M-dwarf Planet-search Survey And The Multiplanet Systems GJ 876 And GJ 1148

Estimating The Number Of Planets That PLATO Can Detect

The Tianlin Mission: A 6m UV/Opt/IR Space Telescope To Explore The Habitable Worlds And The Universe

Complex Organic Molecules In A Very Young Hot Corino, HOPS 373SW

Specular Reflections From Artificial Surfaces As Technosignature

Combining Multi-spectral Data With Statistical And Deep-learning Models For Improved Exoplanet Detection In Direct Imaging At High Contrast

Webb Detects The Universe’s Most Distant Complex Organic Molecules

Ephemeris Updates For Seven Selected HATNet Survey Transiting Exoplanets

Assessment of a Physics-based Retrieval of Exoplanet Atmospheric Temperatures from Infrared Emission Spectra

Webb Maps and Finds Traces of Water in an Ultra-hot Gas Giant’s Atmosphere

The Emergence Of Life In The Light Of Evolution

ReactionAtlas: Ab Origine Exploration Of Chemical Reaction Networks With Machine Learning

Mass Constraints For The K2-223 System Planets: An Ultra-short-period sub-Earth, A Short-period Super-Earth, And A Tentative Long-period Giant Planet

Double Gravity-Assist Rendezvous Trajectory to Halley’s Comet Using Deep-Space Low Thrust

Photometric Characterization Of Near-Earth Asteroids: Rotation, Taxonomy, And Candidate Evidence For Internal Cohesion