Astronomers now estimate there is at least one planet for every star in our galaxy. These worlds, called exoplanets, are planets that orbit stars outside our solar system. But new […]
TESS
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
ExoNet: Multimodal Deep Learning for TESS Exoplanet Candidate Identification via Phase-Folded Light Curves, Stellar Parameters, and Multi-Head Attention Fusion
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has identified thousands of exoplanet candidates, yet many remain unconfirmed due to the limitations of manual vetting processes.
Posted inAstrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Lava / magma ocean / Volcanic Worlds, Press Release
A Gem System With A Lava World And A Habitable Zone Sub-Neptune Orbiting TOI-1752
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has delivered a large number of transiting planet candidates around nearby stars by identifying periodic decreases in stellar brightness. A top-down view of the […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report, TRAPPIST-1
The Multi-planet System TOI-5624: Four Transiting Sub-Neptunes With An Outer Companion Revealed By Transit-timing Variations
Following the 2022 alert of a TESS object of interest transiting TOI-5624 (a G7 V star ∼100 pc away), a CHEOPS campaign in 2023 detected four planetary signals at Pb≈3.4, […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, PLATO, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Variability Classification Of TESS Targets in LOPS2, The First Long-term Pointing Field Of PLATO. Version 1 of The Public Variability Catalogue
The PLAnetary Transits and Oscillations of stars (PLATO) mission is expected to launch in January 2027. A total of 8\% of its data rate will be dedicated to complementary science […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Ice Giant, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Origin And Characterization Of Super-Earths And Sub-Neptunes
Super-Earths and sub-Neptunes represent the most common class of exoplanets discovered to date in our galaxy, yet they have no direct analogues in the Solar System. Since 2014, researchers within […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report
Finding Circumbinary Planets: A Semi-Automated Transit Search of TESS Eclipsing Binaries
The discovery of circumbinary planets (CBPs) has advanced our understanding of planet formation and dynamical evolution in complex environments.
![Plotted here are the Kepler confirmed planets/candidates with Gaia DR2 radius improvements. Selection criteria are main-sequence host-star with temperature 5000-6500 K and planet radius errors less than ±10%. Data source: exoplanet archive (Akeson et al. 2013) (Christiansen et al. 2025) (Thompson et al. 2017) and Gaia DR2 Berger et al. (2020, 2018); Brown et al. (2018); Lindegren et al. (2018). Sub-Panels: (1): 1100+ planets fulfilling the criteria, with gray ellipse showing the typical errors in planet radius and temperature. (2) and (3): Smooth Kernel fit to data. (4): All known transiting Hot Jupiters (Rp > 8 R⊕) which have masses measured from RV surveys (e.g. WASP, HAT, HAT-P, etc.), colored by metallicity ([Fe/H]). also c.f. (Castro-González et al. 2024). -- astro-ph.EP](https://i0.wp.com/astrobiology.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Exoplanet-Orbital-Distribution-1.png?resize=1200%2C718&ssl=1)
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report, Stellar Cartography
Exoplanet Orbital Distribution Around FGK Sun-like Host Stars I: Planet Occurrence Rate Derived From The Kepler Mission And Theoretical Interpretations From Planet Formation
Recent astronomical observations, in particular from the Kepler and TESS missions and their related follow-ups, have revealed an abundance of exoplanets in the size range between Neptune (4 Earth radii) […]
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report
A TESS Test of the Hybrid Ring Strategy for Technosignature Searches Using GRB 221009A
We present the first observational test of the hybrid ring strategy, a general coordinated signaling scheme proposed by Seto (2025), which provides a practical Schelling-point realization for interstellar signaling.
Posted inAstronomy & Telescopes, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Icy Worlds, Status Report
Weighing The Mass Of LHS 3844 b
Context: LHS 3844 b (TOI-136 b) is a ultra short-period, Earth-size exoplanet detected by TESS. It is one of the most favourable object for atmospheric characterisation and the study of […]