INFORMATION

A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters investigates the potential existence of Mars-sized free-floating planets (FFPs)—also known as rogue planets, starless planets, and wandering planets—that could have been captured by our Sun’s gravity long ago and orbit in the outer solar system approximately 1,400 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun. For context, the farthest known planetary body in the solar system is Pluto, which orbits approximately 39 AU from the Sun, and is also part of the Kuiper Belt, which scientists estimate extends as far out as 1,000 AU from the Sun. This study comes as scientists currently estimate that billions, if not trillions, of FFPs could exist within our Milky Way Galaxy, with a recently submitted study using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to identify 540 potential Jupiter-sized rogue planet candidates, with some hypothesized to be pairs of rouge planets, also called binary rogue planets. This was followed up b...

A recent study accepted to The Astrophysical Journal uses computer models to investigate why the exoplanet, TRAPPIST-1c , could not possess a thick carbon dioxide (CO2) atmosphere despite it receiving the same amount of solar radiation from its parent star as the planet Venus receives from our Sun, with the latter having a very thick carbon dioxide atmosphere. This study comes after a June 2023 study published in Nature used data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to ascertain that TRAPPIST-1c does not possess a carbon dioxide atmosphere. Both studies come as the TRAPPIST-1 system , which is located approximately 41 light-years from Earth and orbits its star in just 2.4 days, has received a lot of attention from the scientific community in the last few years due to the number of confirmed exoplanets within the system and their potential for astrobiology purposes. Artist illustration of TRAPPIST-1c with TRAPPIST-1b in the background. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Ol...

Life, as we all know, is based on chemistry. Prebiotic chemical building blocks existed on our planet for a long time before life arose. Astrobiology and cosmochemistry focus on the formation of those building blocks. They also look at the role each played in creating all the life forms we know today. For a long time, cosmo-chemists have known that organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are quite plentiful in the Universe. Scientists consider them plausible prebiotic building blocks that likely played an important role in the formation of life on Earth. What’s not as well understood is their origin story. For a long time, scientists suspected that they formed in regions where temperatures get to around 1000 K. That would supply energy to promote chemical activity to create PAHs, such as in star-forming molecular clouds or circumstellar disks. It’s also possible they form as part of the processing of carbon-rich dust grains by nearby energy sources (such as s...

Looking to the future, NASA is investigating several technologies that will allow it to accomplish some bold objectives. This includes returning to the Moon, creating the infrastructure that will let us stay there, sending the first crewed mission to Mars, exploring the outer Solar System, and more. This is particularly true of propulsion technologies beyond conventional chemical rockets and engines. One promising technology is the Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE), which relies on one or more detonations that continuously travel around an annular channel. In a recent hot fire test at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the agency achieved a new benchmark in developing RDE technology. On September 27th, engineers successfully tested a 3D-printed rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) for 251 seconds, producing more than 2,630 kg (5,800 lbs) of thrust. This sustained burn meets several mission requirements, such as deep-space burns and landing operations. NA...

If we could travel far beyond our galaxy, and look back upon the Milky Way, it would be a glorious sight. Luminous spirals stretching from a central core, with dust and nebulae scattered along the spiral edges. When you think about a galaxy, you probably imagine a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, but spirals make up only about 60% of the galaxies we see. That’s because spiral galaxies only form when smaller galaxies collide and merge over time. Or so we thought, as a new study suggests that isn’t the case. The standard model of galaxies is that they evolve over time. Galaxies formed from vast clouds of primordial hydrogen and helium, and so likely had a fairly amorphous structure at the beginning. Given the density of the early Universe, galactic collisions and mergers were common, which gave galaxies their rotations and caused them to form disks and spirals. All of this takes time, so we would expect spiral galaxies to be fairly common in the local Universe, but rare in the early U...

Our Milky Way bristles with giant molecular clouds birthing stars. Based on what we see here, astronomers assume that the process of star creation also goes on similarly in other galaxies. It makes sense since their stars have to form somehow. Now, thanks to JWST, astronomers have spotted baby stellar objects in a galaxy 2.7 million light-years away. That’s millions of light-years more distant than any previous observations of newly forming stars have reached. The targets of JWST’s observations are “young stellar objects” (YSOs) in the Triangulum Galaxy (M33). Astronomers used the telescope’s mid-infrared imager (MIRI) to study one section of one of M33’s spiral arms in the hunt for YSOs. They found 793 of these baby stars, hidden inside massive clouds of gas and dust. That’s an important discovery, signaling that the processes of star birth we know so well in our galaxy occur as we expect them to in others. About Young Stellar Objects To put this discovery into some kind of contex...

The full, weird story of the quantum world is much too large for a single article, but the period from 1905, when Einstein first published his solution to the photoelectric puzzle, to the 1960’s, when a complete, well-tested, rigorous, and insanely complicated quantum theory of the subatomic world finally emerged, is quite the story. This quantum theory would come to provide, in its own way, its own complete and total revision of our understanding of light. In the quantum picture of the subatomic world, what we call the electromagnetic force is really the product of countless microscopic interactions, the work of indivisible photons, who interact in mysterious ways. As in, literally mysterious . The quantum framework provides no picture as to how subatomic interactions actually proceed. Rather, it merely gives us a mathematical toolset for calculating predictions. And so while we can only answer the question of how photons actually work with a beleaguered shrug, we are at least equip...

As NASA continues to ramp up efforts for its Artemis program , which has the goal of landing the first woman and person of color on the lunar surface, two NASA astronauts recently conducted training with a replica of SpaceX’s Starship human landing system (HLS) , albeit on a much smaller scale. Given that Starship is 50 meters (160 feet) tall, and the crew quarters are located near the top of Starship, the HLS will need an elevator with a basket to transport crew and supplies from the crew quarters down to the surface. The purpose of this training is to familiarize astronauts with all aspects of this system, including elevator and gate controls and latches, along with how the astronauts perform these tasks in their bulky astronaut suits, which both astronauts wore during the training.  The two NASA astronauts who participated in the recent training are Nicole Mann and Doug “Wheels” Wheelock . NASA Astronaut Mann is a Colonel in the United States Marine Corps who was selected...

Life appeared on Earth through a series of lucky coincidences, and that luck started with our Moon. None of the other planets of the inner solar system have significant moons. Space is lonely around Mercury and Venus. Mars does have two small moons, Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Despair, befitting companions for the God of War), but those are simply captured asteroids, lassoed in the not-too-distant past and doomed to eventually come close enough to their unloving parent to be torn to shreds by gravitational forces. In fact, no other planet in the solar system – or any exoplanet known orbiting other stars – has a moon quite like the Moon . With the exception of Pluto and its companion Charon, no other planet has a satellite with the relative mass of Luna. The giant worlds like Jupiter and Saturn have some moons large enough to be planets in their own right, but they are insignificant next to the massive bulk of their parents. The Moon is roughly 1% the mass of the Earth, a percentage u...

Astronomy 2024 features the final total solar eclipse for the CONUS until 2044, and much more. It’s finally time. On April 8 th , 2024, the umbral shadow of the Moon crosses the United States for the second time in less than seven years. It’s a big deal, for sure. But there’s lots more in store for astronomy 2024. Here’s our annual Universe Today rundown for top skywatching events to watch for in astronomy 2024, coming to a sky near you. Astronomy 2024: The Year in Brief The turn of the calendar sees us just over three months out from the April 8 th total solar eclipse across North America. Many late eclipse chasers are now presented with a choice: do I head towards the better prospects for clear skies in Mexico or Texas, or take my chances with the dicey springtime skies of the U.S. northeast or the Canadian Maritimes? Top 12 Events: Astronomy 2024 Astronomy is always a paradox of knowns and unknowns. Eclipses and occultations are surefire bets in a clockwork Universe, while...

Missions focusing on small bodies in the solar system have been coming thick and fast lately. OSIRIS-Rex, Psyche, and Rosetta are all examples of projects that planned or did rendezvous with a small body in the solar system. But one of their biggest challenges is understanding the gravity of these bodies – which was especially evident when Philae, Rosetta’s lander, had a hard time staying on the surface of its intended comet. A new idea from researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory could help solve that problem – by bouncing small probes around. The concept, called Gravity Poppers, resulted from a NIAC grant back in 2020. The idea is simple enough – release a bunch of probes onto the surface of a small body and have them periodically jump off it. When they do so, keep track of them. If you know the force they jumped off with and can track them as they return to the surface, you can estimate the gravity of the area they’re floating over mo...