Exoplanets Archives

December 5, 2024December 10, 2024 by Matt Williams

MAUVE: An Ultraviolet Astrophysics Probe Mission Concept

An illustration of the variations among the more than 5,000 known exoplanets discovered since the 1990s. Could their stars' metallicity play a role in making them habitable to life? Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

For the past thirty years, NASA’s Great Observatories – the Hubble, Spitzer, Compton, and Chandra space telescopes – have revealed some amazing things about the Universe. In addition to some of the deepest views of the Universe provided by the Hubble Deep Fields campaign, these telescopes have provided insight into the unseen parts of the cosmos – i.e., in the infrared, gamma-ray, and ultraviolet spectrums. With the success of these observatories and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), NASA is contemplating future missions that would reveal even more of the “unseen Universe.”

This includes the UltraViolet Explorer (UVEX), a space telescope NASA plans to launch in 2030 as its next Astrophysics Medium-Class Explorer mission. In a recent study, a team comprised of graduate students and postdocs from institutions across the US detailed a concept mission known as the Mission to Analyze the UltraViolet universE (MAUVE). This telescope and its sophisticated instruments were conceived during the inaugural NASA Astrophysics Mission Design School. According to the team’s paper, this mission would hypothetically be ready for launch by 2031.

December 1, 2024December 1, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Just Built a Giant, Next Generation Planet Hunting Space Telescope? Here’s Where to Point It

LIFE will have five separate space telescopes that fly in formation and work together to detect biosignatures in exoplanet atmospheres. Image Credit: LIFE, ETH Zurich

You know what it’s like. You get a new telescope and need to know where to point it! The bigger the telescope, the more potential targets and the harder the decision! To date, we have found over 5,000 confirmed exoplanets (5,288 to be exact) with thousands more candidates. With missions like Gaia identifying thousands of nearby stars like our Sun where Earth-like planets could be lurking, its time to hunt them down. A new paper takes on the goiath task of trying to filter down all the millions of candidates into about 1,000 main sequence stars or binaries worth exploring. From these, they have identified 100 most promising targets and from them, the 10 best planetary systems.

November 18, 2024November 18, 2024 by Evan Gough

Up to a Third of Stars Ate Some of their Planets

Ultra-short period planets can be engulfed by their stars. They may be responsible for differences in metallicity between sibling stars. Image Credit: NASA, ESA and A. Schaller

In recent years, astronomers have developed techniques to measure the metal content of stars with extreme accuracy. With that capability, astronomers have examined sibling stars to see how their metallicity differs. Some of these co-natal stars have pronounced differences in their metallicity.

New research shows that stars engulfing rocky planets are responsible.

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Evan Gough

A New Way to Detect Daisy Worlds

Daisy Worlds are planets where the biosphere regulates the environment to keep it habitable. Earth is one, sort of. Can we use information theory to identify agnostic biosignatures from these living worlds? Image Credit: NASA

The Daisy World model describes a hypothetical planet that self-regulates, maintaining a delicate balance involving its biogeochemical cycles, climate, and feedback loops that keep it habitable. It’s associated with the Gaia Hypothesis developed by James Lovelock. How can we detect these worlds if they’re out there?

By looking closely at information.

November 14, 2024November 14, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Interferometry Will Be the Key to Resolving Exoplanets

The setting Sun dips below the horizon of the Pacific Ocean, bathing the Paranal platform in light in this amazing aerial image from the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The Cerro Paranal mountain top is home to the world’s most advanced ground-based facility for astronomy, hosting the four 8.2-metre Unit Telescopes of the Very Large Telescope, four 1.8-metre Auxiliary Telescopes and the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) — all of which are visible in this image. The 4.1-metre Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), also housed at Cerro Paranal, is hidden out of frame.

When it comes to telescopes, bigger really is better. A larger telescope brings with it the ability to see fainter objects and also to be able to see more detail. Typically we have relied upon larger and larger single aperture telescopes in our attempts to distinguish exoplanets around other stars. Space telescopes have also been employed but all that may be about to change. A new paper suggests that multiple telescopes working together as interferometers are what’s needed.

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by Evan Gough

Habitable Worlds are Found in Safe Places

Illustration of Kepler-186f, a recently-discovered, possibly Earthlike exoplanet that could be a host to life. (NASA Ames, SETI Institute, JPL-Caltech, T. Pyle) — This is Kepler 186f, an exoplanet in the habitable zone around a red dwarf. We've found many planets in their stars' habitable zones where they could potentially have surface water. But it's a fairly crude understanding of true habitability. Image Credit: NASA Ames, SETI Institute, JPL-Caltech, T. Pyle)

When we think of exoplanets that may be able to support life, we hone in on the habitable zone. A habitable zone is a region around a star where planets receive enough stellar energy to have liquid surface water. It’s a somewhat crude but helpful first step when examining thousands of exoplanets.

However, there’s a lot more to habitability than that.

November 5, 2024November 5, 2024 by Brian Koberlein

How Many Additional Exoplanets are in Known Systems?

One thing we’ve learned in recent decades is that exoplanets are surprisingly common. So far, we’ve confirmed nearly 6,000 planets, and we have evidence for thousands more. Most of these planets were discovered using the transit method. though we there are other methods as well. Many stars are known to have multiple planets, such as the TRAPPIST-1 system with seven Earth-sized worlds. But even within known planetary systems there could be planets we’ve overlooked. Perhaps their orbit doesn’t pass in front of the star from our vantage point, or the evidence of their presence is buried in data noise. How might we find them? A recent paper on the arXiv has an interesting approach.

October 31, 2024October 31, 2024 by Evan Gough

Webb Reveals a Steam World Planet Orbiting a Red Dwarf

An artist’s conception of the “steam world” GJ 9827 d, shown in the foreground in blue. Astronomers have theorized about these worlds, but this is the first one they've observed. Image credit: NASA, ESA, Leah Hustak (STScI), Ralf Crawford (STScI)

The JWST has found an exoplanet unlike any other. This unique world has an atmosphere almost entirely composed of water vapour. Astronomers have theorized about these types of planets, but this is the first observational confirmation.

October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Webb Scans Vega for Planets

To northern sky watchers, Vega is a familiar sight in the summer sky. It’s one of the brightest stars in the sky and in 2013, astronomers detected a large ring of rocky debris surrounding the planet. The prospect of planets suddenly became a real possibility so astronomers turned the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on the star. The hunt achieved 10 times the sensitivity of previous ground based searches but alas no planets were discovered.

October 26, 2024October 26, 2024 by Mark Thompson

Red Dwarf Stars Might Be Able to Hold Onto Their Atmospheres After All

This 2018 artist’s concept shows what the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system may look like, based on available data about the planets’ diameters, masses and distances from the host star (far left). New research shows that while TRAPPIST-1b, second from the left, has no atmosphere, TRAPPIST-1e, third from the right, could have a long-term stable atmosphere.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Exoplanets are a fascinating aspect of the study of the Universe. TRAPPIST-1 is perhaps one of the most intriguing exoplanet systems discovered to date with no less than 7 Earth-sized worlds. They orbit a red dwarf star which can unfortunately be a little feisty, hurling catastrophic flares out into space. These flares could easily strip atmospheres away from the alien worlds rendering them uninhabitable. A new piece of research suggests this may not be true and that the rocky planets may be able to maintain a stable atmosphere after all.