A team of astrophysicists from several institutions in Italy, working with a colleague in the U.S., has found that aliphatic hydrocarbons observed on Ceres' surface have short lifetimes, suggesting they likely appeared there ...
Although most potentially habitable worlds orbit red dwarf stars, we know larger and brighter stars can harbor life. One yellow dwarf star, for example, is known to have a planet teaming with life, perhaps even intelligent ...
Astrobiology
Sep 23, 2024
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35
Most of the exoplanets we've discovered orbit red dwarf stars. This isn't because red dwarfs are somehow special, simply that they are common. About 75% of the stars in the Milky Way are red dwarfs, so you would expect red ...
Astrobiology
Sep 20, 2024
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46
If you are going to look for intelligent life beyond Earth, there are few better candidates than the TRAPPIST-1 star system. It isn't a perfect choice. Red dwarf stars like TRAPPIST-1 are notorious for emitting flares and ...
Astrobiology
Sep 19, 2024
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Earlier this year, NASA selected a rather interesting proposal for Phase I development as part of their NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program. It's known as Swarming Proxima Centauri, a collaborative effort between ...
Space Exploration
Sep 16, 2024
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106
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has infrared vision that lets us peer through the dusty veil of nearby star-forming region NGC 1333. We can see planetary mass objects, newborn stars, and brown dwarfs; some of the faintest ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2024
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When the International Astronomical Union announced in 2006 that Pluto was being demoted from its status as the sun's ninth planet, many astronomers and non-experts alike were shocked.
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2024
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The dwarf planet Ceres has a diameter of almost 1,000 kilometers and is located in the asteroid belt. In the television series "The Expanse," Ceres gained new fame as the main base of the so-called 'belters': in this series, ...
Planetary Sciences
Sep 9, 2024
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Rogue planets, or free-floating planetary-mass objects (FFPMOs), are planet-sized objects that either formed in interstellar space or were part of a planetary system before gravitational perturbations kicked them out.
Astronomy
Sep 1, 2024
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159
The James Webb Space Telescope has spotted six likely rogue worlds—objects with planetlike masses but untethered from any star's gravity—including the lightest ever identified with a dusty disk around it.
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2024
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