Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

[Flyaway]

Warm, Water-depleted Rocky Exoplanets With Surface Ionic Liquids: A Proposed Class For Planetary Habitability

The discovery of thousands of exoplanets and the emergence of telescopes capable of exoplanet atmospheric characterization have intensified the search for habitable worlds.

Due to selection biases, many exoplanets under study are planets deemed inhospitable because their surfaces are too warm to support liquid water. We propose that such planets could still support life through ionic liquids: Liquid salts with negligible vapor pressure that can persist on warm planets with thin atmospheres, where liquid water cannot. Ionic liquids have not previously been considered as naturally occurring substances, and thus have not been discussed in planetary science.

Warm, Water-depleted Rocky Exoplanets With Surface Ionic Liquids: A Proposed Class For Planetary Habitability - Astrobiology

The discovery of thousands of exoplanets and the emergence of telescopes capable

astrobiology.com

 

[Flyaway]

New evidence for UAP-related data has emerged from high-sigma detections of transients that vanish in Earth’s shadow, raising compelling questions about their origin. In this episode of Event Horizon, John Michael Godier speaks with Dr. Beatriz Villarroel, lead scientist of the VASCO Project, about the search for stars and objects that mysteriously disappear from the night sky. They explore the project’s most intriguing discoveries, including multiple transients of unknown origin, the role of citizen scientists, and the profound implications these anomalies may hold for our understanding of the universe.

Dr. Beatriz Villarroel is an astronomer in Stockholm and the lead scientist of the Vanishing & Appearing Sources during a Century of Observations (VASCO) project. VASCO uses automated methods and citizen science to search for stars that have mysteriously disappeared from archival sky surveys, uncovering anomalous “multiple transients” of unknown origin. Her work has earned international recognition, including the L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science award and a TEDx talk on the search for alien artifacts.

View: https://youtu.be/hAAOSdvHtjA

 

[Grey Havoc]

NASA partners with US companies to assess orbit boost for Swift Observatory

Los Angeles CA (SPX) Aug 13, 2025 - NASA is working with two American firms to study the feasibility of raising the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory's orbit, potentially extending its mission life and demonstrating new spacecraft servic

www.spacedaily.com

 

[Michel Van]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KNxKYgjU9c

0:00 Ultramassive black holes
1:10 Study about this
1:40 Why ultramassive black holes are hard to explain
3:20 Cosmic Horseshoe lens and new observations
6:40 Why this matters
7:20 Galaxy is important too!
9:00 Additional explanations
10:05 Unanswered questions

 

[Flyaway]

This has just been posted up by the BBC Archive YT channel and features some legendary names in the field.

Was the Universe created at a moment in time, or is the process of creation continuous in a universe that had no beginning and will have no end? Does Creation presume a Creator? Is man alone in limitless space?

Stephen Black seeks the views of five leading astronomers: Professor Fred Hoyle, Professor Sir Bernard Lovell, Professor Hermann Bondi, and husband and wife astrophysicists Dr. Margaret Burbidge and Geoffrey Burbidge.

Clip taken from The Cosmologists, originally broadcast on BBC Television, 12 March, 1963.

View: https://youtu.be/peUyizgG-mM

 

[Justo Miranda]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KNxKYgjU9c

When a guy who eats too much exceeds 250 kg, he is likely to pierce the floor of his dwelling making a big fuss in the birdhouse below.

There has to be a limit to the resistance of the space-time structure, assuming that thing actually exists.

 

[NMaude]

Night sky news for August 2025, from Dr. Becky:

Hello and welcome to this episode of Night Sky News for August 2025 with me, astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst! This is the show where we chat about what you should look out for in the night sky in the next month, and what’s been happening in space news in the past month. In this episode we’re chatting about the latest dwarf planet discovered at the edge of the solar system which is ruling out the possibility of a 9th planet, plus LIGO has spotted its most massive black hole merger GW231123, and has ALMA has found the ingredients for life in a newly forming planet system around a star?!

Lunar eclipse information for your location - https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/l...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev.../eclipse/lunar/2025-september-7&v=hmlptt98fiM​

https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev.../eclipse/lunar/2025-september-7&v=hmlptt98fiM
Batygin & Brown (2016) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.05438https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/1601.05438&v=hmlptt98fiM
Chen et al. (2025) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.02162https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2508.02162&v=hmlptt98fiM
Fadul et al. (2025) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.14905https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.14905&v=hmlptt98fiM
Groth et al. (2025) - https://academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev.../523/2/2876/7176071?login=false&v=hmlptt98fiM
Lagrange et al. (2025) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.15081https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2502.15081&v=hmlptt98fiM
LIGO collaboration (2025) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.08219https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/2507.08219&v=hmlptt98fiM
Potiszil et al. (2023) - https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...com/articles/s41467-023-37107-6&v=hmlptt98fiM

00:00 Introduction
00:52 Perseids Meteor Shower
03:51 Moon meets Jupiter & Venus
04:29 Orion's return!
04:47 Lunar Eclipse for Asia, Oceania, Europe
06:03 JWST goodies
06:37 AD
08:34 ALMA ingredients around V883 Ori
11:03 First woman appointed as Astronomer Royal
11:55 LIGO detects most massive black hole merger GW231123
15:21 Sednoid discovery casts doubt on Planet 9
21:20 Bloopers

 

[Justo Miranda]

When a guy who eats too much exceeds 250 kg, he is likely to pierce the floor of his dwelling making a big fuss in the birdhouse below.

There has to be a limit to the resistance of the space-time structure, assuming that thing actually exists.

It's possible that the quarks and leptons of the underworld were having a good day, until the fat guy fell on their heads. I am convinced that even neutrinos felt uncomfortable, surely there are several layers of solid mathematical theory somewhere that support my observation.

 

[NMaude]

Antrov Petrov has just released a video concerning the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about new evidence for the Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis but also discuss a lot of shortcomings
Links:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...id=10.1371/journal.pone.0328347&v=DE3NsjchgZA
Additional videos:
• No, a Comet Didn't Destroy Advanced Civili...
• Study Completely Refutes Younger Dryas Imp...
• Major Updates About 31km Crater Found In G...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VwLwH1hzQw

#youngerdryas #impact #earthhttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/earth

0:00 Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis explored once again
1:20 What was this event 12800 years ago?
3:28 New research - ocean sediment cores
4:45 What was discovered
6:20 Why sediments were used
6:55 More about the spherules
8:50 Alternatively explanations - problem with reproducibility
10:20 Not unique to impacts
11:00 No impact signs and timing discrepancy
12:00 No crater
12:35 Megafauna extinction
13:40 Conclusions and what's next?

 

[publiusr]

Some even thought a fragment of Encke’s comet started fires…

Lunar exploration

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-nasa-artemis-ii-lunar-science.html

Advancing lunar habitats with thermoelectric power generation

How can thermoelectric generators (TEGs) help advance future lunar surface habitats? This is what a recent study published in Acta Astronautica hopes to address as a team of researchers from the Republic of Korea investigated a novel technique for improving power efficiency and reliability under...

phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-stunning-astrogeology-apollo-missions.html

How the Apollo missions unlocked the origins of the moon

You know, if you think about it, and trust me we're about to, the moon is kind of weird. Of all the terrestrial worlds of the solar system, we're the only one with a substantial natural satellite. Mercury and Venus have nothing. And while Mars technically has two moons, they're really just...

phys.org

The moon's dirty past

How do you tell how old an astronomical object is? I mean, the next time the moon is in the sky, take a look at it. How would you even begin to answer that question?

phys.org

Debris avoidance

Izaña-2 joins the laser game to track space debris

In Tenerife, Spain, stands a unique duo: ESA's Izaña-1 and Izaña-2 laser-ranging stations. Together, they form an optical technology testbed of the European Space Agency that takes the monitoring of space debris and satellites to a new level while maturing new technologies for commercialization.

phys.org

Why go to space?

Why grow plants in space? They can improve how we produce food and medicine on Earth

Sometime in the 2040s, humans may well reach a new frontier—Mars. To get there, we'll need sustainable sources of food, medicines and materials.

phys.org

Aerobrake

Strap in: NASA aeroshell material takes extended space trip

Components of a NASA technology that could one day help crew and cargo enter harsh planetary environments, like that of Mars, are taking an extended trip to space courtesy of the United States Space Force.

phys.org

Spacecraft design gets a boost with new origami flower-like patterns

The ancient Japanese art of paper-folding, or origami, is already inspiring the design of the next generation of space vehicles, but now there's a new family of origami shapes that could make them even more compact and reliable.

phys.org

https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2025.0299

Mars

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-world-grain-sand-megaripples-kerrlaguna.html

Turning Martian soil into metal: Scientists test new extraction process

The idea of building settlements on Mars is a popular goal of billionaires, space agencies and interplanetary enthusiasts.

phys.org

Impact

No collision, no life: Earth probably needed supplies from space

Earth is so far the only known planet on which life exists—with liquid water and a stable atmosphere. However, the conditions were not conducive to life when it formed. The gas-dust cloud from which all the planets in the solar system formed was rich in volatile elements essential for life, such...

phys.org

Asteroids

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-asteroid-bennu-capsule-materials-witness.html

Roman Space Telescope joins Earth's asteroid defense team

When NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches in October 2026, it won't just be peering into the distant universe to study dark energy and exoplanets. This powerful observatory will also serve as Earth's newest guardian, helping scientists track and understand potentially dangerous...

phys.org

Decoding clues in Bennu's surface composition to make sense of far-flung asteroids

New results from OSIRIS-REx, NASA's first asteroid sample return mission, reveals why some gray asteroids reflect light at different wavelengths, like red or blue, more strongly. How these asteroids reflect light at red and blue wavelengths can give deeper insights into the evolution of rocky...

phys.org

Comets

https://lweb.cfa.harvard.edu/~loeb/SL_25.pdf

Jupiter origins

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-counters-idea-jupiter-mysterious-core.html

Molten rock raindrops help trace the history of Jupiter's formation

Four and a half billion years ago, Jupiter rapidly grew to its massive size. Its powerful gravitational pull disrupted the orbits of small rocky and icy bodies similar to modern asteroids and comets, called planetesimals. This caused them to smash into each other at such high speeds that the...

phys.org

Alien aurora: Researchers discover new plasma wave in Jupiter's aurora

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities have made a new discovery by observing and analyzing the first new type of plasma wave in Jupiter's aurora. This research helps us understand "alien aurora" on other planets, which in turn teaches us more about how Earth's magnetic field...

phys.org

On gas self-gravity

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-incorporates-gas-gravity-effects-accretion.html

General astronomy

What, exactly, is space-time?

Few ideas in modern science have reshaped our understanding of reality more profoundly than space-time—the interwoven fabric of space and time at the heart of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity.

phys.org

A new theory of the universe's origins without inflation

How exactly did the universe start and how did these processes determine its formation and evolution? This is what a study published in Physical Review Research hopes to address as a team of researchers from Spain and Italy proposed a new model for the events that transpired immediately after...

phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-perspective-cosmological-based-kinematic-parameters.html

Our Beautiful Universe - Photos and Videos

This thread is dedicated to the beauty and awesomeness of our Universe. If you feel like it, please share video clips and photos (or nice animations) of space and objects in space in this thread. Your posts, clips and photos may by all means include scientific information; that does not make it...

www.physicsforums.com

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-perspective-cosmological-based-kinematic-parameters.html

Gaia proves our skies are filled with chains of starry gatherings

In the past decade, the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope has revealed the nature, history, and behavior of billions of stars. Our pioneering stargazer has reshaped our view of the skies around us like no other, revealing that star clusters are more connected than expected over vast...

phys.org

Cosmic butterfly reveals clues to Earth's creation

Clues about how worlds like Earth may have formed have been found buried at the heart of a spectacular "cosmic butterfly." With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers say they have made a big leap forward in our understanding of how the raw material of rocky planets comes together.

phys.org

Warped protoplanetary disks reshape existing ideas about how planets form

The textbook picture of how planets form—serene, flat disks of cosmic dust—has just received a significant cosmic twist.

phys.org

Astronomers make unexpected discovery of planet in formation around a young star

An international team of astronomers, co-led by researchers at the University of Galway, has made the unexpected discovery of a new planet.

phys.org

New model aims to demystify 'steam worlds' beyond our solar system

For astrobiologists, the search for life beyond our solar system could be likened to where one would look in a vast desert—essentially, where there's water. And it turns out that one of the most common types of exoplanet observed in planetary systems beyond ours has a size and mass that indicate...

phys.org

Astronomers map star spots using Tess and Kepler

Scientists have devised a new method for mapping the spottiness of distant stars by using observations from NASA missions of orbiting planets crossing their stars' faces. The model builds on a technique researchers have used for decades to study star spots.

phys.org

The exposed core of this supernova is a head-scratcher

Stars have layers like onions, according to theory. The layers are made of different elements, progressing from light to heavy the deeper the layers are. While the theory is strong, observing the inner layers of a star has been basically impossible.

phys.org

Astronomers have glimpsed the core of a dying star—confirming theories of how atoms are made

Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an "extremely stripped supernova."

phys.org

The 'Wow!' signal gets an update: It was even stronger than we thought

The "Wow!" signal has been etched with a red marker in the memory of advocates for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) since its unveiling in 1977. To this day, it remains one of the most enigmatic radio frequency signals ever found. Now a new paper from a wide collection of...

phys.org

The Sun

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-nasa-heliophysics-ai-foundation-scientists.html

Black holes

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-saturday-citations-general-gas-giants.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-08-scientists-presence-black-hole-accretion.html

36 mile long starship

At 36 Miles Long, This Conceptual Spaceship Could Carry 2,400 People Into Interstellar Space

Take a tour of Chrysalis, a massive, cylindrical spacecraft designed for the Project Hyperion Design Competition.

www.discovermagazine.com

Sad

Hear that? That's the sound of space efforts failing.

Demotivators and Competing Motivations to Interest in Space

spacefrontier.substack.com

Ew

I tried to image the Veil Nebula but accidentally got an 'Alien' Xenomorph (photo)

As 'Alien: Earth' hits screens, the night sky delivers a cameo from the franchise's iconic villain.

www.space.com

 

[Flyaway]

The most distant star ever discovered may have been misclassified: Instead of being a single star, the object — nicknamed Earendel from the Old English word for "morning star" — may be a star cluster, a group of stars that are bound together by gravity and formed from the same cloud of gas and dust, new research suggests.

Oops! Earendel, most distant star ever discovered, may not actually be a star, James Webb Telescope reveals

Astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope to investigate whether the most distant star identified in the universe is, in fact, a star cluster.

www.livescience.com

 

[Seragina]

Constraints on axion-like particles from active galactic nuclei seen through galaxy clusters - Nature Astronomy

A new method for detecting axion-like particles through stacked spectra of active galactic nucleus–galaxy-cluster pairs probes previously inaccessible regions of their parameter space.

www.nature.com

A possible indication for axions! Now, this is interesting. Although, with only 2σ and 95% confidence... considering old data accuracies this looks more like 0.95^2= 90% confidence in reality. We'll have to wait for data from the next generation sensors to be certain.
Anyhow, this somewhat lines up with the new neutrino in what they indicate about darkmatter. My bet is they both are either he same or very close.

 

[Brett Davidson]

Anton looks at recent findings about TRAPPIST-1 d. It looks dry and with minimal - if any - atmosphere, like b and c. Possibly thick high-altitude clouds or haze. It's still on the inner edge of the habitable zone at best and there's still e, f, g, and h - though g & h are likely to be too cold.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pszyf-IBDto&ab_channel=AntonPetrov

 

[Grey Havoc]

Rare 'Upper Atmosphere Lightning' Photographed From ISS - Slashdot

Take a look at what being called "a stunning phenomenon," captured in a photo taken from the International Space Station as it passed above a thunderstorm over Mexico and the American Southwest. So what was it? "A rare form of Transient Luminous Event (TLE) called a gigantic jet," according to...

science.slashdot.org

 

[NMaude]

So our views of blackholes are changing, from Cosmoknowledge:

What if black holes don’t destroy information, but store it? And what if we’re living inside one? This video explores the wild new theories reshaping everything we thought we knew about black holes.
Sources: https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.00039https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2504.00039&v=dC6yddT2zK0
https://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00921https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/1601.00921&v=dC6yddT2zK0
https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13113https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2204.13113&v=dC6yddT2zK0
https://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04264https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/1802.04264&v=dC6yddT2zK0
https://arxiv.org/abs/2007.11556https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/abs/2007.11556&v=dC6yddT2zK0

WATCH ANOTHER VIDEO: Most Massive Black Hole Collision Ever Just Found
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCd6F-PRng0
• Most Massive Black Hole Collision Ever Jus...

 

[Flyaway]

Mercury Is Shrinking – And Its Surface May Have Just Revealed By How Much

A new study has used an alternative method to work out how much Mercury has shrunk since its formation, finding that the planet has gotten significantly cooler in its first 4.5 billion years.

Mercury Is Shrinking – And Its Surface May Have Just Revealed By How Much

The planet is significantly smaller now than when it formed.

www.iflscience.com

Related paper:

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025AV001715

 

[Flyaway]

New Moon Discovered Orbiting Uranus Using NASA’s Webb Telescope [Aug 19]

Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has identified a previously unknown moon orbiting Uranus, expanding the planet’s known satellite family to 29. The detection was made during a Webb observation Feb. 2, 2025.

“This object was spotted in a series of 10 40-minute long-exposure images captured by the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam),” said Maryame El Moutamid, a lead scientist in SwRI’s Solar System Science and Exploration Division based in Boulder, Colorado. “It’s a small moon but a significant discovery, which is something that even NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft didn’t see during its flyby nearly 40 years ago.”

The newly discovered moon is estimated to be just six miles (10 kilometers) in diameter, assuming it has a similar reflectivity (albedo) to Uranus’ other small satellites. That tiny size likely rendered it invisible to Voyager 2 and other telescopes.

“No other planet has as many small inner moons as Uranus, and their complex inter-relationships with the rings hint at a chaotic history that blurs the boundary between a ring system and a system of moons,” said Matthew Tiscareno of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, a member of the research team. “Moreover, the new moon is smaller and much fainter than the smallest of the previously known inner moons, making it likely that even more complexity remains to be discovered.”

The new moon is the 14th member of the intricate system of small moons orbiting inward of the largest moons Miranda, Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. (All the moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare and Alexander Pope.)

“It’s located about 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) from Uranus’ center, orbiting the planet’s equatorial plane between the orbits of Ophelia (which is just outside of Uranus’ main ring system) and Bianca,” said El Moutamid. “Its nearly circular orbit suggests it may have formed near its current location.”

A name for the newly found moon will need to be approved by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), the leading authority in assigning official names and designations to astronomical objects.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pA8jJOEHGtg

 

[Grey Havoc]

First Recorded Human Meteorite Strike Still a Wild Tale 70 Years on

Ann Hodges never intended to be famous, but in 1954 she found herself thrust into the national spotlight when her afternoon nap was interrupted by a falling meteorite.

www.sciencealert.com

The Sylacauga meteorite, which is also called the Hodges meteorite, probably broke off the asteroid 1685 Toro.

 

[Grey Havoc]

Mysterious flash, shock wave over Kagoshima likely fireball | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

 

[Michel Van]

A picture of Uranus and it Moons

 

[Grey Havoc]

Mysterious flash, shock wave over Kagoshima likely fireball | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

Watch: Moment fireball lights up night sky in Japan

The skies above southern Japan were illuminated late on Tuesday evening after dust or asteroid fragments burnt up in the atmosphere.

www.bbc.com

 

[NMaude]

Why has this thread been moved to the Bar forum?

 

[Flyaway]

Why has this thread been moved to the Bar forum?

Good question I’d like to know that to?

 

[FighterJock]

I would like the thread to be moved back to where it was before.

 

[NMaude]

An unusual comet has been spotted outside of Jupiter's orbit, from Astrum:

Comet 29P keeps exploding, and scientists are trying to figure out why.
▀▀▀▀▀▀

Between Jupiter and Neptune lurks Centaur 29P, an icy comet that won't stop exploding. Its wild cryovolcanic outbursts can make it flare 300 times brighter in a matter of hours, but the reason for these random eruptions has long been a mystery. Now, recent discoveries from the James Webb Telescope have provided a clue to the secret trigger powering the chaos. Join us as we investigate the strange case of the solar system's most explosive comet.​

▀▀▀▀▀▀
0:00 Exploding Comet
1:13 Centaur 29P
3:08 Violent Eruptions
5:19 Cryovolcanism
7:51 Predicting Eruptions
9:28 Jets of Gas
10:54 Amorphous vs Crystalline Ice
14:48 The Future
▀▀▀▀▀▀
References:
"Massive eruption from icy volcanic comet detected in solar system", via livescience.com https://astrumspace.info/29Perupts
"CO Gas and Dust Outbursts from Centaur 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann", via iop.org https://astrumspace.info/COoutburstshttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...://astrumspace.info/COoutbursts&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"Our solar system’s centaurs are half-asteroid, half-comet", via astronomy.com https://astrumspace.info/centaurshttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...tps://astrumspace.info/centaurs&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"NASA’s Webb Reveals Unusual Jets of Volatile Gas from Icy Centaur 29P" https://astrumspace.info/unusualjets29Phttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...astrumspace.info/unusualjets29P&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 and its near-nucleus environment from a stellar occultation", via arxiv.org https://astrumspace.info/Centaur29Phttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...s://astrumspace.info/Centaur29P&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"MISSION 29P – Centaur comet observing campaign news", via britastro.org https://astrumspace.info/29Pobservationshttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...strumspace.info/29Pobservations&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"This mysterious comet's super-bright outbursts have astronomers puzzled", via livescience.com https://astrumspace.info/strangeoutbu...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...trumspace.info/strangeoutbursts&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"Anatomy of outbursts and quiescent activity of Comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann", via sciencedirect.com https://astrumspace.info/anatomyofout...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...umspace.info/anatomyofoutbursts&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"Centaur 29P Outgassing (NIRSpec)", via webbtelescope.org https://astrumspace.info/JWSTcentaur29Phttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...astrumspace.info/JWSTcentaur29P&v=WsTuti1ezpc
"29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 1: A Rosetta Stone for Amorphous Water Ice and CO :left_right_arrow: CO2 Conversion in Centaurs and Comets?", via iop.org https://astrumspace.info/29Picevolcanohttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev.../astrumspace.info/29Picevolcano&v=WsTuti1ezpc

▀▀▀▀▀▀

Credits:

Writer: Julia Masselos
Video Editor: Matheus L. Heberlê
Researcher: Edie Abrahams
Script Editor: Damaris McColgan
Thumbnail Designer: Peter Sheppard
Channel Manager: Georgina Brenner
Production Manager: Raquel Taylor
Head of Astrum: Jess Jordan
Creator of Astrum: Alex McColgan


With special thanks to:NASA/ESO/ESA
#Astrum #Space #Comet #Centaur29P

 

[Grey Havoc]

Good question I’d like to know that to?

There seems to be an intermittent glitch that causes some topics to randomly switch forums.

 

[Michel Van]

they found bizarre objects found in another galaxy

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXtP-TbwNPA

0:00 Bizarre mystery from a nearby spiral galaxy - called punctum
0:50 What is this galaxy?
2:00 ALMA Observations and the object found
3:20 Why is this Punctum so strange?
6:40 What can this be?
9:30 Conclusions and what's next?

 

[Flyaway]

NASA: Ceres May Have Had Long-Standing Energy to Fuel Habitability​

NASA: Ceres May Have Had Long-Standing Energy to Fuel Habitability - NASA

The dwarf planet is cold now, but new research paints a picture of Ceres hosting a deep, long-lived energy source that may have maintained habitable

www.nasa.gov

 

[Flyaway]

Scientists think they detected the first known triple black hole system in the universe — and then watched it die

Chinese astronomers have spotted a hidden supermassive black hole in the background of a peculiar gravitational wave event from a black hole merger, hinting that all three singularities were locked in a never-before-seen triple system.

Scientists think they detected the first known triple black hole system in the universe — and then watched it die

Chinese astronomers have spotted a hidden supermassive black hole in the background of a peculiar gravitational wave event from a black hole merger, hinting that all three singularities were locked in a never-before-seen triple system.

www.livescience.com

 

[FighterJock]

Obviously the triple Black Hole system merged into one massive Black Hole and that was why we got the gravitational wave event was the end result.

 

[Flyaway]

Obviously the triple Black Hole system merged into one massive Black Hole and that was why we got the gravitational wave event was the end result.

That will happen eventually. At the moment it created a large BH that’s currently orbiting the SMBH.

 

[Flyaway]

IBM press release:

IBM and NASA are open sourcing Surya, a new AI model for solar physics that can be used to predict the kinds of fierce solar outbursts that can endanger astronauts in space and throw off satellites, power grids, and communications on Earth – faster than ever before.

Introducing Surya, a new heliophysics foundation model

IBM and NASA open-source a new AI foundation model for the Sun that could change how we look at solar flares.

research.ibm.com

 

[NMaude]

Astronomers have glimpsed the core of a dying star – confirming theories of how atoms are made

Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an “extremely stripped supernova”.

In a paper published today in Nature, Steve Schulze of Northwestern University in the United States and colleagues describe the supernova 2021yfj and a thick shell of gas surrounding it.

Their findings support our existing theories of what happens inside massive stars at the end of their lives – and how they have shaped the building blocks of the universe we see today.

On another note I hope that one of the Mods moves this thread back to the "Aviation and Space" forum where it belongs.

 

[NMaude]

Dr. Becky has a new video out concerning supermassive stars (Fact or fiction):

Have you ever looked up at the night sky and wondered how massive can stars be? Or what is the biggest star out there? Is there even a limit to how massive they can be? Well we can try and answer this question in two ways - first with theory, with our understanding of how stars fuel themselves with nuclear fusion fusing hydrogen into helium to produce energy which can counteract gravity and how that all contributes. And then secondly by surveying the stars we can see in the sky, counting how many of each mass we see to work out if there is an obvious cut off in mass that we see. And when we do that we get a distribution of that drops off towards 150 times heavier than the Sun, suggesting that is the limit. But is that just for stars forming now, what about stars in the early Universe when conditions were very different? Could they be much heavier? Could they be supermassive stars...?​

Abott et al. (1981) -
Bestenlehner et al. (2020) -
Crowther et al. (2016) -
De Becker et al. (2016) -
Figer (2005) -
Hosek et al. (2019) -
Wang et al. (2024) -
Zwick et al. (2025) -

My previous video on the history of figuring out the most massive star limit - • How MASSIVE can a STAR get? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSQS4OGCVD4&pp=0gcJCR0AztywvtLA
Alexander Hager lecture slides on "Stars and Stellar Evolution", Monash University (derivation of Eddington limit) - https://2sn.erc.monash.edu/Class/AST-...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...01-2008-S2/notes/Lecture_02.pdf&v=dk7p0aQFc3g

00:00 Introduction
01:34 The science behind the 150 MSun limit
05:03 The nearby stars that break that limit
10:07 The supermassive stars that might exist in the early Universe
12:17 Bloopers

 

[Brett Davidson]

'Planet Y,' maybe. A 'warp' has been observed in the Kuiper Belt and and one possible explanation is the presence of a planet. This is distinct from 'Planet Nine.'

A ‘Warp’ In Our Solar System Might Be an Undiscovered World: Planet Y

In addition to Planet Nine, the solar system may also contain a closer, smaller world that could be spotted soon, according to a new preprint study.

www.404media.co

The curiously warped mean plane of the Kuiper belt

We measured the mean plane of the Kuiper belt as a function of semi-major axis. For the classical Kuiper belt as a whole (the non-resonant objects in the semi-major axis range 42--48~au), we find a mean plane of inclination $i_m=1.8^{\circ}$$^{+0.7^{\circ}}_{-0.4^{\circ}}$ and longitude of...

arxiv.org

Measuring the Mean Plane of the Distant Kuiper Belt

In the absence of any unseen planetary-mass bodies in the outer solar system, the mean plane of the distant Kuiper belt should be the same as the plane orthogonal to the angular momentum vector of the solar system -- the invariable plane. Here, we measure the mean plane of the non-resonant...

arxiv.org

New Scientist (paywalled):

There might be a 'Planet Y' hiding in the outer solar system

Astronomers have picked up evidence of an Earth-sized world, distinct from the previously hypothesised Planet Nine and Planet X, that might be warping the orbits of objects beyond Neptune

www.newscientist.com

The planet, if it exists, would have a mass between that of Mercury and Earth, and orbit at about 100 to 200 times the Earth-sun distance. It would be causing the orbits of some Kuiper belt objects to be slightly inclined out of the flat plane of the solar system, like a ripple in a lake, by about 15 degrees, with the gravity of the planet causing them to move above and below the orbital plane of most other objects.

“Our signal is modest, but credible,” says Siraj, with about a “2 to 4 per cent chance of being a fluke”. “Early Planet Nine hints quoted similar fluke probabilities.”

The warped plane hinting at Planet Y is distinct from the reasoning behind the possible existence of Planet Nine, with that giant planet thought to be gravitationally tugging objects towards it – so both could be real. “The signature is different,” says Siraj.

 

[Brett Davidson]

Meanwhile at Ceres:

NASA: Ceres May Have Had Long-Standing Energy to Fuel Habitability - NASA

The dwarf planet is cold now, but new research paints a picture of Ceres hosting a deep, long-lived energy source that may have maintained habitable

www.nasa.gov

 

[NMaude]

Some new information concerning a high-mass, compact object detected in a recent blackhole collision event:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about detection of a compact object seen in gravitational waves of a black hole collision GW190814
Links:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbDM1OUk2MnU3TFh6cEhlM3F5VkxGTGI5QmZxUXxBQ3Jtc0tsQkhnZENtM292cVpQVmMtekhuZ2RXX3I3NHNYLWMwNHhrQ3g4RXdTRzZodzhNVXF5VmFvRDktMUF2X0ZJWUxwSld0SjVLb0x0QjlGbkJNVGhEaUc1RHl6U1IzXy1YWGdEWWxLdEp5Y05WUHdESDg4SQ&q=https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adeaad&v=NNOLbjPuEyM
Other gravitational wave videos:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTDJ5uVlCOA

• Major Discovery of Loud Gravitational Vibr...
• Two Unexplained Signals Found By a New Gra...
• Gravitational Waves and Black Hole Collisi...
• Wow! Most Important Gravitational Wave Eve...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LttmT5-f34g

• Major Gravitational Waves Announcement Com...
• After 3 Years of Hiatus, LIGO Is Finally B...

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CyLOuyiGNY

#blackhole #collision #gravitationalwave

0:00 Black hole collision updates
0:29 How this science started
2:20 Major questions to be answered
3:20 History of gravitational wave detections
5:45 Ringdown effect and additional observations
7:00 GW190814 Signal that really stands out
8:30 Model that may explain this and first evidence
10:10 What all of this shows us
11:15 Why this matters for science

Edit: @Flyaway , any idea why your thread has been moved to the Bar forum? It doesn't belong here.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Some new information concerning a high-mass, compact object detected in a recent blackhole collision event:

Edit: @Flyaway , any idea why your thread has been moved to the Bar forum? It doesn't belong here.

The reasons for Olympus are always inscrutable. Posting here is not a right, but a privilege, but when a thread is popular, it doesn't matter in which section of the forum we can find it.

 

[Flyaway]

Forget Planet X! Beyond Neptune, There Might Be An Earth-Sized Planet Y

There are many known trans-Neptunian objects, or TNOs, and likely many more await discovery. The team used planets that orbit the Sun between 50 and 400 astronomical units (the distance between the Earth and the Sun) away. They carefully removed TNOs whose orbits are in resonance with Neptune (like the one doing one orbit every 10 orbits of the ice giant planet) and looked at the distribution of the rest.

There is no warp in TNOs between 50 and 80 astronomical units, but between 80 and 200, and 80 and 400, there is statistical evidence of a warp of about 15 degrees. There is only a 2 percent chance that the warp found here is a fluke, and if that is the case, more TNO discoveries should show it.

If it’s not a fluke, then the researchers believe that it is best explained by a planet between the mass of Mercury and Earth, orbiting at between 100 and 200 astronomical units. A Pluto-mass world might work too, but it is not the preferred scenario. Anything bigger than Earth’s size would also cause a warp in the 50 to 80 bracket, and it would have likely been discovered already.

…

“Finally, we note that a hypothetical Planet Y as described in this work would likely be detectable by the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) on the Vera C. Rubin Observatory if it is currently located within the survey footprint,” the authors wrote in the paper. “If such a body exists but is not discoverable by LSST due to its on-sky location (i.e., high ecliptic latitude), LSST will nevertheless elucidate the details of the Kuiper belt mean plane warp induced by the planet.”

Forget Planet X! Beyond Neptune, There Might Be An Earth-Sized Planet Y

A warp in the outer Solar System could be explained by a new, unseen planet.

www.iflscience.com

Related paper:

Measuring the Mean Plane of the Distant Kuiper Belt

In the absence of any unseen planetary-mass bodies in the outer solar system, the mean plane of the distant Kuiper belt should be the same as the plane orthogonal to the angular momentum vector of the solar system -- the invariable plane. Here, we measure the mean plane of the non-resonant...

arxiv.org

 

[FighterJock]

Planet Y might be be like Europa and be covered in ice as it is so far away from the Sun. Though it is an interesting discovery none the less, and might prove that the Solar System may have had many more Earth like planets in the past.