Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

Same here NMaude, the only thing that saved the 1986 Halley visit was the close aproach of the Giotto probe that got close up images of Halley's Comet. They think that we may be in for the same disapointment with Halley when it returns in 2061.
 

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Asteroid samples NASA brought to Earth suggest life's building blocks may be widespread in the universe

The origins of the building blocks of life may be even more widespread than we realized, as per a new discovery from the asteroid sample NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission brought back to Earth from the space rock Bennu.

At least 14 of the 20 amino acids used by life on Earth, and 19 other amino acids not used by life, have been identified in the sample from Bennu, which was delivered to Earth in September 2023. It had been thought that these amino acids had formed in warm, watery conditions close to the infant sun 4.5 billion years ago.

However, a new analysis of the isotopes contained within the amino acids points to a much colder origin for the compounds: in the presence of ice far away from the young sun.
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…

A new mystery also came to light as part of the analysis of the isotopic composition of Bennu's amino acids. Amino acids can come in two forms, left- or right-handed, referring to how their molecular structure can be mirror-imaged. For reasons that no scientists yet understand, all life on Earth uses left-handed amino acids.

Scientists had thought that for any given type of amino acid, the left- and right-handed versions were otherwise identical. Yet the analysis of one of the amino acids in the Bennu sample, glutamic acid, reveals that the left-handed and right-handed versions have different nitrogen isotopes. Why they should be different is a mystery, and although glutamic acid is not one of the amino acids that life uses, the question is whether this has any connection with why life uses only left-handed amino acids.
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https://www.space.com/astronomy/ast...es-building-blocks-could-be-pretty-widespread
 
Failed supernova
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-supernova-clearest-view-star-collapsing.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2026-02-high-energy-neutrino-event-primordial.html
Neutron Star
https://www.space.com/astronomy/sta...-at-its-heart-an-extremely-magnetic-dead-star
Standard candles again?
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-fast-universe-supernova.html
Black holes
https://www.space.com/astronomy/black-holes/new-fear-unlocked-runaway-black-holeshttps://thedebrief.org/this-was-not...e-cosmic-explosion-unlike-anything-ever-seen/https://www.space.com/astronomy/wor...-something-deeper-about-time-and-the-universehttps://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=55667.0
Galaxies
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-hubble-invisible-galaxy-dark.html
Saturn's moons
https://thedebrief.org/saturns-larg...nt-of-an-ancient-impact-new-research-reveals/
Uranus
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-webb-mysterious-upper-atmosphere-uranus.html
Shades of FUTUREWORLD
https://www.space.com/astronomy/sol...-where-else-could-you-ski-in-the-solar-systemContact binaries
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-space-snowmen-gravitational-collapse-contact.html
Exo-worlds
https://www.space.com/astronomy/exo...y-way-galaxy-astronomers-might-have-an-answer
Dome
https://www.space.com/astronomy/thi...mirror-space-photo-of-the-day-for-feb-16-2026
Flares
https://www.livescience.com/planet-...gering-earthquakes-controversial-study-claims
Comet
https://www.livescience.com/space/c...ed-into-interstellar-space-just-like-3i-atlas
 
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Snowball Earth wasn’t fully frozen: ice-free oases sheltered early life

To an astronaut today, the Earth looks like a vibrant blue marble from space. But 700 million years ago, it would have looked like a blinding white snowball. This seems an unlikely cradle for life, yet new evidence suggests the frozen ocean featured restricted ice-free oases that provided a lifeline for our earliest complex ancestors.
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https://theconversation.com/snowbal...en-ice-free-oases-sheltered-early-life-275240
 
Seragina said:
I doubt microbes can travel far in the cold to get to the food. There's a reason we can take ice from the arctics for dating and atmospheric research because of the impurities remaining untouched.
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While you have a point the Snowball Earth phase lasted ~50 million years so that's plenty of time for deposits of volcanic-ash to be left strewn across the surface of the ice-packs giving opportunities for these deposits to be colonised.
 
Tiny enceladus exercises giant electromagnetic influence at Saturn

Enceladus, a tiny moon of Saturn, trails a wake of electromagnetic ripples that extends over half a million kilometres.

A major study by an international team of researchers using data from the NASA/ESA/ASI Cassini spacecraft has revealed a lattice-like structure of crisscrossing reflected waves that flow downstream behind the moon in Saturn's equatorial plane, but also reach up to very high northern and southern latitudes. The analysis of data from four instruments aboard Cassini, collected over the mission's 13-year duration, demonstrates the crucial role that Enceladus plays in circulating energy and momentum around Saturn’s space environment.
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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1115894
 
The HST spotted two asteroids colliding recently:


The Hubble Space Telescope has witnessed something incredible for the first time. It saw the aftermath of two asteroids colliding around another star. That star is the famous Folmalhaut, and the resulting image is amazing.
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev....buymeacoffee.com/chrispattison&v=w_I_5KnA-KQ
LINKS:
NASA Press Release: https://science.nasa.gov/asset/hubble...
NASA’s Habitable Worlds Observatory: https://science.nasa.gov/astrophysics...
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A lot of new possibilities have shown up for the past year regarding dark matter ... I would say everything we thought so far is likely false and imaginative thinking. It will take a while to re-sort and re-analyse the data.
 
Now astronomers know what actually happens when two stars merge, from Anton Petrov:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about exciting new discoveries about V838 Mon red nova that created a beautiful explosion
Links:
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2504.14592
#v838 #nova #science
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0:00 Mysterious red nova explosion
1:03 Red Luminous Nova in a nutshell
2:50 Faster than light motion illusion
3:40 What happened here
5:30 Why this is so important
6:20 What's left in the middle though?
8:45 Conclusions
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A hidden planet on the edge of our Solar System? Here's why scientists are closer than ever to finding it
In 2016, researchers at Caltech announced their belief in what they call Planet 9 (or sometimes Planet X), while a proposal for a Planet Y came from Princeton in 2025.

Both would reside in the Kuiper Belt, many billions of kilometres away, but would be very different worlds.

Planet 9 was proposed to explain a peculiar phenomenon out in the Kuiper Belt involving a group of six rocky, icy bodies found at more than 250 times the Earth–Sun distance.

According to Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin of Caltech – the proposers of Planet 9 – the orbits of these objects seem to cluster together as they approach and swing around the Sun, a little like sheep sticking together as they’re shepherded.

This is highly unlikely given that each object is moving at a different rate, and their orbits all vary significantly as they head away from the Sun back out into more distant space.


Brown and colleagues put the chances of this clustering being false or coincidental at 1 in 500.

As Brown summarised in 2016, "it’s almost like having six hands on a clock all moving at different rates, and when you happen to look up, they’re all in exactly the same place. It shouldn’t happen randomly."

Planet Y, meanwhile, is distinct from Planet 9.

"They’re dynamically different hypotheses addressing different signals," says one of Planet Y’s proposers, Amir Siraj of Princeton.

Unlike Planet 9’s link to the apparent clustering of faraway worlds, Planet Y is connected to the tilt of the Kuiper Belt.
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https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/planet-9-x-y-edge-of-solar-system
 
A new study suggests astrophysicists may've been wrong about Einstein's wormhole ideas, from Anton Petrov:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about an exciting proposition about wormholes. Was Einstein's ideas misunderstood?
Links:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...rticle/10.1088/1361-6382/ae3044&v=5-orZ05poqw
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.08928https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...ttps://arxiv.org/pdf/1803.08928&v=5-orZ05poqw
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormholehttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev.../en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhole&v=5-orZ05poqw
https://cds.cern.ch/record/405662/fil...
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...405662/files/PhysRev.47.777.pdf&v=5-orZ05poqw
Other videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v74TyFFegoM
• MIT Quantum Experiment Proves Einstein Wro...

• Chinese Experiment Proves Einstein Wrong, ...

• Anomaly in the Cosmic Microwave Background... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ncjebD_Bpc
#einstein #wormhole #science
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0:00 Wormholes - how this idea started
1:00 Why we haven't found them
2:05 What Einstein and Rosen were trying to solve
4:40 Conclusion after many years
5:20 New argument - we misunderstood this , it's about time not space
7:40 Not the first time this was proposed: the idea of anti-universe
9:15 Is there physical evidence? maybe...
11:00 What this may explain
11:50 Conclusions - it completes Einsteinian propositions
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NASA’s Swift Mission Transitions Ops to Prep for Orbit Boost [Feb. 11]

On Feb. 11, NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory temporarily suspended most science operations in an effort to reduce atmospheric drag and slow the spacecraft’s orbital decay. Halting these activities will enable controllers to keep the spacecraft in an orientation that minimizes drag effects, extending its time in orbit in anticipation of a reboost mission.

“Normally, Swift quickly turns to view its targets — especially the fleeting, almost daily explosions called gamma-ray bursts — with multiple telescopes,” said principal investigator S. Bradley Cenko at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “Swift’s Burst Alert Telescope will continue to detect gamma-ray bursts, but the spacecraft will no longer slew to observe targets with its other telescopes.”

Solar activity heats Earth’s atmosphere and causes it to puff outward, which increases drag on all spacecraft in low Earth orbit, gradually reducing their altitude over time. While NASA could have chosen to allow Swift to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere, as many missions do at the end of their lifetimes, the agency instead contracted Katalyst Space Technologies of Flagstaff, Arizona, for a mission to boost the 21-year-old observatory into a higher orbit, extending its scientific life while also pioneering an important new capability for the nation.

To maximize the orbit boost’s chances of success, Swift’s average altitude needs to be above about 185 miles (about 300 kilometers). As of early February, Swift’s average altitude had fallen below about 250 miles (about 400 kilometers). By making these changes to slow Swift’s descent, the team is maximizing the opportunity to allow Swift to continue delivering important science by rapidly observing changes in the universe, as well as expanding the use of satellite servicing to a new and broader class of spacecraft.

“We anticipate the reboost mission to launch in the summer, so we’re transitioning operations now to give it the best margin we possibly can,” Cenko said.
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NASA’s Galileo Mission Points to Ammonia at Europa, Recent Study Shows

https://twitter.com/x/status/2016944462417842697
View: https://twitter.com/NASASolarSystem/status/2016944462417842697


NASA Solar System

@NASASolarSystem
·
New analysis of old data has turned up a significant result: the first discovery of ammonia-bearing compounds on the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Ammonia contains nitrogen, one key to life as we know it.
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Our Europa Clipper mission will follow up! https://go.nasa.gov/46n6AbM
 
 
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Enceladus mission concept

A committee of planetary scientists identified Saturn’s moon Enceladus as the most compelling target for ESA's next 'large-class' space science mission, to follow in the footsteps of Juice, LISA and NewAthena (ESA's newest large-class missions).

No space agency has ever landed on little Enceladus. And yet it has enormous potential for new science, particularly in the realm of habitability. The plumes that spew through its icy crust are rich in organic compounds, some of which are key for life. The ocean also seems to hold a powerful source of chemical energy that could fuel living organisms.

The impact of such a mission could be enormous. It would offer Europe – once more – a unique front seat in Solar System science.
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Caltech Celebrates 10 Years of Gravitational Wave Astrophysics [Oct. 24]

Caltech celebrated the 10th anniversary of LIGO's first historic detection of gravitational waves with a number of public talks held on campus on the evening of Friday, October 10th. Distinguished speakers included Kip Thorne (Richard P. Feynman Professor of Physics, Emeritus) and Rana Adhikari (Professor of Physics), both of whom gave keynote talks. Other speakers/panelists from LIGO Laboratory included:

Dave Reitze, Executive Director of the LIGO Project
Calum Torrie, LIGO Head of System and Science Engineering
Mike Landry, LIGO Hanford Observatory Head
Katerina Chatziioannou, Assistant Professor of Physics
Lee McCuller, Assistant Professor of Physics
Caltech recorded all of the fascinating talks and discussion that evening and has made them available on the Caltech YouTube channel. To watch all seven videos, visit GW251010 Celebrating 10 Years of Gravitational Wave Astrophysics with LIGO. The keynote talks by Kip Thorne and Rana Adhikari are linked directly, below.
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LIGO – Virgo – KAGRA Complete Fourth Observing Run [Nov. 18]

On November 18, 2025, the world's laser interferometer gravitational wave detectors in the United States, Italy, and Japan concluded the fourth observing run of the "advanced detector era" in coordinated celebrations. Both the LVK collaboration and the Rapid Response Team released statements marking the occasion. Read them below.

LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Collaboration Successfully Wraps Up its Fourth Observing Run

LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA Rapid Response Team Celebrates the Conclusion of the Fourth Observing Run
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During O4, the detectors observed roughly 250 candidate signals in real time. Comprehensive analysis of the first (of three) segments of O4 yielded 128 significant events (an increase of around 50% compared to those announced in real time). These results were reported in the most recent update to the Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC-4.0). Data from the remaining two segments of O4 are currently under detailed examination. The collaboration expects that further results will emerge in the coming months as analyses continue.
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China's Tianguan satellite likely captures black hole devouring white dwarf: study
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202602/12/WS698d67dca310d6866eb38eca.html
Study revisits chances of detecting alien technosignatures
https://www.spacedaily.com/reports/..._of_detecting_alien_technosignatures_999.html
For more than sixty years, astronomers have searched the sky for signs of advanced extraterrestrial technology, scanning the Milky Way for artificial radio transmissions, optical flashes and excess infrared heat. Despite these efforts, no technosignature has been confirmed so far, a silence often attributed to the fact that only a tiny fraction of the cosmic search space has been explored. A new theoretical study from EPFL physicist Claudio Grimaldi examines a different possibility...
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Podcast
https://www.space.com/entertainment...pace-podcast-episode-198-a-dragonfly-on-titan
On time
https://www.space.com/science/parti...ty-a-quiet-revolution-in-physics-suggests-not
Red Giants
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-supercomputer-simulations-reveal-rotation-chemical.html
Hubble tension
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-cosmologists-collaborate-sharpen-hubble-constant.html
Transients
https://astronomycast.libsyn.com/ep-782-luminous-fast-blue-optical-transients
Asteroids
https://forum.cosmoquest.org/forum/...t/3752216-ep-780-when-asteroids-comets-attack
Force fields?
https://www.universetoday.com/articles/flexible-force-fields-can-protect-our-return-to-the-moonhttps://forum.cosmoquest.org/forum/...rce-fields-can-protect-our-return-to-the-moon
Miranda
https://hackaday.com/2026/02/21/mir...ing-if-theres-life-clinging-on-around-uranus/
To the solar foci
https://www.centauri-dreams.org/202...ons-for-the-solar-gravitational-lens-mission/https://arxiv.org/pdf/2602.04198
 
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PhD student maps mysterious upper atmosphere of Uranus for the first time

A Northumbria University PhD student has led an international team of astronomers in creating the first-ever three-dimensional map of Uranus's upper atmosphere, revealing how the ice giant's unusual magnetic field shapes spectacular auroras high above the planet's clouds.
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https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1117197
 
NASA’s Hubble Identifies One of Darkest Known Galaxies

In the vast tapestry of the universe, most galaxies shine brightly across cosmic time and space. Yet a rare class of galaxies remains nearly invisible — low-surface-brightness galaxies dominated by dark matter and containing only a sparse scattering of faint stars.

One such elusive object, dubbed CDG-2, may be among the most heavily dark matter-dominated galaxies ever discovered. (Dark matter is an invisible form of matter that does not reflect, emit, or absorb light.) The science paper detailing this finding was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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View: https://youtu.be/EnzPNWDlSeM


https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasas-hubble-identifies-one-of-darkest-known-galaxies/
 
Curveball?
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-cosmic-curveball-distant-planet-formation.html
Maybe a traveling three-body problem.... something like Gliese 710 flys near or into a system... something gets deposited and/or picked up.

Said object formed normally but didn't stick around.

Had a stellar fly-by occurred during a Grand Tack/NICE era, a rocky world tossed out in a hyperbolic fashion passes through the Hill sphere of the intruder...or perhaps so close that the interloper circularises the rocky world just by passing it.

Not enough to steal it...but tugging enough to transplant the rocky world from its inner to its outer Star system.

The passing star perhaps a sister of the other star therefore perhaps along its orbital plane.

Current line-up
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-planets-parade-night-sky-february.html
Mars
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-image-curiosity-rover-surveys-boxwork.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2026-02-curiosity-rover-captures-martian-spiderwebs.html
Aurorae
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-auroras-ganymede-earth-similarities.html
Other astronomy news
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-astronomers-rare-super-jupiter-orbiting.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2026-02-young-sun-caught-chandra.htmlhttps://phys.org/news/2026-02-biggest-stars-universe-ready.html
Exo-world imaging needs
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-optical-required-earth-twin.html
 
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