Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

[Flyaway]

NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e

NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e - NASA Science

Scientists are in the midst of observing the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Careful analysis of the results so far presents

science.nasa.gov

Related papers:

Radware Bot Manager Captcha

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[FighterJock]

I am not holding my breath for life to be found on TRAPPIST-1 e for obvious reasons.

 

[Michel Van]

news on 3I/ATLAS

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arOgYkzMlp0

0:00 3I/ATLAS updates
2:30 What was discovered so far
4:40 JWST Observations
5:50 What this means
7:10 Nickel emissions
9:08 Major mystery with iron
10:00 Possible explanations and what's next?
11:30 Conclusions

 

[NMaude]

Some new findings concerning the interior geology of Mars, from Anton Petrov:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about recent Martian updates
Links:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s...
https://theconversation.com/nasas-cur...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...he-search-for-alien-life-253249&v=eVvqb0NNVUw
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4445...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...com/articles/s44453-025-00006-9&v=eVvqb0NNVUw
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4324...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...com/articles/s43247-025-02411-0&v=eVvqb0NNVUw

Other videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_e_c0QcL6vE
• Massive Blobs Inside Earth May Be Responsi...

• Strange Pyramid Shape on Mars and Other In...

• Major Updates From Mars and Discoveries No...

• Massive Ocean Hiding Inside Mars and More ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQIQd721v2o

#mars #astronomy #nasahttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/nasa

https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/nasa
0:00 Exciting Mars updates!
1:05 Strange rocks
3:08 Largest organic molecules
4:10 Chance of liquid water hiding on Mars today
5:50 Fluffy dust
6:15 Strange blobs inside Mars
9:25 Why did Mars and Earth evolve so differently? Martian dichotomy
12:00 Conclusions and what's next?

 

[Brett Davidson]

Some new findings concerning the interior geology of Mars, from Anton Petrov:

Something similar to the proto-Earth/Theia collision has been proposed for Mars.

Giant Asteroid Flattened Half of Mars, Studies Suggest

Hemisphere-size crater documents solar system's violent origins

www.scientificamerican.com

 

[Brett Davidson]

NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e

For reference, here's a couple of diagrams of the TRAPPIST-1 system.

The lower scale in one of them shows stellar illumination relative to Earth - though bear in mind that the spread of wavelengths is different and atmospheric composition (if there is one) will affect the greenhouse effect.

 

[Brett Davidson]

Since TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf, many artist's impressions of it and the landscapes of its planets depict it as a giant tomato. The truth is more complex. Here's an article I scanned some years... er, decades ago.

The surface of an M dwarf is still hotter than the filament in an incandescent light bulb, which appears a warm white to the human eye.

(If you read the last line of the article, it's amusing: It is a happy coincidence, then, that we live under a sky whose most prominent stars fall just within the narrow range of brightness necessary for us to see their true colours. Evolution did that to us. One might as well say that it's a happy coincidence that the shape of the water in a puddle exactly fits the depression in the ground in which it rests.)

 

[Michel Van]

Something similar to the proto-Earth/Theia collision has been proposed for Mars.

We have four planets with giant impact.

Earth/Theia were ice ball in size Mars hit Earth in right angel create Moon and make Earth habitable.
Mars who was hit by something big, that impacts on North pole of Mars flatten half the planet !
Mercury seems was much bigger, but also hit by something big. left with only mantel and Iron Core.
Uranus Axle change could result also by Impact moon size object.

 

[NMaude]

Uranus Axle change could result also by Impact moon size object.

I've read that it was an Earth sized object.

 

[publiusr]

I seem to remember write-ups about how Ice Giants were diamond factories.

Maybe some were thrown clear.

On risk

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-astronaut.html

Asteroids

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-hayabusa2-reveals-space-mission-asteroid.html

Some small asteroids can abruptly explode

Some asteroids are more dangerous than others, according to a report published in Nature Astronomy by an international team of researchers, led by astrophysicist Auriane Egal of the Montreal Planetarium in Canada. The team had presented their findings of an investigation into the impact of small...

phys.org

Space cameras for all

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-software-tool-aims-democratize-access.html

Sneak attacks

https://techxplore.com/news/2025-09-robustly-sneaky-cyberattacks-ai-spacecraft.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-trump-eyeing-space-station-demise.html

The Mars Iron Age?

Aussie Researchers Say They Can Bring The Iron Age To Mars

Every school child can tell you these days that Mars is red because it’s rusty. The silicate rock of the martian crust and regolith is very rich in iron oxide. Now Australian researchers at C…

hackaday.com

Mining Mars

A rover to mine Martian volcanoes

Different parts of Mars have different advantages and disadvantages when it comes to their available resources, just like Earth. The polar caps are likely the most valuable in terms of their water content, which will be critical to any early stage crewed mission to the red planet.

phys.org

The Space Bar

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-mysterious-red-dots-early-universe.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-star-consuming-companion-brilliantly.html

NASA plays down the idea that interstellar visitor was made by aliens

There have been numerous rumors in recent weeks concerning the nature of the interstellar comet 3I/Atlas.

www.unexplained-mysteries.com

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-interstellar-comet-3iatlas.html

Let's say--in the far future-humanity was able to put some telescopes in the TRAPPIST system....would that allow good interferometry?

 

[Seragina]

Uranus Axle change could result also by Impact moon size object.

Actually Uranus is thought to have been captured, hence, it's an exo-alien planet.

 

[Michel Van]

Actually Uranus is thought to have been captured, hence, it's an exo-alien planet.

you got source on that or a Link ?

 

[Flyaway]

Unusual gamma ray burst discovery is ‘unlike anything ever witnessed before’

View: https://youtu.be/bSoitUyCIQA

 

[Flyaway]

NASA’s Bennu Samples Reveal Complex Origins, Dramatic Transformation
Melissa Gaskill
Aug 22, 2025

NASA’s Bennu Samples Reveal Complex Origins, Dramatic Transformation - NASA Science

Asteroid Bennu, sampled by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission in 2020, is a mixture of dust that formed in our solar system, organic matter from interstellar space, and pre-solar system stardust. Its unique and varied contents were dramatically transformed over time by interactions with water and...

science.nasa.gov

 

[Michel Van]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1965792383724839091

View: https://twitter.com/ToughSf/status/1965792383724839091

 

[NMaude]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1965792383724839091

View: https://twitter.com/ToughSf/status/1965792383724839091

I wonder what its' surface gravity is?

 

[Michel Van]

I wonder what its' surface gravity is?

Would be around 1.93 times of Earth

 

[NMaude]

Would be around 1.93 times of Earth

So standing there would be a bit of a drag.

 

[Flyaway]

"An Unimaginable Breakthrough": Loudest-Ever Gravitational Wave Collision Proves Stephen Hawking Correct

The LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration has decided to mark the 10th anniversary of the discovery of gravitational waves with a very special gift. They have published data on the clearest signal they have yet detected in the observatory, which allowed them to confirm Stephen Hawking's area theorem of black holes.

The event was seen on January 14, 2025, so it is known as GW250114, and it was not included in the recent release of data. It is similar to the first gravitational wave event ever observed, GW150914. Both involved collisions between black holes of 30 to 40 solar masses, and both happened around 1.3 billion light-years from Earth. The difference is 10 years of improvements in how we measure gravitational waves, making this new signal incredibly clear.

…

“GW250114 is the loudest gravitational-wave signal that we have observed so far – by a lot! By “loudest,” I mean that the amplitude of the signal is much larger than the background noise in our detectors,” Simona Miller, a Caltech grad student and co-author of the paper, told IFLScience.

“Think of it like being at a dinner party where everyone is quietly chatting. Previous gravitational waves detected by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA are somewhere between a loud laugh or a shout over the din of the party. GW250114 is akin to a fire alarm going off.”

"An Unimaginable Breakthrough": Loudest-Ever Gravitational Wave Collision Proves Stephen Hawking Correct

The black holes went from having an area the size of Oregon to the size of California!

www.iflscience.com

Link to the related paper doesn’t appear to be working.

 

[NMaude]

Some new discoveries from TRAPPIST-1e, from Anton Petrov:

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about recent observations from the TRAPPIST-1 system focusing on the most Earth like planet known there
Links:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...rticle/10.3847/2041-8213/adf62e&v=004QfJeb7Z8
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...rticle/10.3847/2041-8213/adf42e&v=004QfJeb7Z8
Previous videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pszyf-IBDto
• TRAPPIST-1 Updates: With First 3 Planets (...

• Incredible New Discoveries About the TRAPP...

• Is There an 8th Planet Around TRAPPIST-1? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9rA7-IsjH4&pp=0gcJCR0AztywvtLA

0:00 Exciting TRAPPIST-1 Updates
0:30 What we know about other planets here so far
3:00 Why this is so difficult to study
4:38 TRAPPIST-1e in a nutshell
6:15 2 New studies and main discoveries
7:00 What this means - 2 explanations
8:35 Habitability or no?
9:10 What's next? More JWST observations! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=004QfJeb7Z8&t=607s
10:07 Summary and conclusions
#trappist1 #trappist1e #astronomy

 

[Flyaway]

Earth Has A New Quasi-Moon – And It Has Probably Been Around For Decades

The total number of quasi-satellites of our planet has gone up by one. There are now 8 small asteroids going around the Sun at the same time as our planet, acting almost like moons, hence the term quasi-satellite or quasi-moon. Meet the newest entry, 2025 PN7.

The object is small. The estimate that can be made based on its absolute magnitude is rough, but place it in the tens of meters, no bigger than that, and likely we are erring on the side of caution. It also doesn’t come closer than several million kilometers to Earth, so even if it has been around for a while, it is not surprising that it was only discovered last month.

…

The relative proximity of these objects can allow missions to study them with relative ease. Quasi-satellite 469219 Kamoʻoalewa will be visited by the Chinese mission Tianwen-2, launched this May. It will reach the object next year, and collect a sample likely the year after.

Earth Has A New Quasi-Moon – And It Has Probably Been Around For Decades

2025 PN7 is a new object, but it may have been with us for some time.

www.iflscience.com

Related paper:

Radware Bot Manager Captcha

 

[FighterJock]

I am keeping everything crossed that the new moon does not hit us any time soon now or in the future.

 

[Seragina]

you got source on that or a Link ?

It's been awhile and I seem to be unable to dig up that again. The key indication are:
1. its tilt being near 90° and the solar system's own tilt being near 90° to the galaxis's plane.
2. its the only planet with retrogate rotation.


But here's a simulation result for a collisionless scenario for Uranus tilting due to migration.

 

[NMaude]

Video from GEO GIRL* concerning a new paper about signs of ancient life on Mars:

New paper (Hurowitz, J.A., Tice, M.M., Allwood, A.C. et al., 2025. Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars. Nature 645, 332–340: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUFFLUhqa2hJblMyazZEMGtfVk44eU1lM01fc3ZUSEQ5d3xBQ3Jtc0tuNHZTRG4weFRJQzRBRnVqR3E5MTJJbjkzOGFCZ3U3bVlEc0xDLWhWSlI5QUdJSzB3Wmh1dmc4MXJPS1lLTzlOb25EVGpMNXJIVl96YVVUeTl2VmFSU0M5TGdFQldZa243UVlLanpOc044cmxPTDNZQQ&q=https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09413-0&v=BlhYf8iOalo

0:00 Exciting new study alert!
0:43 Brief Background Info
1:29 New Study’s Findings
2:28 Significance of Findings
3:30 How do we tell if these findings mean life?
6:13 Important Note

*I highly recommend her geology videos as they're highly informative and well written (And presented, Rachael is quite photogenic) too.

 

[Flyaway]

Many candidates from Gaia DR3, 2MASS, and WISE

Dyson Objects/Structures

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85XbEPjKXUc

 

[Flyaway]

Jupiter's moons produce auroras

Juno spacecraft finds auroral 'footprints' of Jupiter's moon Callisto for 1st time

Yes, even Jupiter's moons produce auroras.

www.space.com

 

[NMaude]

Jupiter's moons produce auroras

Juno spacecraft finds auroral 'footprints' of Jupiter's moon Callisto for 1st time

Yes, even Jupiter's moons produce auroras.

www.space.com

For that to happen Callisto would have to have at the very least an exosphere.

 

[publiusr]

Another factor for the Drake equation

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-planets-plate-tectonics-carbon-dioxide.html

The closest technological species to us in the Milky Way galaxy could be 33,000 light years away and their civilization would have to be at least 280,000 years, and possibly millions of years, old if they are to exist at the same time that we do, according to new research presented at the EPSC–DPS2025 Joint Meeting in Helsinki this week.

The Universe

Fly through Gaia's 3D map of stellar nurseries

Scientists created the most accurate three-dimensional map of star-formation regions in our Milky Way galaxy, based on data from the European Space Agency's Gaia space telescope. This map will teach us more about these obscure cloudy areas, and the hot young stars that shape them.

phys.org

How NASA's Roman mission will unveil our home galaxy using cosmic dust

NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will help scientists better understand our Milky Way galaxy's less sparkly components—gas and dust strewn between stars, known as the interstellar medium.

phys.org

Mapping the universe, faster and with the same accuracy

If you think a galaxy is big, compare it to the size of the universe: it's just a tiny dot which, together with a huge number of other tiny dots, forms clusters that aggregate into superclusters, which in turn weave into filaments threaded with voids—an immense 3D skeleton of our universe.

phys.org

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-galaxies-reveal-hidden-dark-early.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-scientists-reveal-gas-accretion-massive.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-shifting-collisions-tool-early-big.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-nasa-tally-planets-solar.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-simulations-exoplanet-formation-extraterrestrial-life.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-chandra-black-hole-eddington-limit.html

Moon missions

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-simulations-future-moon-missions-uncover.html

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-blue-alchemist-closer-sustainable-infrastructure.html

For medieval people, the moon was both a riddle and a blessing

Each night, the moon glistens in the night sky, replete with all sorts of meanings depending on the person viewing it. Poets and artists have contemplated it for thousands of years.

phys.org

 

[Flyaway]

Scientists say there's a 90% chance we could spot an exploding black hole in the next decade

New research suggests that there is a 90% chance that within the next decade, humanity could use a space or Earth-based telescope to spot an exploding black hole. Such a detection would change our perspective of the universe by proving the existence of "primordial black holes" born 13.8 billion years ago, a second after the Big Bang.

Scientists say there's a 90% chance we could spot an exploding black hole in the next decade

"It would completely revolutionize physics and help us rewrite the history of the universe."

www.space.com

Related paper:

https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/nwgd-g3zl

 

[NMaude]

Scientists say there's a 90% chance we could spot an exploding black hole in the next decade

Exploding blackhole? IIRC the correct technical term is "Evaporating blackhole" as the blackhole radiate its' mass away by Hawking radiation.

 

[NMaude]

Scott Manley has uploaded a video about the possibility of three billion year old Mars fossils discovered in rocks on Mars:

New research based upon measurements of microscopic spots in rocks on Mars has discovered minerals associated with biological processes on earth, and after months of trying to find an alternate explanation and failed they've concluded this could be the best evidence for martian life so far.

We could verify this in days..... if we could get the sample back to Earth.

Redox-driven mineral and organic associations in Jezero Crater, Mars
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...

 

[Brett Davidson]

Project Hyperion, a design competition to produce concepts for a generation starship, has announced its winners.

Project Hyperion | interstellar generation ship design competition

Project Hyperion explores the feasibility of crewed interstellar travel via generation ships, using current and near-future technologies. A generation ship is a hypothetical spacecraft designed for long-duration interstellar travel, where the journey may take centuries to complete. The objective...

www.projecthyperion.org

Principium, the publication of the Initiative for Interstellar Studies is quarterly and is likely the first venue for publication. Free pdfs can be downloaded here:

Publications

i4is.org

It's quarterly and the next issue is due some time in August, so you may want to bookmark it.

Images of winners' entries, fuller details on the link above, including further links to the full submissions of the winners and honourable mentions.

It's available now.

For in-depth presentation of the winners and honourable mentions, you're better off looking at the links I've already posted but this is still quite newsy, with articles on Invictus (Skylon reborn) and Dragonfly etc.

Principium 50

Principium 50 – Contents LEAD FEATURE BOOK REVIEW The Ross 248 Project (<a...

i4is.org

 

[Brett Davidson]

An explanation of why FTL breaks causality.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an0M-wcHw5A&t=1s&ab_channel=CoolWorlds

 

[Flyaway]

Once-In-A-Decade Close Encounter With Hazardous Asteroid 2025 FA22 Approaches [Sep 15]

2025 FA22 was discovered on March 29 this year by the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS 2) observatory in Hawaii. The asteroid is currently thought to be around 120–280 meters (394–919 feet) in size, making it a fairly sizeable object.

[...]

On September 18, 2025 at 07:42 am UTC, the object will approach at around 0.00563 AU.

That's around 841,900 kilometers (523,100 miles), further out than the Moon. On September 18 and 19, the asteroid will reach magnitude 13, potentially making it visible to observers with a small telescope.

 

[Flyaway]

JWST finds an exoplanet around A pulsar whose atmosphere is all carbon

The exoplanet around PSR J2322-2650, known as PSR J2322-2650b, does fit the description of a Jupiter-sized planet that seems to have the same density as what would be expected if it was made up primarily of helium. However, its atmosphere is unlike any other black widow companion ever seen. According to the spectrographic reports from JWST, its atmosphere is composed mainly of elemental carbon, taking the form of tricarbon (C3) or dicarbon (C2).

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-jwst-exoplanet-pulsar-atmosphere-carbon.html

Related paper:

A carbon-rich atmosphere on a windy pulsar planet

A handful of enigmatic Jupiter-mass objects have been discovered orbiting pulsars. One such object, PSR\,J2322-2650b, uniquely resembles a hot Jupiter exoplanet due to its minimum density of 1.8 g/cm^3 and its ~1900 K equilibrium temperature. We use JWST to observe PSR J2322-2650b's emission...

arxiv.org

 

[Flyaway]

The most accurate 3D map of stellar nurseries in the Milky Way:

View: https://youtu.be/cejvjP-a77k

 

[Flyaway]

New imagery of M87’s black hole shows polarity flip:

View: https://youtu.be/_CnUxN5NH_o

 

[NMaude]

JWST finds an exoplanet around A pulsar whose atmosphere is all carbon

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-jwst-exoplanet-pulsar-atmosphere-carbon.html

Related paper:

A carbon-rich atmosphere on a windy pulsar planet

A handful of enigmatic Jupiter-mass objects have been discovered orbiting pulsars. One such object, PSR\,J2322-2650b, uniquely resembles a hot Jupiter exoplanet due to its minimum density of 1.8 g/cm^3 and its ~1900 K equilibrium temperature. We use JWST to observe PSR J2322-2650b's emission...

arxiv.org

So basically this carbon-atmosphere exoplanet isn't a weird gas-giant but a stripped star-core?

 

[Grey Havoc]

Harnessing the superpowers of the most resilient life form on Earth

Bake them, freeze them, fire them from a gun or blast them into space: tardigrades can survive almost anything. Some experts think they might even survive right up until the Sun dies.

www.bbc.com

 

[FighterJock]

They might even survive the death of the Sun, who knows what may happen to the tardigrades at that time. They also survive radiation exposure that would otherwise kill a human.