Astronomy and Planetary Science Thread

A never seen before Helium Nova has been behaving strangely, from Anton Petrov:


 
From Seven Days Of Science:


This week's flagship story comes as another very important paper in the history of the 'little red dots', even if this one might not quite be what it at first would seem. Discovered at the edge of time and space, this object could represent exactly what astronomers have been looking for, a new type of astronomical object, or even, perhaps, the unravelling of an astronomical mistake...
https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rU2x4MnpWa0ZwcndHYVVaRUg1VG1iLXxBR3JiS2FrT3RtWG5aaG1jZ09ObUhyX08wUzhEdHhaZGJUNEdnRUdwWm1SZFY4WTVld1MzeS0wZmZ3MzY4b3VoZEZtbGtNZkRTZ0gyYVNmSHpYbFFLS0gxUzdNdXFHeXVveGdU&q=https://www.tiktok.com/@bengthomas&v=X_bCkIH-wTw
Credits:
Presented by Douglas James
Written by Douglas James
7 Days of Science is produced by Douglas James and Ben Thomas
7 Days of Science logo, graphics and more have been designed by Michael Buhler


Sources:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=video_description&redir_token=QUM4Zm9rVG1Pc3ZFOXMzLU54cTA2VnNpTlQtaHxBR3JiS2FuNGFPU2xYNGtXem5hV3kzMGc2SS1SUkotV1JxTlZTcmJISkVlcUlvbHlYb0ZqSHFCQnFlT2dBbWFqaVNDbllYR0dxUm1lbFNXMThaM0U5YnNUWDRoV0NzWmU0MVNl&q=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10846-4&v=X_bCkIH-wTw
 
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IF it is a Black Hole Star then it is the first type of it's kind to be discovered in the universe so far, I would expect more of them to be discovered in the following years.
 
Interesting conversation between Tory and Jonathan McDowell

Quote
Tory Bruno
@torybruno

Certainly within the capability and flexibility of Blue Ring. My understanding is that the boost needs to happen in October or preferably sooner. Our very first Blue Ring is in build and test right now and coincidentally has a prototype robotic grappling arm. However, it already has customers and a much higher orbit planned. Pulling together an entirely new mission, launch, etc. in the next 60 or so days would be pretty go’ey on the first bird.


Quote
Jonathan McDowell
@planet4589

Yeah, that's putting it mildly. If it were a crewed mission at risk it'd be worth trying, but beloved to me as X-ray astronomy is, I couldn't argue taking that level of risk for Swift.

View: https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/2090536760203788396

 
According to Anton Petrov Earth's closet planetary neighbours are utterly uninhabitable:


Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about the Barnard's Star planets
Links:
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/articl...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev.../2/stag1207/8715836?login=false&v=Wb9L2FTe_TI
Other videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9AQ6YffF78&pp=0gcJCR0AztywvtLA
• Star 6 Light Years Away From Us Contains 4...

• We Just Found Barnard's Star Exoplanet! Th...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfWRqX21T_k
#barnardstar #exoplanet #alienlifehttps://www.youtube.com/hashtag/alienlife
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb9L2FTe_TI
0:00 Barnard's star planets
2:19 What type of a star is this? Original discovery
3:40 First planetary claims
4:30 2024 breakthroughs
6:28 New study and new analysis
8:10 Mineral differences from Earth
9:40 Stability and resonance
10:10 Implications and conclusions
11:45 What's next?
 
I'm posting this here as it's indicative of what happens to water in the deep interiors of ice-giants.

What happens to water when you compress it to its' ultimate limit:


What would happen if you kept compressing water harder and harder—with no container strong enough to stop it? At extreme pressures, water stops behaving like the liquid we know and begins transforming into entirely different states of matter.

In this video, we explore what happens when water is compressed toward its physical limits. Discover how increasing pressure can force water into high-pressure forms of ice, including Ice VI and Ice VII, even at temperatures where ordinary ice would not be expected. Experiments have shown that liquid water can remain metastable far beyond the pressure range where high-pressure ice phases are thermodynamically favored, before rapidly transforming under extreme conditions. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

We'll follow water through increasingly extreme pressures and examine how its molecular structure changes. At still higher pressures and temperatures, water can enter the extraordinary superionic state, where oxygen atoms form a solid-like lattice while hydrogen ions move through it almost like a liquid. Laboratory experiments have observed this behavior at hundreds of gigapascals and thousands of kelvin. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

But does water have an actual "absolute limit" where it can no longer be compressed? The answer is more complicated. Water becomes progressively less compressible as pressure rises, while its molecular and atomic structure changes dramatically. At sufficiently extreme conditions, ordinary H₂O no longer resembles the familiar liquid we encounter on Earth.

Watch until the end to discover how far water can be pushed before it becomes something completely different—and what the most extreme experiments have revealed about matter under unimaginable pressure.​
https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/water
 
Another interesting and very detailed video concerning the Permo-Triassic extinction event:


Siberia is where the blame lands, and it has for decades. The Siberian Traps spread across around 1.5 million square kilometers at the end of the Permian. The trouble is the timing. Those eruptions carried on for hundreds of thousands of years before the extinction and hundreds of thousands of years after it, while the dying itself took about 60,000 years. A cause that slow cannot account for a window that narrow unless something inside it changed partway through.​

Sources & References
Burgess et al. (2014) — High-precision timeline for Earth's most severe extinction — PNAS — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1317692111https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1317692111&v=0CuISWZtToI
Burgess et al. (2017) — Initial pulse of Siberian Traps sills as the trigger — Nature Communications — https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-00...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev....org/10.1038/s41467-017-00083-9&v=0CuISWZtToI
Clarkson et al. (2015) — Ocean acidification and the Permo-Triassic mass extinction — Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa0193https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa0193&v=0CuISWZtToI
Dai et al. (2023) — A Mesozoic fossil lagerstätte from 250.8 million years ago shows a modern-type marine ecosystem — Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adf1622https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1126/science.adf1622&v=0CuISWZtToI
Marquez et al. (2026) — Differences in physiological tolerance to global warming caused the Permian–Triassic transition — PNAS — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2533086123https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2533086123&v=0CuISWZtToI
Nicholls et al. (2026) — The timing and nature of marine ecosystem recovery — npj Biodiversity — https://doi.org/10.1038/s44185-025-00...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev....org/10.1038/s44185-025-00117-2&v=0CuISWZtToI
Penn et al. (2018) — Temperature-dependent hypoxia explains biogeography and severity — Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aat1327https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1126/science.aat1327&v=0CuISWZtToI
Raup (1979) — Size of the Permo-Triassic bottleneck — Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.206.4...https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...rg/10.1126/science.206.4415.217&v=0CuISWZtToI
Roberts et al. (2025) — Earliest oceanic tetrapod ecosystem reveals rapid complexification — Science — https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adx7390https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1126/science.adx7390&v=0CuISWZtToI
Rothman et al. (2014) — Methanogenic burst in the end-Permian carbon cycle — PNAS — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318106111https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1318106111&v=0CuISWZtToI
Stanley (2016) — Estimates of the magnitudes of major marine mass extinctions — PNAS — https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613094113https://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1613094113&v=0CuISWZtToI
Svensen et al. (2018) — Sills and gas generation in the Siberian Traps — Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A — https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0080
IUGS Geoheritage — GSSPs of Meishan, China — https://iugs-geoheritage.org/geoherit...
 
I wonder how many more solar-masses of mass Alpha Orionis will eject, Flyaway, before it goes boom?
 
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Here's an excellent documentary series called "Prehistoric Disasters" concerning major geological events that effected the Earth starting with the formation of the Moon, it first aired in 2008 on the Discovery Channel back when it was still showing serious science programmes and not filled with reality-TV rubbish:​


30 million years after Earth's birth a cataclysmic collision almost destroyed the planet completely. Instead this chance collision formed the moon, triggering an extraordinary sequence of events that formed this unique planet teaming with life.
https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/geology
#geology #planets #Theia #Earth #moon


In the Australian outback a smooth gray stone stands out in the parched red earth. It is over 630 million years old and proves that Australia used to be buried under ice. Could this controversial theory be the key to the evolution of mankind on Earth?
https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/australia
#Australia #iceage #evolution #originoflife


250 Million years ago Earth's only continent, Pangea, was a lush oasis swarming with life. Then, a massive extinction wiped out 95% of life on earth. Now, scientists believe they have uncovered the event responsible for the largest extinction in history.
https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/permian
#Permian #extinction #siberiantraps #Siberia #evolution #paleontology #fossils #geology #documentary

 
JWST findings revealed a future orbiting a white-dwarf that had survived its' red-giant phase:


 
A possible new astronomical object discovered, a blackhole star, from PBS Space Time:


Gigantic black holes existed in a cosmic eyeblink after the Big Bang. That should be impossible. The James Webb Space Telescope has either made the problem much worse, or solved it by discovering the first Black Hole Star.
 
NASA’s Pandora Mission Begins Study of Exoplanets, Host Stars

Pandora, NASA’s newest exoplanet mission and the first satellite to launch through the agency's Astrophysics Pioneers program, is now making unique observations of worlds beyond our solar system and the stars they orbit. The mission will determine the atmospheric make-up of at least 20 exoplanets, including the presence of hazes, clouds, and water.

“Pandora’s data will help close a major gap in our knowledge about planets and their host stars because, right now, we can’t be entirely sure how the star’s light affects measurements of what makes up exoplanet atmospheres,” said Elisa Quintana, Pandora’s principal investigator at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “We designed the Pandora spacecraft and its in-depth observing program to better understand this vexing issue.”
 
This here let Astronomer head scratching
A Star with Brown Dwarf companion, who has Jupiter size Planet in his Orbit and that has possible Moons...

How to classified this system ?
Double star with Planet with moons ?
A Star with Planet that got Planet as Moon with Moon-Moons ?

More by John Michael Godier and Kevin Hoy
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY9UbxV2qDI
 
This 2015 PBS NOVA documentary on the New Horizons Pluto probe popped up on YT a couple of days ago:


Watch as the New Horizons spacecraft captures our first clear view of Pluto’s icy surface. (Aired July 15, 2015)

Official Website: https://to.pbs.org/3Uju9za | #novapbs

https://to.pbs.org/3Uju9zahttps://www.youtube.com/redirect?ev...F4&q=https://to.pbs.org/3Uju9za&v=4XVgg8bJjiU

On July 14, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft, one of the most advanced ever built, is scheduled to fly by Pluto to take the very first detailed images of the dwarf planet. After nine years and 3 billion miles, we will finally get a close look at this strange, icy world, but only if the craft can survive the final, treacherous leg of its journey, which could take it through a dangerous field of debris. If it does, New Horizons is poised to make dramatic new discoveries, not just about Pluto, but about the vast realm of icy bodies lurking beyond Neptune, relics of the earliest days of the solar system’s formation. Back on Earth, the planetary scientists who have spent decades working on this mission anxiously await a signal from their spacecraft. Our cameras will be there to witness the moment. If all goes well, we’ll see Pluto’s mysterious surface in unprecedented detail and learn new secrets about other alien worlds at the far limits of our solar system.​

Chapters
00:00 Introduction
03:10 The First Mission to Pluto
09:55 Exploring the Kuiper Belt & Pluto
18:40 New Horizons Passes Jupiter
22:38 The Demotion of Pluto as a Planet
33:20 Dwarf Planets and the Existence of Life
37:22 The Moons of Pluto
42:43 The Final Leg of New Horizons
51:40 Conclusion
 
Kyplanet put out this short video about Trojan planets:


A trojan is a unique object in space, caught by the gravity of a star and planet in a Lagrange Point. But what is a lagrange point? What are trojans? How do they form? And can there be trojan planets? Find out in this video. We'll be covering topics from habitable trojan planets, to PDS 70, to Theia, the mars-sized object that collided with earth and caused the formation of the Moon.​
 
View: https://twitter.com/NASARoman/status/2094533281513451521


Success! Roman’s planned mid-course correction burn went as expected, ensuring that we are on track for our orbit around the second Lagrange point, a million miles from Earth.
View: https://twitter.com/Vooper3D/status/2094556927401357436


Roman has 8 small hydrazine thrusters located at the aft end of the spacecraft.

These are used for mid course corrections during its journey to L2 and to make sure that Roman can stay in the desired orbit with enough fuel to operate for at least 10 years!
 
From @blackstar at NSF
https://www.nature.com/articles/s44453-026-00045-w
We introduce a novel concept that uses small lunar craters (<1.5 km) as unprepared landing sites to mitigate the hazards posed by plume surface interactions
Well, there will be no lack of craters for that job
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2018JE005592
There are at least 1.3 million craters larger than 1 km (0.62 mi) in diameter; of these, 83,000 are greater than 5 km (3 mi) in diameter, and 6,972 are greater than 20 km (12 mi) in diameter.

Pretty exciting stuff !
 
A hypothesised class of planets, Mega Earths, has been officially confirmed, from Anton Petrov:



Edit: I wonder what its' surface gravity is?
 
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Lunar soil reads as a cosmic time capsule for exploding stars

When a star reaches its final stages of life, it ends in a bright and powerful explosion called a supernova and scatters material across the universe. A new study led by a University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa researcher discovered that the Moon’s mixed-up soil can be read as a cosmic time capsule for exploding stars.

Emily Costello, research scientist at the Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in the UH Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, and co-authors acted as physicist-cryptographers and developed a mathematical model to decode the history recorded in the lunar surface.

“Deep-sea deposits on Earth preserve interstellar debris, but only back about 10 million years,” Costello said. “The lunar regolith [soil], however, acts as a long-term cosmic archive that can preserve history spanning 80 to 100 million years or more. Understanding the physics of regolith mixing ensures that when future astronauts return deeper cores, we can properly read the scrambled layers to reconstruct the history of our Solar System’s journey through the galaxy.”
 

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