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Astronomers using the Gemini North telescope at NSF’s International Gemini Observatory have captured 3I/ATLAS as it makes its temporary passage through our cosmic neighborhood ============================================================== This image from the Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS-N) at the Gemini North telescope shows the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. Image credit: International Gemini Observatory / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / K. Meech, IfA & U. Hawaii / Jen Miller & Mahdi Zamani, NOIRLab. Interstellar objects are objects that originate outside of, and are observed passing through, our Solar System. Ranging from tens of meters to a few kilometers in size, these objects are pieces of cosmic...

In a groundbreaking discovery published in The Planetary Science Journal, a team of astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has confirmed the existence of a rare object located far beyond Neptune. Known as 2020 VN40, this trans-Neptunian object is in a unique orbital resonance with the giant planet Neptune. For every ten orbits Neptune completes, 2020 VN40 completes one orbit around the Sun. This rare alignment provides key insights into how objects in the outer solar system behave and evolve over time. The research, which draws from extensive observations made by the Large Inclination Distant...

Astronomers have discovered a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto. The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if "Planet Nine" exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether. The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed "Ammonite," classifies it as a "sednoid." Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or "perihelion." The closest distance...

Welcome to the neighborhood, Ammonite. The object during observations. Image credit: NAOJ/ASIAA The Subaru telescope located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawai'i has found a new world within our Solar System, dubbed "Ammonite" by the team who found it. In 2003, NASA-funded researchers spotted what was then the most distant object discovered in our Solar System. The dwarf planet, named Sedna after the Inuit goddess of the sea, was found over 12.9 billion kilometers (8 billion miles) from Earth, potentially making it an inner object of the hypothetical "Oort cloud" surrounding our Solar System. "Sedna is distinguished among other...

In the vast expanse between Uranus and Neptune, a team of researchers have uncovered something really quite extraordinary, a minor planet that has been locked in precise gravitational manouevres with Uranus for at least a million years. This discovery sheds new light on the complex dynamics that govern our Solar System's outer reaches. The object in question, designated 2015 OU₁₉₄, belongs to a class of small bodies called Centaurs, rocky and icy objects that orbit between Jupiter and Neptune. What makes this particular Centaur special is its remarkably stable relationship with Uranus, locked in what is known as a 3:4...

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope recently detected a planet that could possibly sustain life based on temperature readings, which has a mass approximately 100 times the size of Earth. The planet, which astronomers believe is orbiting a young red dwarf star approximately 34 light years away, has been dubbed TWA 7b and is roughly the size of Saturn. An initial analysis suggests the planet has a temperature of near 120 degrees Fahrenheit, which is warm enough to support life. Scientists believe life can grow and reproduce starting at about 5 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 251 degrees Fahrenheit, per...

Exoplanet TWA 7 b (Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A.M. Lagrange, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)). In a groundbreaking first, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured its first direct image of a distant exoplanet unrecognized from past astronomical surveys. The milestone achievement was made possible with help from a special coronagraph aboard Webb’s MIRI instrument that allows Webb to capture imagery under conditions that mimic those which occur naturally during an eclipse. The discovery made in research lead by researcher Anne-Marie Lagrange with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Paris Observatory, in collaboration with Grenoble Alpes University....

The first few images from the Rubin Observatory have dropped, and there are more coming later today. A mosaic of 678 images taken over seven hours of observation shows the Trifid (top right in pink) and Lagoon (center) Nebulae. Image Credit: NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory The Vera C. Rubin Observatory has officially unveiled its first images, and truly, it is going to be as revolutionary as people expect it to be. Thanks to its incredible eye on the cosmos, which is the largest digital camera in the world, the images are absolutely breathtaking – and we can’t even share...

NEW YORK (AP) — The largest digital camera ever built released its first shots of the universe Monday — including colorful nebulas, stars and galaxies.The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, located on a mountaintop in Chile, was built to take a deeper look at the night sky, covering hidden corners. Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Energy, it will survey the southern sky for the next 10 years.The observatory’s first look features the vibrant Trifid and Lagoon nebulas located thousands of light-years from Earth. A light-year is nearly 6 trillion miles. A gaggle of galaxies known...

Analysis of swabs from China's Tiangong Space Station has revealed a new strain of bacteria sporting new adaptations for surviving outer space. Scientists have discovered a new microbe never-before-seen on Earth inside China's Tiangong space station. The new strain of bacteria, named Niallia tiangongensis after the space station, is a variant of a soil-dwelling terrestrial microbe that can cause sepsis, and was found inside one of the station's cabins. Now, a new analysis of the strain has revealed that the bacterium isn't only one of a kind, but has also picked up some key adaptations that could be helpful in...

A distant star system that scientists described as abnormal, chaotic, and strange is finally coming into focus, thanks to NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. Using its powerful Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Webb has captured a rare image of one of two known planets orbiting the star 14 Herculis, located about 60 light-years from Earth in the Milky Way.The planet, known as 14 Herculis c, stands out for how incredibly cold it is. While astronomers have discovered nearly 6,000 exoplanets, only a small handful have been directly imaged, and most of those are extremely hot, with temperatures soaring into the hundreds or...

Astronomers Have Found the First Prime Candidate for Planet 9...But It's in the Wrong Place | 16:00 Territory | 61.3K subscribers | 319,090 views | May 19, 2025

1.5TB of James Webb Space Telescope data dumped on the internet — new searchable database is the largest window into our universe to date | New imagery encompassing nearly 800,000 galaxies.

A groundbreaking discovery in the field of exoplanet research is forcing scientists to reconsider long-held theories about how planets form. An international team of astronomers, led by the University of Warwick, recently revealed the existence of TOI-6894b, a giant planet orbiting the ultra-low-mass star TOI-6894, in a study published in Nature Astronomy. This find has raised significant questions about the accuracy of the prevailing models of planet formation, which have long argued that gas giants like TOI-6894b cannot form around small stars. Unlikely Host Star: The Tiny TOI-6894 At the heart of this discovery is TOI-6894, a red dwarf star...

A bizarre planet may orbit two brown dwarfs in a steep, pole-skimming path—an unheard-of tilt that challenges our understanding of planetary motion. Detected via gravitational wobbles, it might be the first polar-orbiting circumbinary planet ever found. Credit: SciTechDaily.com =================================================================== Astronomers have discovered one of the weirdest planetary systems yet: a possible planet, 2M1510 b, appears to orbit over the poles of two brown dwarfs in a sharply tilted path—almost perpendicular to their own orbit. This freakish setup, unlike anything in our solar system, was detected not by a dip in starlight but through subtle gravitational wobbles captured using ESO’s Very...

Scientists modeling planetary system formation scenarios say there could be a 40% chance that a hypothetical ‘Planet Nine’, believed by many to lurk at the outer reaches of the Sun’s orbit, could exist. The study, conducted by researchers at Rice University, also suggests most of these planets don’t end up captured by their host star’s gravity but instead get ejected from the star’s orbit altogether and spend the rest of their lives roaming the galaxy as “rogue planets.” “Our simulations show that if the early solar system underwent two specific instability phases—the growth of Uranus and Neptune and the later...

When astronomers announced last month they might have discovered the most promising hints of alien life yet on a distant planet, the rare good news raised hopes humanity could soon learn we are not alone in the universe. But several recent studies looking into the same data have found that there is not enough evidence to support such lofty claims, with one scientist accusing the astronomers of "jumping the gun". Two of Madhusudhan's former students, Luis Welbanks of Arizona State University and Matthew Nixon of Maryland University, were among the researchers who have since re-analysed the data behind the announcement....

Researchers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the magnetar called SGR 0501+4516 is traversing our galaxy from an unknown place of origin. Researchers say that this runaway magnetar is the likeliest candidate in our Milky Way galaxy for a magnetar that was not born in a supernova explosion as initially predicted. It is so strange it might even offer clues to the mechanism behind events known as fast radio bursts...But a decade-long study with Hubble cast doubt on the magnetar's birthplace. After initial observations with ground-based telescopes shortly after SGR 0501+4516's discovery, researchers used Hubble's exquisite sensitivity and steady...

Astronomers just found a frozen world on a 25,000-year orbit—hidden in plain sight and ready to rewrite the outer solar system. ================================================================ Image Credit: images of dwarf planets from NASA/JPL-Caltech; image of 2017 OF201 from Sihao Cheng et al. | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel ================================================================= A distant, icy world has just been added to our solar system’s official roster, and its strange orbit might challenge one of the biggest space mysteries of our time. According to a study published on arXiv, the object—known as 2017 OF201—is not just any distant rock. It’s a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) that could...

Is Planet Nine real? A new study may have just found the strongest clue yet. By analyzing decades-old infrared data from IRAS and AKARI satellites, scientists have spotted a slow-moving object in the outer Solar System—exactly where Planet Nine is predicted to be. If confirmed, it would be the first new planet discovered in over 170 years. Dive into the science, the discovery, and what it means for our cosmic future in this exciting episode. Planet Nine: First Real Clue After Decades of Searching | 9:37 NASASpaceNews | 511K subscribers | 3,717 views | May 2, 2025 Chapters: 00:00 Introduction...