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Unravel the cosmic enigma with our latest video on the elusive "Planet Nine"! Join the quest as astronomers explore gravitational hints, peculiar orbits, and groundbreaking techniques in the relentless search.Are We about to Discover a New Planet in Our Solar System? | 21:46Astrographics | 44.6K subscribers | 329,973 views | February 7, 2024

Could a recently discovered "super-Earth" have the potential temperature and conditions to sustain life? The new exoplanet is situated "fairly close to us" -- only 137 light-years away -- and orbits within a "habitable zone," according to NASA. Astronomers say the planet, dubbed TOI-715 b, is about one and a half times the width of Earth and orbits a small, reddish star. The same system also might harbor a second, Earth-sized planet, which, if confirmed, "would become the smallest habitable-zone planet discovered by TESS [the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite] so far," NASA said in a Jan. 31 press release.

It turns out space helmets serve a dual purpose - to keep air in and stink out. Just like Earth, the universe emits various smells from every corner of the never-ending universe, often of which are generally unpleasant, Space.com reported, citing numerous space expeditions over the decades. Although it is impossible to take a whiff of the cosmos without facing certain death, astronauts have long described strong odors clinging to their space suits after they return to their air-locked chambers. Metallic, burnt meat Those aboard the Apollo moon landings described the scent as gunpowder-like, while others who traversed the International...

Explanation: Epsilon Tauri lies 146 light-years away. A K-type red giant star, epsilon Tau is cooler than the Sun, but with about 13 times the solar radius it shines with nearly 100 times the solar luminosity. A member of the Hyades open star cluster the giant star is known by the proper name Ain, and along with brighter giant star Aldebaran, forms the eyes of Taurus the Bull. Surrounded by dusty, dark clouds in Taurus, epsilon Tau is also known to have a planet. Discovered by radial velocity measurements in 2006, epsilon Tauri b is a gas giant planet larger...

The search for exomoons orbiting planets outside our solar system has sparked a significant debate within the astronomical community, involving a pair of contrasting studies that presented divergent viewpoints on the existence of exomoons Kepler-1625b-i and Kepler-1708b-i. Much like Schrödinger’s oddball cat that is both dead and alive inside a box, we won’t really know until someone goes and looks. But in a new paper recently uploaded to the arXiv preprint server, a team of astronomers led by David Kipping from Columbia University takes issue with the drama surrounding the ongoing exomoon search. A DISCOVERY GETS DASHED In 2017, Kipping,...

Image of Uranus from Webb It seems crazy that Uranus was discovered in 1781 yet here we are, in 2024 and we have only sent one spacecraft to explore Uranus. Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft to have given us close-up images of Uranus (and Neptune) but since their visit in 1986, we have not returned. There have of course been great images from the Hubble Space Telescope and from the James Webb Space Telescope but we still have lots to learn about them. The discovery of Uranus was accidental! British astronomer William Herschel was surveying stars that were too...

Astronomers have discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting a star similar to the sun, only 73 light years away. Previous studies using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) had spotted two larger planets around the star in 2020; the new planet was discovered during follow-up observations designed to confirm the earlier findings. Astronomers have previously found Earth-sized planets around distant stars, but nearly all of those have been found orbiting smaller, cooler red dwarf stars instead of G-type main sequence stars like our sun. The relatively close nature of the new find also opens up opportunities to study the planet more...

Infrared emission from methane suggests atmospheric heating by auroral processes. Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found a brown dwarf (an object more massive than Jupiter but smaller than a star) with infrared emission from methane, likely due to energy in its upper atmosphere. This is an unexpected discovery because the brown dwarf, W1935, is cold and lacks a host star; therefore, there is no obvious source for the upper atmosphere energy. The team speculates that the methane emission may be due to processes generating aurorae. These findings are being presented at the 243rd meeting of the American...

Ep. 62 If fossil fuels come from fossils, why have scientistsfound them on one of Saturn’s moons? A lot of what you’veheard about energy is false. Dr. Willie Soon explains. TIMESTAMPS(01:49) Fossil Fuels in Space (14:27) Global Warming Throughout History (25:31) Outside Forces are Ruining Science (40:41) Evidence of God (48 minutes and 49 seconds video of interview in link below)https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson/status/1744777758507504061

A planet is a planet wherever it resides, right? Dave Eicher examines the case of the icy world.In 1930 a young astronomer from Kansas, employed as an observer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, discovered Pluto. It was the first planet in the solar system to have been discovered since 1846, when astronomers in Germany detected Neptune. Clyde Tombaugh, just 24 at the time, was hailed as a hero, Disney named a cartoon dog after the new planet, and for 76 years the solar system was a happy place. And then, in 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) reconsidered Pluto’s status....

Since the landmark discovery in 1992 of two planets orbiting a star outside of our Solar System, thousands of new worlds have been added to a rapidly growing list of 'exoplanets' in the Milky Way galaxy. We've learnt many things from this vast catalogue of alien worlds orbiting alien stars. But one small detail stands out like a sore thumb. We've found nothing else out there like our own Solar System. This has led some to conclude that our home star and its brood could be outliers in some way – perhaps the only planetary system of its kind. By...

Astronomers have used two different exoplanet-detecting satellites to solve a cosmic mystery and reveal a rare family of six planets located about 100 light-years from Earth...The six exoplanets orbit a bright star similar to the sun named HD110067, which is located in the Coma Berenices constellation in the northern sky. Larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, the planets are in a little-understood class called sub-Neptunes commonly found orbiting sunlike stars in the Milky Way. And the planets, labeled b through g, revolve around the star in a celestial dance known as orbital resonance...For every six orbits completed by planet...

An artistic representation of how the northern infrared aurora would have looked in 2006 (marked in red). The darker red locations indicate confirmed aurora locations, with fainter red used to mark possible aurora locations. Credit to NASA, ESA and M. Showalter (SETI Institute) for the background image of Uranus, as was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (in the visible spectrum) in August 2005. Credit: NASA, ESA and M. Showalter (SETI Institute) for the background image of Uranus, as was observed by the Hubble Space Telescope (in the visible spectrum) in August 2005. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ University of Leicester astronomers confirm the...

Explanation: It's not the big ring that's attracting the most attention. Although the big planet-forming ring around the star PDS 70 is clearly imaged and itself quite interesting. It's also not the planet on the right, just inside the big disk, that’s being talked about the most. Although the planet PDS 70c is a newly formed and, interestingly, similar in size and mass to Jupiter. It's the fuzzy patch around the planet PDS 70c that's causing the commotion. That fuzzy patch is thought to be a dusty disk that is now forming into moons -- and that had never been...

Using TESS, scientists identified two long-period exoplanets, TOI-4600 b and c. These discoveries open new research avenues in understanding exoplanets, and the findings emphasize the significance of collaborative efforts, including contributions from amateur astronomers.Scientists from The University of New Mexico (UNM), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have detected and validated two of the longest-period exoplanets found by TESS to date. These long-period large exoplanets orbit a K dwarf star and belong to a class of planets known as warm Jupiters, which have orbital periods of 10-200 days and are at least six times Earth's radius. This recent discovery offers...

...Two objects orbiting each other, like a lone planet around a star, can be described with just a line or two of mathematical equations. Add a third body, though, and the math becomes much harder. Because each object influences the others with its gravity, calculating a stable orbit where all three objects get along is a complex feat...More than 300 years ago, Isaac Newton wrote down his foundational laws of motion, and mathematicians have been working on solutions to the three-body problem pretty much ever since. There is no single correct answer; instead, there are many orbits that can work...

This artist’s concept shows what exoplanet K2-18 b could look like based on science data. K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, orbits the cool dwarf star K2-18 in the habitable zone and lies 120 light-years from Earth. A new investigation with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope into K2-18 b has revealed the presence of carbon-bearing molecules including methane and carbon dioxide. The abundance of methane and carbon dioxide, and shortage of ammonia, support the hypothesis that there may be a water ocean underneath a hydrogen-rich atmosphere in K2-18 b. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI),...

Astronomers have discovered a unique Jupiter-sized planet, named TOI-4860 b, orbiting a low-mass star in the Corvus constellation. This planet, enriched with heavy elements, defies traditional planet formation models. The discovery provides a chance to study the atmospheric properties of ‘Warm Jupiters’ and offers insights into the planet formation process, possibly catalyzed by an abundance of heavy elements. Scientists have identified a Jupiter-sized planet, TOI-4860 b, around a low-mass star, challenging conventional planet formation theories. An international team of researchers has discovered an unusual Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a low-mass star called TOI-4860, located in the Corvus constellation. The newly discovered...

For the second time, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has looked for and failed to find a thick atmosphere on an exoplanet in on one of the most exciting planetary systems known. Astronomers report today that there is probably no tantalizing atmosphere on the planet TRAPPIST-1 c, just as they reported months ago for its neighbour TRAPPIST-1 b.There is still a chance that some of the five other planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system might have thick atmospheres containing geologically and biologically interesting compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane or oxygen. But the two planets studied so far seem to...

A groundbreaking study from the University of Copenhagen has presented a fresh perspective on Earth’s formation, suggesting it occurred in a few million years, far quicker than the previously believed 100 million years. The research indicates that Earth was formed through the fast accumulation of small pebbles, and water’s existence is a byproduct of this formation process. This theory provides a promising outlook for the potential of habitable planets beyond our Solar System, given that water is a critical ingredient for life. Earth formed in a few million years, much quicker than previously thought, through the rapid absorption of pebbles,...