No star dies quietly.
What does Earth have in common with different planetary systems hundreds of light years away? A lot, according to researchers. Astronomers measured the composition of 18 galaxies up to 456 light years away …
Can the galaxy’s dead stars help us in our search for life? A group of researchers from Cornell University thinks so. They say that watching exoplanets transit in front of white dwarfs can te…
Scientists have shown that extraterrestrial life on alien planets orbiting white dwarfs stars could be detectable, under certain circumstances, by the upcoming James Webb Telescope.
An update to the James Webb Space Telescope will make it possible to detect oxygen and water on an Earth-like planet
Sitting 100 light years from Earth, the exoplanet GJ 3470 b is both common and odd in its own way.
Great News! Earth and Humanity might not die in 4 billion years when the Sun goes red giant and wreaks havoc on the inner Solar System!
Maybe "Star Wars" isn't so fictional after all. NASA's Kepler space telescope discovers a dead star chowing down on a small rocky object.
NASA unveiled full-color images from the $11 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) on Tuesday, marking the first of what is sure to be many releases from the super powerful optical instrument. But even taken by themselves, these five images mark a massive achievement and the culmination of a 26-year-long process to give humanity an […]
NASAs Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the space agencys retired Spitzer Space Telescope have been used to spot the first possible survivor planet hugging a white dwarf star.
Though hundreds of potentially life harboring exoplanets have been discovered thus far, until the James Webb Space Telescope becomes operational, sometime around 2018, scientists today lack the resources to peer into the guts of these
Thanks to a proposal by astronomers Avi Loeb and Dan Maoz, we could find evidence of extraterrestrial life very soon
Space and Astronomy news
A dead star, known as a white dwarf, will eventually cool down and fade away because it has no energy source. However, a new study suggests that white dwarfs can still support habitable planets.
Scientists are taking a new approach in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, studying exoplanet atmospheres for signs of pollution. Cambridge, Massachusetts - Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we c
Astronomers may have discovered an exoplanet that has found the elixir to planetary youth, knocking billions of years off its age.
Planetary debris, including some objects the size of moons, may hint at a rocky exoplanet within the habitable zone of a dead star, a new study suggests.
(Phys.org)—Even dying stars could host planets with life—and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. This encouraging result comes from a new theoretical study of Earth-like planets orbiting white dwarf stars. Researchers found that we could detect oxygen in the atmosphere of a white dwarf's planet much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a Sun-like star.
Even dying stars could host planets with life – and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade. ... Read more
The violent events leading up to the death of a star would likely drive away any planets. The newly discovered Jupiter-size object may have arrived long after the star died. An international team of astronomers using NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and retired Spitzer Space Te
(Phys.org) —Because it has no source of energy, a dead star—known as a white dwarf—will eventually cool down and fade away. But circumstantial evidence suggests that white dwarfs can still support habitable planets, says Prof. Dan Maoz of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have spotted two gas giant exoplanets orbiting their dead stars.
Can planets around white dwarf stars host life? If they can, then those planets will exhibit biosignatures. This new study will help astronomers find them.
A tug-of-war between neighboring stars led to the formation of two strange types of red giant star, as seen in the eyes of a lost telescope.
Chemicals once found in hairspray may serve as signs of alien life on faraway worlds, researchers say.
Astronomers may be able to detect life around planets orbiting white dwarf stars.
A team of scientists has successfully reproduced conditions in one of the most hostile environments in the galaxy, enabling them to find out more about how atoms behave in these extreme settings.
Cornell University astronomers demonstrate that once launched NASAs James Webb Space Telescope would even be able to detect life on planets circling burned-out stellar remnants.
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Astrophysicists at the University of Warwick and Kiel University have discovered two earth sized bodies with oxygen rich atmospheres; however, there is a bit of a disappointing snag for anyone looking for a potential home for alien life, or even a future home for ourselves, as they are not planets but are actually two unusual white dwarf stars.
Space and Astronomy news
New research using some of the latest Gaia mission data has revealed what happens to stars like our Sun once they become white dwarfs.
Merger between two white dwarfs avoids exploding, quietly decays to neutron star.
Stellar Evolution — Stellar evolution is the process of formation, life, and death of stars. It is one of the major topics of cosmogony. Star Birth and Life A star starts out as an enormous cloud of gas and dust many light-years across. Star formation begins when the cloud begins to condense under its own …
Gaia has revealed for the first time how white dwarfs turn into solid spheres as the originally hot matter inside their core starts crystallizing.
It won't happen soon, not for another 5 billion years. Our sun's fate, here.
Possible future star hasn't even started fusion yet.
Astronomers have discovered white dwarf stars with pure carbon atmospheres. The discovery could offer a unique view into the hearts of dying stars.
Most stars in the universe will eventually burn off all of their hydrogen and become dead husks called white dwarfs.
The phenomenon may confirm a long standing theory
Astronomers have discovered some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, whose chemical composition and movements could tell us what the universe was like soon after the Big Bang.
A giant white dwarf star may be the offspring of a collision between two other white dwarfs, a new study finds.
About 10,000 light years away, in the constellation Centaurus, is a planetary nebula called NGC 5307. A planetary nebula is the remnant of a star like our Sun, when it has reached what can be described as the end of its life.
Astronomers have found the first observational evidence for the existence of first generation stars more than 100 times more massive than the sun.
Space and Astronomy news
The very first stars were giants weighing 100 Suns – they coalesced out of primordial gas about 300 million years after the big bang
A group of European astronomers has discovered an ancient planetary system that is likely to be a survivor from one of the earliest cosmic eras, 13 billion years ago. The system consists of the star HIP 11952 and two planets, which have orbital periods of 290 and 7 days, respectively. Whereas planets usually form within clouds that include heavier chemical elements, the star HIP 11952 contains very little other than hydrogen and helium. The system promises to shed light on planet formation in th
Astronomers now have the 1st direct evidence that white dwarf stars form crystal cores. Our sun is destined to become a crystal white dwarf in about 10 billion years.
thumb|300px|Artist's depiction of the life cycle of a Sun-like star, starting as a main-sequence star at lower left then expanding through the [[subgiant and giant phases, until its outer envelope is expelled to form a planetary nebula at upper right]]
Trace quantities of hydrogen in white dwarf atmospheres has baffled astronomers -- could its presence be down to raining comets from exo-...
Another ancient star has been found lurking in the Milky Way. Around 35,000 light-years away, a red giant star named SMSS J160540.18–144323.1 was found to have the lowest iron levels of any star yet analysed in the galaxy.
Astronomers are observing star-forming regions in our galaxy with NASA's flying telescope, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA, to understand the processes and environments required to create the largest known stars, which tip the scales at ten times the mass of our own Sun or more.
The collision of two dying stars can create a living one, scientists say.
An ancient star in the halo surrounding the Milky Way galaxy appears to contain traces of material released by the death of one of the universe's first stars, a new study reports.
A team of astronomers from the University of Warwick led by Mark Hollands, have discovered an ultramassive white dwarf with a unique carbon-rich atmosphere never before observed around such a body. The researchers have concluded that the star — located around 150 light-years from Earth — is the product of a collision between two-parent white …
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In a recent study accepted to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, an international team of researchers led by Texas A&M University investigate how the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can detect a variety of exoplanets orbiting the nearest 15 white dwarfs to Earth using its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) Medium Resolution Spectrograph (MRS). … Continue reading "Webb Can Detect Planets Orbiting White Dwarfs, And Maybe Even See Signs of Life"
NASA's Kepler space telescope has found a system of six planets around a small sun-like star 2,000 light years away, the most ever seen at once/
A new study that has involved monitoring of Alpha Centauri for more than a decade by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory provides encouraging news about one key aspect of planetary habitability.
A ten-billion year old star surprisingly has at least one rocky planet, which means life "could," maybe, be plentiful in the galaxy.
Two new Gallup polls have found that wide swaths of the American population believe that the media is biased, inaccurate and full of misinformation.
WASHINGTON -- For the first time astronomers have discovered a planet outside our solar system that is potentially habitable, with Earth-like temperatures, a find researchers described Tuesday as a big step in the search for "life in the universe."
Perhaps the most intriguing exoplanets found so far are those bigger than our rocky, oceanic Earth but smaller than cold, gas-shrouded Uranus and Neptune. This mysterious class of in-between planets—alternatively dubbed super-Earths or mini-Neptunes—confounds scientists because nothing like them exists as a basis for comparison in our solar system.
Hint: some of them care, some of them don't.
Scientists say they have discovered 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, orbiting nearby stars, making it the largest number of such planets ever announced at one time.
Space and Astronomy news
Astronomers have discovered a planet beyond our solar system that's about the size of the Earth's moon -- the first time they've found a planet smaller than any of the planets orbiting our sun. Iowa State University's Steve Kawaler was part of the research team that determined the size of the tiny planet's host star. The findings were published online on Feb. 20 in the journal Nature.
Scientists are searching for Earth-like planets by searching near Jupiter-like planets. Using data from NASA’s Kepler mission, scientists have identified 63 candidate hot Jupiter systems, but currently have not found any evidence for nearby companion planets. Washington, D.C.— In the search for E
A new catalog of more than 1,800 stars should increase the chances of spotting worlds like our own in our cosmic backyard.
To date astronomers have discovered over 4,000 planets orbiting other stars. Statistically, there should be over 100 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy. They come in a wide range of sizes and characteristics, largely unimagined before exoplanets were first discovered in the mid-1990s. The biggest motivation for perusing these worlds is to find "Genesis II," a planet where life has arisen and evolved beyond microbes. The ultimate payoff would be finding intelligent life off the Ear
A new study has found that planets orbiting the star TRAPPIST-1 are made mostly of rock, and some could hold more water than Earth. The planets' densities suggest that some of them could have up to 5 percent of their mass in the form of water. The hotter planets closest to their parent star are likely to have dense steamy atmospheres and the more distant ones probably have icy surfaces.
From massive bodies that fell just short of becoming stars to the tiniest solar systems known, 2012 has brought an array of intriguing exoplanets to light. And double-star systems that once seemed unlikely to host planets have produced a wealth of them this year.
Astronomers have discovered a rocky exoplanet that lies just 21 light-years from Earth — closer than any other rocky alien world yet found.
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found an alien planet even smaller than Mercury, in an alien solar system 215 light-years from Earth.
The Exoplanets in Transits and their Atmospheres (ExTrA), just went online and is now searching for exoplanets around red dwarf stars!
Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach Pushed by a commenter on another thread, I thought I’d discuss the R. W. Wood experiment, done in 1909. Many people hold that this experiment shows that CO2 ab…
Massive rocky planet could signal an increase in the number of places potentially suitable for life.
Tampa (AFP) – SpaceX postponed the launch of NASA’s new planet-hunting mission Monday in order to verify the Falcon 9 rocket’s
The Kepler Space Telescope spotted 1,284 planets outside of our solar system—a few of them are just like Earth and could support life
An astronaut who spent a year in outer space now has different DNA to his identical twin brother, according to a NASA study released in Janurary.
Scientists have discovered an “invisible” planet for the first time by observing how its gravity affects the other planet in the system.
Astronomers at the University of Cambridge have discovered a star that’s barely bigger than Saturn, making it the smallest stellar object known to science.
Eep.
Astronomers have put together a 'habitable planets catalog' for NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which launched to Earth orbit in April 2018.
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Space and Astronomy news
By Akshat Rathi, The Conversation Given that we are unlikely to be visiting an exoplanet any time soon, astronomers have been contemplating whether it might be possible to detect indications of simple life – a biosignature – from a distance. Many think that the strongest case for extraterrestrial life would be the discovery of oxygen and methane on the same body. They also think that the likelihood of finding such a biosignature is greatest on …
Rrecent boom in exoplanet discoveries has revived hope about possibility of alien contact in near future
Scientists reveal that NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, has discovered a third small planet outside our solar system.
Of the hundreds of exoplanets discovered by scientists, we list of some of the most interesting
Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics take a closer look at migrating exoplanets. Many known exoplanets orbit close to their host star, within one-tenth of an astronomical unit (one AU is the average distance of the Earth from the Sun). Since their orbital periods are t
(Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers has detected a new Earth-sized exoplanet in an ultra-short period around its parent star. The alien world, designated EPIC 228813918 b, circles its host every four hours and 20 minutes, which makes it the second-shortest orbital period of a planet known to date. The finding was presented in a paper published July 14 on arXiv.org.
Space and Astronomy news
A potentially habitable alien planet — one that scientists say is the best candidate yet to harbor water, and possibly even life, on its surface — has been found around a nearby star.
(PhysOrg.com) -- Bad news for planet hunters: most of the "hot Jupiters" that astronomers have been searching for in star clusters were likely destroyed long ago by their stars. In a paper accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal, John Debes and Brian Jackson of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., offer this new explanation for why no transiting planets (planets that pass in front of their stars and temporarily block some of the light) have been found yet
Researchers at the University of Montreal have discovered a gas giant exoplanet, called GU Psc b, that is around 2,000 times the Earth-Sun distance from its star, a record among exoplanets. A gas giant has been added to the short list of exoplanets discovered through direct imaging. It is located
Once its cameras are calibrated, TESS will capture 400 times as much sky as this test image
Astronomers say a proposed $9 billion telescope would snap the clearest images of the universe to date and build on the success of the Hubble for the next generation.
Outer space might be the toughest environment for life, but some hardy microbes have been able to survive in it for surprising amounts of...
Next-generation telescopes are poised to make discoveries in several scientific fields.
The web has been buzzing over what everyone is calling the smallest extrasolar planet found, weighing in at about 5 times the mass of the Earth.
In the continuing search for dark matter in our universe, scientists believe they have found a unique and powerful detector: exoplanets.
To help in the search for extraterrestrial life and habitable exoplanets, researchers have simulated how extremely low levels of light would look to us reflected off of an Earth-like world's soil, oceans, snow or even vegetation.
(PhysOrg.com) -- An exoplanet is a planet orbiting a star other than our sun.
Ground-breaking discovery in the hunt for worlds that exist in other solar systems.
After only three months of operation, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) spacecraft is delivering on its mission to find more exoplanets. A new paper presents the latest finding: a sub-Neptune planet with a 36-day orbit around its star. This is the third confirmed exoplanet that TESS has found. The planet orbits a K-dwarf star … Continue reading "TESS Finds its Third Planet, a sub-Neptune with a 36-Day Orbit"
I want to go to there.
We’ve been asking ourselves “Are we alone?” for millennia. Greek philosopher Anaximander (circa 610–circa 546 B.C.) is credited with starting the discu ...
A look at the top exoplanet discoveries of the past year, from the first potentially habitable Earth-size world to a staggering haul of 715 newly announced exoplanets.
Since the late 1980s, scientists have discovered nearly 5,000 planetary bodies orbiting stars other than the sun. But astronomers are still working on what exactly we should call them. Today at an American Astronomical Society meeting, UCLA professor Jean-Luc Margot described a simple test that can be used to clearly separate planets from other bodies like dwarf planets and minor planets. The current official definition of a planet, which was issued by the International Astronomical Union in 200
A team of astronomers is set to build a new exoplanet hunter. In theory, this instrument could lead to finding the first truly habitable world beyond Earth.
• JOB: 28 Jun - The full-time appointment involves lectureship in the domain of exoplanets (6 hrs/week), and supervision of bachelor, master, and PhD theses. The successful candidate will be expected to teach a course on planetary atmospheres and climate. The successful candidate will be able to develop their own research group and will lead the local research activities in the field of
Scientists have no idea what's going on.
For the first time, a team of astronomers - including York University Professor Ray Jayawardhana - have measured the passing of a super-Earth in front of a bright, nearby Sun-like star using a ground-based telescope. The transit of the exoplanet 55 Cancri e is the shallowest detected from the ground yet, and the success bodes well for characterizing the many small planets that upcoming space missions are expected to discover in the next few years.
The planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope has been returned to stable condition just days after it slipped into "emergency mode," according to NASA. Team engineers were able to point the...
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