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Category: space – Page 7

“We initially expected the carbon-to-oxygen ratio in the planet might be similar to the disk,” said Dr. Chih-Chun “Dino” Hsu. “But, instead, we found the carbon, relative to oxygen, in the planet was much lower than the ratio in the disk.”

What is the official process of planetary formation and evolution and is this process uniform for all planetary bodies throughout the universe? This is what a recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters hopes to address as a team of researchers investigated a young exoplanet still forming within its protoplanetary disk that could offer clues into the secrets behind planetary formation and evolution. Additionally, it holds the potential to provide greater complexity with longstanding planetary formation models, which have traditionally presented simple scenarios for planetary formation and evolution.

For the study, the researchers used the W. M. Keck Observatory to observe PDS 70b, which is a gas giant planet approximately three Jupiter masses and located 369 light-years from Earth. What makes PDS 70b interesting for astronomers is its age, as it’s estimated to be approximately 5 million years old, meaning it is still gathering material from the system’s disk, also known as accretion.

Using Keck, the researchers analyzed the light spectra of PDS 70b’s atmosphere to ascertain its carbon-to-oxygen ration and compared this data to the carbon-oxygen ratio of the protoplanetary disk that PDS 70b resides. In the end, the researchers found that PDS 70b carbon-to-oxygen ratio was lower than the surrounding disk, which challenges previous notions of planetary formation models, and the methods used to build those models.

Continue reading “Exoplanet Study Challenges Simplified View of Planetary Growth” | >

Students from the Toms River School District in New Jersey will have the chance to connect with NASA astronauts Don Pettit and Butch Wilmore as they answer prerecorded science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related questions from aboard the International Space Station.

Watch the 20-minute space-to-Earth call in collaboration with Science Friday at 10 a.m. EST on Tuesday, Jan. 14, on NASA+ and learn how to watch NASA content on various platforms, including social media.

Science Friday is a nonprofit dedicated to sharing science with the public through storytelling, educational programs, and connections with audiences. Middle school students will use their knowledge from the educational downlink to address environmental problems in their communities.

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New observations reveal the challenges of detecting planetary atmospheres.

Recent measurements with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) cast doubt on the current understanding of the exoplanet Trappist-1 b’s nature. Until now, it was assumed to be a dark rocky planet without an atmosphere, shaped by a billion-year-long cosmic impact of radiation and meteorites. The opposite appears to be true. The surface shows no signs of weathering, which could indicate geological activity such as volcanism and plate tectonics. Alternatively, a planet with a hazy atmosphere composed of carbon dioxide is also viable. The results demonstrate the challenges of determining the properties of exoplanets with thin atmospheres.

Trappist-1 b is one of seven rocky planets orbiting the star Trappist-1, located 40 light-years away. The planetary system is unique because it allows astronomers to study seven Earth-like planets from relatively close range, with three of them in the so-called habitable zone. This is the area in a planetary system where a planet could have liquid water on the surface. To date, ten research programmes have targeted this system with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) for 290 hours.

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When a magnetar within the Milky Way galaxy belched out a flare of colossally powerful radio waves in 2020, scientists finally had concrete evidence to pin down an origin for fast radio bursts.

A mind-blowing new study has now narrowed down the mechanism. By studying the twinkling light of a fast radio burst detected in 2022, a team of astronomers has traced its source to the powerful magnetic field around a magnetar, in a galaxy 200 million light-years away.

It’s the first conclusive evidence that fast radio bursts can emerge from the magnetospheres of magnetars.

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Carl Sagan famously said, “We are made of star-stuff,” but even he didn’t realize just how far that star stuff traveled before it got to us.

New Hubble data has shown at least some of the carbon that now makes up our bodies may once have drifted hundreds of thousands of light-years out of the galaxy and back.

Elements heavier than helium are forged in the hearts of stars, eventually released into the cosmos when those stars explode as supernovae. These ingredients are then fed into the next generation of stars and planets.

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Near the Moon’s eastern limb lies Mare Crisium — the Sea of Crises — a low basalt plain embayed by rugged mountains. Carved by a colossal impact some 3.9 billion years ago, the 460-mile-wide (740 kilometers) mare appears largely flat and featureless. But lingering whispers of a volcanic past are everywhere, from its ubiquitous darkness to craters flooded and semi-obliterated by ancient basalt lavas — and a curious, solitary landmark near its center: the four-mile wide (6.4 km) Mons Latreille.

Soon, a robotic craft called Blue Ghost will land here, carrying 10 science instruments and technology tests as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Also known as Blue Ghost Mission 1 and nicknamed Ghost Riders in the Sky, the lander is targeting a six-day launch window in mid-January. NASA announced Jan. 7 that the first scheduled launch opportunity is 1:11 a.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 15.

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