News by Subject Space & Planetary

An international collaboration of astronomers has detected a new chemical signature in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet (a planet that orbits a star other than our Sun). The hydroxyl radical (OH) was found on the dayside of the exoplanet WASP-33b -- a so-called 'ultra-hot Jupiter', a gas-giant planet orbiting its host star much closer than Mercury orbits the Sun and therefore reaching atmospheric temperatures of more than 2,500° C.

Nuclear physicists have made a new, highly accurate measurement of the thickness of the neutron "skin" that encompasses the lead nucleus in experiments conducted at the U.S. Department of Energy's Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility and just published in Physical Review Letters. The result, which revealed a neutron skin thickness of .28 millionths of a nanometer, has important implications for the structure and size of neutron stars.

A technology-packed tank top offers a simple, effective way to track astronauts' vital signs and physiological changes during spaceflight, according to research being presented at the American Physiological Society annual meeting during the Experimental Biology (EB) 2021 meeting, held virtually April 27-30.

The evolving periodicity of the brightness of certain types of stars can now be described mathematically.

A team of researchers searched for pieces of an asteroid tracked in space and then observed to impact Botswana on June 2018. Guided by SETI Institute astronomer Peter Jenniskens, they found 23 meteorites deep inside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve and have published their findings in the journal Meteoritics and Planetary Science. "Combining observations of the small asteroid in space with information gleaned from the meteorites shows it likely came from Vesta," said Jenniskens.

A new study led by University of Chicago planetary scientist Edwin Kite uses a computer model of Mars to put forth a promising explanation onto how Mars once contained rivers and lakes: Mars could have had a thin layer of icy, high-altitude clouds that caused a greenhouse effect.

Scientists planning the Interstellar Probe mission, which will travel 1,000 AU from the sun, roughly 10 times as far as the Voyager spacecraft, will discuss the mission at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2021, which is taking place from 19-30 April 2021.

In celebration of the 31st anniversary of the launching of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers aimed the celebrated observatory at one of the brightest stars seen in our galaxy to capture its beauty.