Friday, April 24, 2026

TOI-201 Planets Are Wobbling Out of Our Line of Sight

Artist's illustration of the TOI-201 system. (Credit: University of New Mexico/Tedi Vick)

It turns out that even after studying our solar system in depth and discovering more than 6,100 exoplanets across more than 4,500 exoplanetary systems, not all solar systems are created equal. The longstanding notion is that planets orbit almost entirely in the same orbital path, also called an orbital plane. But what if an exoplanetary system was found to have exoplanets that not only orbit in different planes, but also exhibits changing behavior regarding when they pass in front of their star?



JWST Hunts for an 'Earth-Moon' Twin in a Habitable Zone, But the Star Has Other Plans

Image of the TOI-700 system, including graphs of their habitable zones. Credit - NASA/JPL-Caltech/Robert Hurt/NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

The Moon has played a huge role in the development of Earth. It stabilizes the planet, tempered dramatic climate swings, and possibly even provided the tidal heating that might have led to the first life forms. So it’s natural we would want to find a similar Earth/Luna system somewhere else in the cosmos. But astronomers have been searching for one for years at this point to no avail. And a new paper from Emily Pass and her colleagues at MIT, Harvard, and the University of Chicago describes using the James Webb Space Telescope to track some of the most promising exomoon candidates - only to be foiled by the star they were orbiting.



Colibre: A New Cosmic Simulation With Cinematic Flair

These panels are screenshots from the new COLIBRE simulations. The panel on the left shows the so-called cosmic web, where the colour encodes the projected density of gas and stars. The panels on the right zoom into two simulated galaxies. Image Credit: Schaye et al. (2026) MNRAS

The new Colibre cosmological simulation includes more critical detail than previous simulations. It also includes updated models of things like AGN feedback and star formation. The simulations also include a sonic component, giving the results a cinematic and information-rich flair.



Thursday, April 23, 2026

New Research Reveals That Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Formed in a System Far Colder Than Our Own

This artist’s impression compares the semi-heavy water content of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS (left) and Earth (right). Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/M.Weiss

The interplanetary comet 3I/ATLAS is remarkably rich in a specific type of water that contains deuterium, meaning it came from somewhere colder and with lower levels of radiation than our early Solar System.



This Bathtub Ring of Minerals is More Evidence for an Ancient Warm, Wet Mars

MSL Curiosity is exploring a region in Gale Crater called the Amapari Marker Band. It's like a bathtub ring where metals have accumulated unexpectedly. The region is evidence that Gale Crater was once a paleolake. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's MSL Curiosity rover found a bathtub ring-like deposit of zinc, manganese, and iron in Gale Crater. These metals precipitate out of water in the right conditions, and there's not really any other way they could've become concentrated here. Adding to the excitement, these deposits also form in lakes on Earth, where the concentrated metals are food for some types of bacteria.



The Most Energetic Neutrino Ever Detected Could Be Primordial

This illustration shows a neutrion interacting with ordinary matter and releasing a muon. The muon moves very rapidly, leaving the telltale blue glow of Cherenkov radiation. The most energetic neutrino ever observed was detected by the muon it created. It's energy was so great that researchers think it may have been an elusive cosmogenic neutron. Image Credit: Nicolle R. Fuller/NSF/IceCube

Neutrinos are very difficult to detect. And when they are detected, pinpointing their sources is likewise difficult. New research shows that the most energetic neutrino ever detected must have had an extraordinarly energetic source. It could even be primordial.



The Stars Feeding our Galaxy’s Monster

The picture shows the dynamic environment around the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's center, featuring the gas clouds G2, G2 and G2t alongside previously (Credit : ESO/D. Ribeiro for the MPE GC team)

At the heart of our Galaxy lurks a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of our Sun. For decades, astronomers have watched mysterious gas clouds drifting towards it on almost identical paths, wondering where they came from and why. Now, a team of researchers think they have finally cracked the puzzle and the answer involves two massive stars locked in a violent embrace!