All posts tagged: planetary

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS points to a far colder planetary birthplace

Interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS points to a far colder planetary birthplace

Published by Jenni Sidey

The water coming off comet 3I/ATLAS is not just unusual. It is extreme. Astronomers studying the interstellar comet found that its water is packed with an unusually heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. The levels are far beyond anything measured in comets from our own solar system. That chemical fingerprint points to a birthplace much colder than the one that produced Earth. It is also colder than the places that formed the planets and the icy bodies that still circle the Sun. The result gives researchers one of their clearest looks yet at how different other planetary systems can be. “Our new observations show that the conditions that led to the formation of our solar system are much different from how planetary systems evolved in different parts of our galaxy,” said Luis Salazar Manzano, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in the University of Michigan’s Department of Astronomy. Astronomers studying the interstellar comet found that its water is packed with an unusually heavy form of hydrogen called deuterium. (CREDIT: Hans Anderson, Michigan …

A New Narrative for Planetary Health in the Hybrid Era

A New Narrative for Planetary Health in the Hybrid Era

Published by Jenni Sidey

There is a problem with how we talk about the twin crises of our time. We speak of climate change arriving, of artificial intelligence (AI) transforming society, as though these phenomena were storms rolling in from somewhere else. This language is imprecise, and it has consequences for our mental and physical health. It suggests that we are simply recipients of forces beyond our control—forces that are quietly chipping away at our ability to make decisions that science consistently tells us are foundational to well-being and collective resilience. The more accurate—and more demanding—framing is this: Climate change and AI are not happening to us. They happen with us, among us, and because of us. This is the cornerstone of any credible new story about planetary health in an age where human and artificial intelligence, nature and technology, personal choices and global consequences are becoming impossible to separate. The Psychological Cost of Misattribution When people perceive a crisis as something outside their control, a familiar pattern follows: They feel helpless; they disengage. A paralysing form of grief …

Giant planet that shouldn’t exist is forcing astronomers to rethink planetary science

Giant planet that shouldn’t exist is forcing astronomers to rethink planetary science

Published by Jenni Sidey

An exoplanet, TOI-5205 b, which is almost as large as Jupiter, orbits a small red star. By many estimates, this red star should not have been able to form it due to the star’s mass. The fact that TOI-5205 b exists as it does at all raises intriguing questions about how it came to be. In addition, the James Webb Space Telescope has confirmed that this planet may be even stranger than previously thought. Specifically, the atmosphere of TOI-5205 b is deficient in heavy elements relative to the hosting star. This discrepancy suggests that the outer layers of the planet and its deep interior have not developed in the same way through the formation process. The findings from the study of TOI-5205 b were recently published in The Astronomical Journal. The research was led by Caleb Cañas, a NASA Goddard Space Flight Center scientist, along with an international team of researchers. This team included Shubham Kanodia, a Carnegie Science astronomer who contributed to the confirmation of the stellar companion in 2023, and who was also …

Planetary scientists reveal where Earth’s water and building blocks came from

Planetary scientists reveal where Earth’s water and building blocks came from

Published by Jenni Sidey

For years, planetary scientists have argued that some of the material that built Earth must have drifted in from beyond Jupiter, carrying water and other volatile ingredients with it. Estimates often put that outer Solar System share somewhere between 6 percent and 40 percent. A new analysis led by ETH Zurich researchers Paolo Sossi and Dan Bower takes a very different view. After comparing Earth’s isotopic makeup with that of meteorites, Mars and the asteroid Vesta, they argue that Earth formed almost entirely from material already present in the inner Solar System. That does not mean the question is settled. Sossi himself says the debate over Earth’s building blocks is “far from over.” But the new study, published in Nature Astronomy, sharply narrows the room for one popular idea, that large amounts of outer Solar System matter crossed Jupiter’s orbit and became part of the growing Earth. “We were truly astonished to find that the Earth is composed entirely of material from the inner Solar System distinct from any combination of existing meteorites,” Bower said. …

Researchers detect dry ice in a planetary nebula for the first time

Researchers detect dry ice in a planetary nebula for the first time

Published by skeptic

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), astronomers observed dry ice inside a complex planetary nebula known as NGC 6302. This is the first time dry ice has ever been observed inside a planetary nebula. Planetary nebulae (PNe) are expanding shells of gas and dust that have been ejected from a star during the process of its evolution from a main-sequence star into a red giant or white dwarf. They are relatively rare but are important for astronomers investigating the composition of the interstellar medium (ISM). Complex chemistry of a rare planetary nebula NGC 6302, dubbed the Butterfly Nebula or the Bug Nebula, is a bipolar type PN located some 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The nebula has a radius of at least 1.5 light-years and exhibits bright east-west-oriented bipolar lobes bisected by a massive dusty torus. Previous observations of NGC 6302 have detected methyl cation (CH3+) in this nebula, a key driver of organic chemistry. Moreover, some studies have found widespread polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emission in NGC 6302. These two findings …

Planetary parade: How and when to spot six planets in UK skies in rare alignment | Science, Climate & Tech News

Planetary parade: How and when to spot six planets in UK skies in rare alignment | Science, Climate & Tech News

Published by Sam Flores

Not one, not two, but six planets are due to line up in the night skies this weekend in a relatively rare planetary parade. The phenomenon will see Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune align, with some of the planets visible to the naked eye. This will mean a potential of six planets on display at once, the Greenwich Royal Observatory says. Here is everything you need to know ahead of the phenomenon and how to maximise your chances of spotting all six planets. When will planets be visible? After sunset on Saturday 28 February and Sunday 1 March, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn will be visible to the naked eye to people across the globe, if clear skies allow. The Royal Observatory says Uranus and Neptune will only be spotted with binoculars and telescopes. Mercury, Venus, Saturn and Neptune will be visible in the west very close to the horizon, making sunlight and anything on your skyline additional obstacles to spotting these planets. Jupiter will be highest planet in the sky for most …

Sun-like star’s nine-month eclipse exposes a violent planetary past

Sun-like star’s nine-month eclipse exposes a violent planetary past

Published by Jenni Sidey

A Sun-type star situated nearly 3,000 light-years from Earth has provided astronomers with a unique opportunity to observe an unusual after-effect of a planetary system’s evolution. When this star, designated J0705+0612, underwent a complete dimming event in September 2024, it remained dim for around nine months. This dimming was an incredible 40 times the usual brightness of this star, something which immediately concerned Nadia Zakamska, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University. “Stars like the Sun don’t just spontaneously cease shining,” said Zakamska. “The likelihood of such a significant dimming event occurring naturally is very small.” Working together with a multi-institutional group, Zakamska quickly arranged for access to several telescopes located in Chile, including the Gemini South telescope from the International Gemini Observatory supported by NSF NOIRLab. This was in addition to data obtained from the Apache Point Observatory and the Magellan Telescopes. Their findings were published in The Astronomical Journal. From a dizzying height, the full scale and remoteness of the Gemini South telescope, one half of the International Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF NOIRLab, …

Superionic form of water may power planetary magnetic fields

Superionic form of water may power planetary magnetic fields

Published by Jenni Sidey

Water doesn’t behave the same way in a glass as it does as ice in your freezer. When water is heated to several thousand degrees Celsius, it is also placed under pressures many millions of times greater than the pressure of Earth’s atmosphere; the result is the special form called “superionic water”. The superionic form of water has a rigid, solid-like crystal structure composed of oxygen atoms with flowing hydrogen ions moving through that structure. As such, superionic water can conduct electricity very well. Researchers from the U.S. and various countries in Europe who work at X-ray laser facilities are now beginning to understand that the superionic form of water is actually a lot more complicated than previously thought. Their work helps to explain the unusual magnetic fields seen in other planets, such as Uranus and Neptune, that are believed to be composed of enormous reservoirs of water located deep inside those planets. The research used the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument from the Linac Coherent Light Source at the U.S. Department of Energy …

Of AI, Unreality and Our Planetary Reality

Of AI, Unreality and Our Planetary Reality

Published by Jenni Sidey

A few weeks ago, when it was still summer, my partner’s mother was worrying over the arrangements for her 70th birthday party, due to begin in a few hours time. Alongside what to wear and the catering, she asked about the Spotify playlist. “I’ve chosen some of my favorite songs and then a list of other songs came up,” she said. “I quite like them, but I can’t find any information about them anywhere?” The songs in question were pleasant enough; mostly a strikingly rootless reggae. In the event, the party was a wonderful success; in a lovely location, the food was excellent, and everyone was delighted to be there. Did we end up chatting against a backdrop of AI-generated music? Or did someone carefully filter it out? I’ve absolutely no idea. I forgot to ask, and I certainly didn’t notice. Did it really matter, anyway? We are becoming ever more immersed in a world of unreality, that has now more or less completely taken over our lives. And much of what we know. Our …

Super-low density worlds reveal how common planetary systems form

Super-low density worlds reveal how common planetary systems form

Published by skeptic

One of the low-density planets compared with Earth NASA Four planets orbiting a newly born star in our galaxy are so light that they have the density of polystyrene, and could provide a key missing link in helping us understand how the most common planetary systems form. This solar system is unusual when compared with most other planetary systems in the Milky Way, which typically contain planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. Astronomers have found hundreds of planetary systems like these, but almost all of them are formed around stars that are billions of years old, making it difficult to explain how they take shape. Now, a team led by John Livingston at the Astrobiology Center in Tokyo, Japan and Erik Petigura at the University of California, Los Angeles has identified four tightly clustered planets that appear to have formed recently, given that they orbit a young, 20-million-year-old star called V1298 Tau. “We are seeing a young version of a type of planetary system we see all over the galaxy,” says Petigura. V1298 Tau …