Earth-like exoplanets might be in short supply for the Habitable Worlds Observatory
How common are Earth-like exoplanets—also called exo-Earths—and which exoplanetary systems should we target to find them?
How common are Earth-like exoplanets—also called exo-Earths—and which exoplanetary systems should we target to find them?
Planetary Sciences
Aug 20, 2024
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The gravitational wave detectors LIGO and Virgo have detected a population of massive black holes whose origin is one of the biggest mysteries in modern astronomy. According to one hypothesis, these objects may have formed ...
Astronomy
Jun 24, 2024
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Well over 5,000 planets have been found orbiting other star systems. One of the satellites hunting for them is TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. Astronomers using TESS think they are made a rather surprising ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 25, 2024
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The ESA's Gaia Observatory continues its astrometry mission, which consists of measuring the positions, distances, and motions of stars (and the positions of orbiting exoplanets) with unprecedented precision. Launched in ...
Astronomy
Nov 13, 2023
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35
When the universe erupted into existence with the Big Bang, all of its matter was compressed into a tiny area. Cosmologists theorize that in some regions, subatomic matter may have been so tightly packed that matter collapsed ...
Astronomy
Nov 7, 2023
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NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide one of the deepest-ever views into the heart of our Milky Way galaxy. The mission will monitor hundreds of millions of stars in search of tell-tale flickers that betray ...
Astronomy
Oct 24, 2023
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641
The swirls of the galaxy IC 1776 stand in splendid isolation in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies over 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces.
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2023
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14
At one time, astronomers believed that the planets formed in their current orbits, which remained stable over time. But more recent observations, theory, and calculations have shown that planetary systems are subject to shake-ups ...
Astrobiology
Jul 31, 2023
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14
A small team of astrophysicists affiliated with several institutions in China has found evidence that suggests if wormholes are real, they might magnify light by 100,000 times. In their paper published in the journal Physical ...
Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a dead star using an effect known as gravitational microlensing, first predicted by Albert Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, and first observed by two Cambridge astronomers ...
Astronomy
Feb 2, 2023
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