#exoplanets

#exoplanets

Astronomers have found what could become the first target for a crucial test of NASA's upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a soon-to-launch observatory that serves as a pathfinder mission for discovering Earthlike worlds around other stars. In a pair of new studies, an international research team has revealed two newfound objects around nearby stars: a gas-giant exoplanet orbiting the star HIP 54515 and a brown dwarf around the star HIP 71618.

Thirty years ago this week, two Swiss astronomers announced that they had spotted the first known planet orbiting a Sun-like star. The Nobel-winning discovery, later published in the pages of Nature, was the culmination of centuries of dreaming, and decades of searching, for worlds beyond the Solar System. It was also the start of a whirlwind of discovery. Astronomers have since found more than 6,000 exoplanets, plus hints of thousands more.

The elements formed from a star's demise shape the structure of the planets that rise from the ashes. What kinds of planet does a solar system cook up? It depends on the ingredients you throw in. Astronomers report that the planets that arise around a star can have a vast array of structures that depend on the elements swimming around that star.

Like many people in this field, I've been fascinated since I was a kid. I think I was five or six when my parents gave me this massive book with a black cover and pictures of the planets. It was like an atlas of the Solar System. I remember being mesmerized by Jupiter and its moons. I'd stare at the page and memorize the masses and radii, then rush outside with my little telescope to find Saturn or Jupiter.

"This milestone represents decades of cosmic exploration driven by NASA space telescopes-exploration that has completely changed the way humanity views the night sky,"

Red dwarfs, or M dwarfs, are the most tempting places to seek alien Earths because they're the most abundant and enduring stars. They make up the majority of the stars in the Milky Way and shine with a slow thermonuclear simmer that should allow them to live exponentially longer than mosteven, say, for 14 trillion years, or 1,000 times the current age of the universe.

"Finding a temperate planet in such a compact system makes this discovery particularly exciting. It highlights the remarkable diversity of exoplanetary systems and strengthens the case for studying potentially habitable worlds around low-mass stars."

"This makes TOI-6894 the lowest mass star known to date to host such a planet," said Edward Bryant, Astrophysics Prize Fellow at the University of Warwick. "This discovery will be a cornerstone for understanding the extremes of giant planet formation."

"A young star of this type is an angry beast, especially if you're sitting as close up as this planet does," said Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy astrophysicist Ekaterina Ilin.

In the 21st century, we have confirmed nearly 6000 exoplanets, compared to none in 1990, revealing a vast potential for life beyond Earth in the universe.

When we search for life in the Universe, it makes sense to look for planets that are similar to Earth.

Liquid carbon is challenging to produce in labs, requiring extreme temperatures and pressures, conditions found in the interiors of giant planets like Uranus and Neptune.

"I have been talking to my daughter about Artemis. She asked me what right did we have to establish a community on the Moon. I compared our exploration to Columbus."