Another Exoplanet Discovered Nearby

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Source/Credit: Artist rendering of a candidate exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri from the ESO.

Earlier this month, astronomers utilizing the European Space Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope identified what appears to be a third exoplanet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system at about 4.2 light years away. The ESO press release shared the following details:

The newly discovered planet, named Proxima d, orbits Proxima Centauri at a distance of about four million kilometres, less than a tenth of Mercury’s distance from the Sun. It orbits between the star and the habitable zone — the area around a star where liquid water can exist at the surface of a planet — and takes just five days to complete one orbit around Proxima Centauri.

The star is already known to host two other planets: Proxima b, a planet with a mass comparable to that of Earth that orbits the star every 11 days and is within the habitable zone, and candidate Proxima c, which is on a longer five-year orbit around the star.

…At just a quarter of the mass of Earth, Proxima d is the lightest exoplanet ever measured using the radial velocity technique, surpassing a planet recently discovered in the L 98-59 planetary system. The technique works by picking up tiny wobbles in the motion of a star created by an orbiting planet’s gravitational pull. The effect of Proxima d’s gravity is so small that it only causes Proxima Centauri to move back and forth at around 40 centimetres per second (1.44 kilometres per hour).

It’s great to learn a little more about our nearest neighbor.

NASA and MIT Found More Than 5,000 Exoplanet Candidates

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Source: NASA’s TESS.

The volume of possible new worlds continues to expand with the work of the MIT-led NASA mission to observe the heavens for potential exoplanet candidates. Since 2018, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) program has been monitoring stars for temporary drops in brightness caused by planetary transits (the mapping of the initial two years of viewing is provided above). With the addition of new candidates from July 2020 to June 2021, the count of potential exoplanets now exceeds 5,000. Potential candidates will be studied to learn more about their characteristics. TESS’s mission goal has been to discover 50 planets of size less than 4 Earth radii with measured masses.

You can read more about some of TESS’s earlier exoplanet discoveries (shown below and here). For instance, L 98-59b is about 80 percent Earth’s size and orbits L 98-59, an M dwarf about one-third the mass of the Sun. L98-59 is about 35 light-years away. 

Source: NASA’s TESS.

NASA’s Travel Agency

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

If you are getting tired of staying home these days, NASA has some fun destinations in mind for you. Late last year, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) put together “Visions of the Future” to show you where the space agency hopes to go someday. You may not want to pack just yet, but whether it is this solar system or some other solar system, NASA wants to help.

The poster above for Kepler-16b comes with this enticing description:

Like Luke Skywalker’s planet “Tatooine” in Star Wars, Kepler-16b orbits a pair of stars. Depicted here as a terrestrial planet, Kepler-16b might also be a gas giant like Saturn. Prospects for life on this unusual world aren’t good, as it has a temperature similar to that of dry ice. But the discovery indicates that the movie’s iconic double-sunset is anything but science fiction.

You might also enjoy this NASA video showing some space activities in these prime locations.

I dropped in a few more posters below, but be sure to check out all of them. A big thanks also to the folks at JPL for these fun images. The 14 posters were created by nine artists, designers, and illustrators.

Of course, these free photos are already being sold on Etsy.com and elsewhere as posters and t-shirts.

Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Source: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.