Space Stories: SPHEREx Starts Mapping, Studying an Exoplanet’s Atmosphere, and Explosive Diamonds

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Image (Credit): The Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) observatory. (NASA)

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Engadget: “NASA’s SPHEREx Space Telescope Has Begun its Mission to Map the Entire Sky in 3D“

A space observatory designed to map the entire sky over a period of two years to further our understanding of the early universe has started snapping images. SPHEREx, which launched in early March, got started with its observations this past week after over a month of setup procedures and system checks, according to NASA. The space telescope will complete about 14.5 orbits of Earth per day, capturing roughly 3,600 images daily and observing the sky in an unprecedented 102 wavelengths of infrared light. Its observations will eventually be combined to create four “all-sky” maps.

—Sci.News: “Webb Determines Atmospheric Makeup of Sub-Neptune TOI-421b“

Sub-Neptunes are high-occurrence exoplanets that have no solar system analog. Much smaller than gas giants and typically cooler than hot-Jupiter exoplanets, these worlds were extremely challenging to observe before the launch of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Many of sub-Neptunes appear to be very highly obscured by clouds and hazes, which have made it impossible to determine their atmospheric makeup. Now, astronomers using Webb have captured the transmission spectrum of the sub-Neptune TOI-421b and uncovered the chemical fingerprints of its atmosphere.

—Study Finds: “A Star 30,000 Light-Years Away May Have Forged The Gold In Your Jewelry“

The gold in your wedding ring may have come from a star’s explosive death. For decades, scientists have hunted for the factories that produce the universe’s heaviest elements, and now they’ve found an unexpected one: magnetar giant flares, cosmic explosions that release more energy in a millisecond than our Sun does in 100,000 years. Researchers have confirmed that these titanic blasts create the elements that make up our jewelry, electronics, and even our bodies.

Have We Detected Life on an Exoplanet?

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Image by Adis Resic from Pixabay.

The news is filled this week with a story about possible life on a distant exoplanet? What did scientists find?

The exoplanet is named K2-18b, and it orbits a red star that is about 124 light-years away. It is also about 2.6 times larger than the Earth and 8.6 times as massive.

Scientists using data from the James Webb Space Telescope have detected a biosignature similar to molecules – dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) – associated with marine phytoplankton on our planet.

Nikku Madhusudhan, professor of astrophysics and exoplanetary science at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Astronomy, stated:

Earlier theoretical work had predicted that high levels of sulfur-based gases like DMS and DMDS are possible on Hycean worlds…And now we’ve observed it, in line with what was predicted. Given everything we know about this planet, a Hycean world with an ocean that is teeming with life is the scenario that best fits the data we have.

A Hycean planet is basically a world with liquid oceans and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. Such planets are also more common around red dwarf stars.

Of course, more work is necessary to determine whether this finding could relate to something other than biological life, but its does offer exciting possibilities and a clear target for more study.

Pic of the Week: Cosmic Tornado

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Herbig-Haro 49/50 captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The transparent red cloud in the middle of the image, nicknamed the “cosmic tornado,” is outflow of gas and dust from a newly formed star. Moreover, the bright blue glow at the top of the cloud has nothing to do with what you are seeing. The blue glow is a distant spiral galaxy.

Here is more about the image from NASA:

Angled from the upper left corner to the lower right corner of the image is a cone-shaped orange-red cloud known as Herbig-Haro 49/50. This feature takes up about three-fourths of the length of this angle. The tip of the cone positioned at the upper left appears translucent with a rounded end. Coincidently, a background spiral galaxy appears right near the tip too. The galaxy has a concentrated blue center that fades outwards to blend in with red spiral arms. The cones-shaped feature widens slightly from tip down to the lower right. Along the way there are additional rounded edges, like edges of a wave, and intricate foamy-like details. The nebula appears even more translucent to the lower right providing a clearer view of the black background of space. The black background of space is clearer, speckled with some white stars and smaller, more numerous, fainter white galaxies.

Space Stories: JWST Exoplanet Images, Nearby Exoplanets Located, and Exoplanet Biosignatures,

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Image (Credit): Infrared view of the multi-planet system HR 8799. Colors are applied to filters from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera). A star symbol marks the location of the host star HR 8799, whose light has been blocked by the coronagraph. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, W. Balmer (JHU), L. Pueyo (STScI), M. Perrin (STScI))

Here are some recent stories of interest related to exoplanets.

—Webbtelescope.org: “NASA’s Webb Images Young, Giant Exoplanets, Detects Carbon Dioxide“

The first planet outside our solar system was discovered in the 1990’s, but it wasn’t until more than a decade later astronomers actually obtained a direct image of one. It’s extremely difficult to image an exoplanet, as stars in other planetary systems can be thousands of times brighter and bigger than their planets. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is equipped with a highly sensitive coronagraph, a tiny mask that blocks the light of the star, allowing Webb to image exoplanets. Webb’s new images of two iconic systems, HR 8799 and 51 Eridani, and their planets have stunned researchers, and provided additional information into the chemical make-up of the young gas giants.

—ABC News: “Several Planets Found Orbiting Star Less Than 6 light-years Away“

Astronomers have confirmed the existence of four planets orbiting a star less than 6 light-years away with help from some of the world’s most powerful telescopes. Research published in October 2024 revealed that one planet was rotating around Barnard’s Star, the second-closest single star system to Earth. But a combination of telescopes all over the world confirmed the presence of four small exoplanets, according to a study published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

—Universe Today: “Astronomers Think They’ve Found a Reliable Biosignature. But There’s a Catch“

The search for life has become one of the holy grails of science. With the increasing number of exoplanet discoveries, astronomers are hunting for a chemical that can only be present in the atmosphere of a planet with life! A new paper suggests that methyl halides, which contain one carbon and three hydrogen atoms, may just do the trick. Here on Earth they are produced by bacteria, algae, fungi and some plants but not by any abiotic, non biological processes. There is a hitch, detecting these chemicals is beyond the reach of current telescopes.

Pic of the Week: The Lynds 483 Hourglass

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Image (Credit): Lynds 483 as captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

This week’s image is from the James Webb Space Telescope. It shows two actively forming stars that are 650 light-years away. The formation is called Lynds 483, or L483, after American astronomer Beverly Turner Lynds, who studied nebulae in the early 1960s.

Here is more information about the image from NASA:

The two protostars responsible for this scene are at the center of the hourglass shape, in an opaque horizontal disk of cold gas and dust that fits within a single pixel. Much farther out, above and below the flattened disk where dust is thinner, the bright light from the stars shines through the gas and dust, forming large semi-transparent orange cones.

It’s equally important to notice where the stars’ light is blocked — look for the exceptionally dark, wide V-shapes offset by 90 degrees from the orange cones. These areas may look like there is no material, but it’s actually where the surrounding dust is the densest, and little starlight penetrates it. If you look carefully at these areas, Webb’s sensitive NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) has picked up distant stars as muted orange pinpoints behind this dust. Where the view is free of obscuring dust, stars shine brightly in white and blue.