Space Stories: The Youngest Exoplanet, a Second Generation Exoplanet, and a Cold Lava Exoplanet

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Image (Credit): A randomly rendered exoplanet. (Image by Adis Resic from Pixabay)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest related to exoplanets.

—Wired: “Astronomers Confirm Discovery of the Youngest Known Exoplanet Ever”

Newly formed exoplanets are often buried within disks of gas and dust, the leftover building blocks from a planet’s formation, also known as a protoplanetary disk. The difficulty of just locating such a new celestial body is part of what makes the discovery of the exoplanet Elias 2-24b—now the youngest ever confirmed—so exciting…Elias 2-24b is located approximately 450 light-years from Earth. It orbits its star at a distance of approximately 55 astronomical units (one astronomical unit being the average distance between Earth and the sun). Its mass is estimated to be at most 1.9 to 4.0 times that of Jupiter, though researchers believe its volume is likely to be much smaller than our local gas giant. Since its host star is less than 1 million years old, Elias 2-24b is estimated to be similarly young.

—CNN: “First-ever Evidence of a Second-generation Planet Detected Around Dead Star“

In a cosmic first, scientists say they have detected a planet that may have formed from the burned remains of its dead host star. The planet is likely a gas giant orbiting a white dwarf called HS 0209+0832 located about 270 light-years from Earth, according to the authors of a study published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy. After analyzing observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and other instruments, the team found chemical evidence that suggests the planet could have condensed from material expelled by the star as it fizzled out of energy and collapsed into a white dwarf.

—Space.com: “Astronomers Discover a Cold Lava Planet That May Resemble Early Earth“

Scientists have discovered a new planet that defies all expectations. It’s a lava world, but it’s also cold. In fact, it’s the coldest lava world we’ve ever seen with an atmosphere. Researchers spotted HD 3167 b, a rocky super-Earth covered in lava, orbiting a star 154 light-years away. This planet orbits so closely to its star that a “year” on the world (one revolution around its star) takes only one Earth day. But it’s not just a lava-covered rock  — it’s the smallest lava world researchers have ever found. And yet, it has managed to hang onto its atmosphere.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Space Quote: Robots Plan to Visit the Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot. (NASA)

“Our team is not trying to replace human explorers with robots but instead make human exploration safer and more sustainable by developing highly capable, reliable, and trustworthy robots to work in extreme environments…If we can send more capable robots, we can reduce the risk and make people more effective in doing the things that people do best.”

-Statement by Shaun Azimi, NASA’s Dexterous Robotics Team lead. The 16-member Dexterous Robotics Team at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston includes team member who had experience with earlier robot experiments, including Robonaut 2, used on the International Space Station, and Valkyrie, which is NASA’s first bipedal humanoid robot. Future robots are expected to assist with the Moon Base, lunar exploration, and eventually greater work on Mars (beyond the rovers and helicopter already on the Martian surface). This means that artificial intelligence (AI) will be heading to the moon as well while we still try to figure out what to do with AI back here on Earth. AI is already being used on the Martian surface with the Perseverance and Curiosity rovers.

Crew-13 Safely Arrives at the ISS

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The SpaceX Dragon, with its nose cone open and carrying four Crew-13 members, approaches the International Space Station for a docking yesterday evening. (NASA)

A new ISS crew was launched from Cape Canaveral at 11:10 a.m. EDT Thursday, October 1, 2026 . Crew-13, consisting of NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. The ride to the space station was scheduled to be about 8 hours. The SpaceX Dragon capsule carrying the crew safely docked with the ISS at 9:19 p.m. EDT.

The new crew will replace Crew‑12 consisting of NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev. These four crew members will be returning to Earth as soon as Monday, weather permitting.

Image (Credit): From left to right, Crew-13 NASA astronauts Jessica Watkins and Luke Delaney, CSA astronaut Joshua Kutryk, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Teteryatnikov. (NASA)

Space Stories: Earth Gives Extra Juice, Starship’s First Orbit, Starliner Returns, and the Missing Moon

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the Juice spacecraft with Jupiter in the background. (ESA)

Here are some recent space-related stories of interest.

—European Space Agency: “Successful Earth Flyby Improves Juice’s Course to Jupiter”

The European Space Agency’s Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (Juice) skimmed the very outer edge of Earth’s atmosphere on 28 September, using the gravity of our home planet to alter its route to Jupiter using very little fuel. The flyby deflected Juice by an angle of 20° compared to its pre-flyby path and increased its velocity by 3.5 km/s. In the four weeks before the flyby, spacecraft operators only had to give Juice one tiny nudge (out of six opportunities set aside) to put it on exactly the right approach trajectory to make the most of Earth’s gravity. They have been tracking the spacecraft extra carefully since 17 August, and will continue to do so until 10 October.

—Fox Business News: “SpaceX Launches Starship Into Orbit for First Time Ever But Cuts Mission Short“

SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket blasted off from Texas Monday morning on its most ambitious test flight yet, aiming for a roughly 10-hour mission that would have sent the spacecraft around Earth six times, though the company ultimately decided to end the flight earlier than planned…The launch marks Starship’s 14th test flight and its first attempt to reach orbit, a major step beyond previous suborbital missions that ended with splashdowns about an hour after liftoff.

—CBS News: “NASA Plans Unpiloted Starliner Test Flight After Astronauts Got Stuck at Space Station in 2024“

NASA is working with Boeing to launch an unpiloted Starliner capsule in the December-to-January time frame to test upgrades and improvements ordered in the wake of a 2024 mission that suffered multiple propulsion system failures, stranding two astronauts on the space station for more than nine months. If the unpiloted test flight goes well, NASA and Boeing hope to launch a piloted Starliner flight in the mid-2028 time frame, officials said Monday, incorporating redesigned propulsion system valves, more robust subsystems and other modifications expected to prevent the sort of failures that occurred in 2024. Veteran astronaut Warren “Woody” Hoburg will command the mission.

—Sky & Telescope: “Did Venus Swallow Its Moon?“

It’s a question that has perplexed planetary astronomers for decades: Why does Venus — so similar in size to Earth and not all that far from Earth’s orbit — have no moon, while our planet has such a relatively large one? Earth’s Moon likely formed after a massive collision early in solar system history. But according to calculations, Venus should have been even more likely than Earth to have experienced such a catastrophic crash during its formative years. Yet today it has no moon at all. Now, a series of simulations published in the September 20th Astrophysical Journal, have demonstrated that Venus might once have had a moon — but the planet’s relative proximity to the Sun and its massive atmosphere both created conditions under which no moon could have survived. If there ever was a moon, it would have disintegrated and fallen back to the surface long ago.

Note: Here is the podcast version of this post.

Space Quote: A New Space Telescope is Being Planned

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s rendering of the PRIMA space telescope. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“With our Webb and Roman space telescopes, we set a cadence of launching premiere-class missions in both halves of the decade. We’re going to keep that up and kick off the next decade with PRIMA, as part of a pipeline that will consistently have missions of this caliber ready to go.”

–Statement by Shawn Domagal-Goldman, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters, regarding the planned $1.2 billion PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) space telescope. The plan is to launch the space telescope in 2033 to conduct a five-year mission. The main mission of the space telescope will pertain to exoplanet origins, galaxy growth and black hole evolution. It is encouraging to hear about NASA planning these future missions with all the talk of program cuts from the White House. It is probably presumed that the Congress will keep the funding coming.