There is an as-yet-unseen population of Jupiter-like planets orbiting nearby Sun-like stars, awaiting discovery by future missions like NASA’s WFIRST space telescope, according to new models of gas giant planet formation by observational astronomer Alan Boss, supported by a new Science paper on the surprising discovery of a gas giant planet orbiting a low-mass star. Boss’s work focuses on the Astrometric Planet Search project, which has been underway for the last decade at Carnegie Institute’s Las Campanas Observatory in Chile..
“Our study is the first to use observed signals to derive exoplanet magnetic field strengths,” says Evgenya Shkolnik at Arizona State University. “These signals appear to come from interactions between the magnetic fields of the star and the tightly orbiting planet.”
Astrobiologists predict that alien moons may prove to be hotspots for life in the Milky Way. Rogue moons, dubbed “ploonets”, could explain several puzzling phenomena, not the least of which is why astronomers have so far confirmed the existence of at least 4098 exoplanets, but not a single alien moon.
I Tau b is a paradoxical planet, but new research about the hot Jupiter’s mass, brightness and the carbon monoxide in its atmosphere is starting to answer questions about how a planet so large could have formed around a star that’s only two million years old.
The Galaxy Report newsletter brings you daily news of space and science that has the capacity to provide clues to the mystery of our existence and add a much needed cosmic perspective in our current Anthropocene Epoch.
The Epoch of ‘Black Dwarfs’
Nobody Knows What Form Dark Matter Might Take to Has a Super Intellect Tweaked Our Universe? (The Galaxy Report)
Giant Asteroid Impacts Created Earth’s Continents to Michio Kaku: “We’ll Make Contact with Aliens in This Century” (Planet Earth Report Weekend)Black Hole Robots to Physics of Nothing Key to Understanding Origin of the Universe (The Galaxy Report Weekend)
The Language That Doesn’t Use “No” to Why Do JWST’s Images Inspire Panic Among Cosmologists? (Planet Earth Report)
Michio Kaku On the Shift in the UFO Phenomenon to The Psychology of Alien Contact (The Galaxy Report)
Io, Jupiter’s Exploding Moon: Unique in the Milky Way?
Could Dark Matter Be a Source of Light In the Universe?
Human Brain Did Not Shrink 3,000 Years Ago to The Insect Apocalypse (Planet Earth Report)
Building Blocks for Life Found at Milky Way’s Center to Does Light Live Forever? (The Galaxy Report Weekend)
