exoplanetology
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Life Under Three Suns: The Real Physics Behind Netflix’s 3 Body Problem
By now, I’m assuming that we’ve made our way through all eight episodes of the Netflix adaptation of Liu Cixin’s The 3 Body Problem (and by we, I mean sci-fi nerds). The series is packed with science—much of it way over the top—but it grounds itself in quantum mechanics and astrophysics. The show combines hard…
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The Hubble Telescope Just Sized Up an Earth-Sized Exoplanet
The Hubble Space Telescope last week ogled an exoplanet passing in front of a star in a triple system, revealing the nearby world’s mass. The world is named LTT 1445Ac, and it was discovered in 2022 by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The world orbits a red dwarf star (one in a set of…
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See 17 Years of an Exoplanet’s Orbit in One Captivating GIF
Beta Pictoris b is a young exoplanet about 12 times as massive as Jupiter, with an orbit nearly twice as long. Now, a timelapse video of the planet’s nearly 23-year orbit lets you see most of that journey in just ten seconds. Jason Wang, an astrophysicist at Northwestern University, has led an effort to condense…
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Webb Telescope Observations Suggest Habitable Planets May Be Rarer Than Previously Thought
About 40 light-years from Earth, a set of seven Earth-sized planets are orbiting a star called TRAPPIST-1. Now, scientists studying the system with the Webb Space Telescope have found one of them, TRAPPIST-1 c, either lacks an atmosphere or has a very thin one, indicating that habitable planets may be fewer and farther between in…