TESS

An artist's illustration of a short-period exoplanet, orbiting its host star at a tiny distance and completing a revolution in just a few hours. This type of research was the focus of the new RAVEN system. Credit: NASA/Tim Pyle

Artificial intelligence revealed hidden signals and discovered dozens of new planets outside the solar system

A system called RAVEN scanned data collected from TESS's first four years of operation and examined more than 2.2 million stars in search of planets that complete an orbit in less than 16 days.
Artist's impression of HD 137010b. credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech/Keith Miller (Caltech/IPAC).)

A candidate for an Earth-sized exoplanet with a year's orbit – but a frozen world

A possible rocky planet, about 6% larger than Earth, appears to complete an orbit in about 355 days and receives only about 29% of the star's radiation that Earth receives - putting it on the verge of the "habitable zone"
The growing tail of 3I/Atlas. (International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Shadow the Scientist)

What does the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS teach us about other solar systems?

Researchers have revealed photographs of the interstellar visitor taken about two months before the comet was identified as an interstellar visitor and discovered that it was already active at a great distance from the Sun.
A Saturn-sized planet orbiting a tiny red dwarf is rewriting what scientists thought was possible in planetary systems. Credit: Avi Blizovsky, via DALEE

The small star that hosts a giant planet and stretches the laws of astronomy

Astronomers have discovered TOI-6894b – a Saturn-sized planet orbiting a tiny red dwarf, a discovery that challenges conventional models of planetary system formation.
An artist's illustration of an ultrashort-period planet (USP) orbiting its host star. A newly discovered planet risks being torn apart by its host star—or being sucked into it and destroyed. Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Schaller (for STScI)

An Earth-sized planet is hurtling towards its own self-destruction.

An ultra-short-period (USP) planet is spiraling toward destruction in about 31 million years. Its extreme heat and high density hint at a violent past.
The black holes orbiting each other. Both black holes have jets associated with them: the larger one in red, the smaller one in yellow. Normally only the red jet is visible, but in the 12 hours on November 12, 2021 the small jet was dominant, giving a direct signal from the smaller black hole, and was observed for the first time. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC) & M. Mugrauer (AIU Jena)

NASA's Planet Hunter's Rare Look at Two Black Holes in a Distant Galaxy

Two black holes orbit each other but usually only see the jet of one of them A rare observation made it possible to see the other as well and provide new insights

Venus' evil twin or Earth's lost brother? The intriguing case of Gliese 12 b

The discovery of Gliese 12 b, a Venus-like planet just 40 light-years away, offers new opportunities to understand the conditions that support life in the universe. "Evil Twin" it gets a lot more
An artist's illustration of the six newly discovered planets orbiting their star in resonance. Credit: Roger Thibaut (NCCR PlanetS)

In a harmonious rhythm: deciphering the "unsolvable puzzle" of a system with six planets

An international team of astronomers discovered a system of six planets orbiting the star HD110067 in a unique harmonic resonance
An artist's rendering of the planet 8 Ursae Minoris b - also known as "The Goddess" - within the debris field after a violent merger of two stars. The planet may have survived the merger, but it is also possible that it is an entirely new planet formed from the fragments. Illustration: Kek Observatory/Adam Makarenko

A large planet surprisingly orbits a star that was supposed to destroy it

The TESS space telescope discovered a planet that survived a merger between two stars as the merged star swelled to become a red giant
Visualization of a planet similar to Earth orbiting a different sun. Image: depositphotos.com

The tripartite venture to locate planets outside the solar system

In a first-of-its-kind project in space - Tel Aviv University will mediate between the two European Gaia spacecraft and NASA's Tess to enable easier and faster discovery of planets
A planet outside the solar system. Illustration: shutterstock

Closer to home / John Mattson

Two proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum help decide between cell survival and death

Who will win the new space race? Microsoft or Google?