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Exoplanets are the celestial bodies orbiting stars other than our Sun. Their small size makes them difficult to detect from Earth, particularly as they appear much dimmer than their parent stars. So indirect methods are employed, such as observing changes in starlight as a result of the exoplanet and its motion.
A reaction between hydrogen and magma at high pressure can produce water, which might explain evidence for ‘wet planets’ in places where water can’t condense.
This study reveals a broken age–frequency relation of hot Jupiters, which simultaneously constrains the tidal factor of host stars and indicates different timescales in hot Jupiter formation, with ~40% forming late on billion-year timescales through secular chaos.
Experimental evidence shows that hydrogen–silicate reactions can generate abundant water in sub-Neptunes, suggesting hydrogen-rich planets have the potential to reach water-rich compositions.
JWST data show that the exoplanet WASP-18b has thermally distinct regions of its dayside. The authors mapped the sizes of these regions, measured their temperatures and potentially identify water destruction in the hottest region.
Observations of multi-temperature stellar eruptions from EK Draconis reveal a solar-like yet complex view of stellar coronal mass ejections. Such frequent, powerful events on the young Sun may have shaped Earth’s early atmosphere.
ALMA telescope observations over a 7-year period have ‘filmed’ spiral arms winding in a protoplanetary disk. This motion is a hallmark of gravitational instability, a theory that suggests how giant planets might form far from their host stars.
To understand how life began on Earth billions of years ago, a global community must work collaboratively to study the emergence of the necessary molecular building blocks and how they evolved into complex life in different environments.
A reaction between hydrogen and magma at high pressure can produce water, which might explain evidence for ‘wet planets’ in places where water can’t condense.
Stronger links between researchers who work on Earth’s and other planets’ atmospheres, and between the experimental, modelling and observational communities, will help to interpret the astronomical data now at our fingertips.
JWST has spatially resolved ro-vibrational CO emission excited by fluorescence in the 49 Ceti debris disk. These observations provide insight into the nature and origin of gas in debris disks.
