Tag: Exoplanets
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Baby Exoplanet Born in Ring Gap: Direct View of Planet Formation
Overview: A New Window into Planet Formation A remarkable image from two of the world’s leading telescopes offers a rare snapshot of planet formation in progress. A young gas giant named WISPIT 2b has been captured nestled within a gap of the dusty protoplanetary disk that surrounds its parent star, WISPIT 2. The newborn planet…
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Beyond Our Orbit: The Strangest Planets We Have Uncovered
Beyond Our Orbit: A tour of the cosmos’ most perplexing planets Planet hunting has yielded a catalog bursting with surprises. From pressure-made ice to diamond cores, the universe keeps offering worlds that defy our Earth-centric intuition. Below is a curated look at some of the strangest planets we have uncovered so far, each illuminating a…
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Beyond our orbit: The strangest planets we have uncovered so far
Introduction: A catalog of worlds beyond our solar system As astronomers push the boundaries of discovery, the catalog of exoplanets—and the strange physics they reveal—grows ever longer. From planets with pressure-stabilized “ice” to worlds that look like candy and others that resemble crowns of glass, these distant bodies challenge our intuition about what a planet…
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Young rogue planet cha 1107-7626 gobbles disk material in a rare infant outburst
Introduction: A rogue planet with star-like appetite In a surprising development for planetary science, astronomers have observed a rogue planet known as Cha 1107-7626 rapidly gobbling up gas and dust from its surroundings. Unlike most planets that orbit a star, this lone world is drifting through the galaxy, yet it exhibits a growth spurt reminiscent…
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Young Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626 Reveals Star-Like Growth in the Darkness
Introduction: A rogue planet in the act In a striking turn for planetary science, a young rogue planet named Cha 1107-7626 is being observed during an extraordinary growth phase. Unlike Earth, which orbits the Sun, this free-floating world drifts through interstellar space without a host star. Yet Cha 1107-7626 appears to be forming much like…
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Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626 Exhibits Star-Like Growth
Introduction: A lone wanderer with a hungry appetite In the vastness between stars, a rare kind of world drifts unbound: a rogue planet. Unlike the familiar planets that orbit stars, rogue planets roam freely, forged in the same turbulent beginnings of star-forming regions or ejected from their original planetary systems. Recent observations have captured one…
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Plato Spacecraft Final Tests Ready for December Launch 2026
Overview: Finalizing Plato for the Journey Beyond The European Space Agency’s Plato spacecraft has taken another crucial step toward its scheduled December 2026 launch by completing its final assembly in preparation for flight. At ESA’s Test Centre in the Netherlands, engineers completed the delicate operation of installing the combined sunshield and solar array module, a…
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Rogue Planet Cha 1107-7626 Reveals Star-Lized Growth in Formation
Introduction: A rogue planet in the making In a discovery that challenges how we imagine planets forming, astronomers have observed a rogue planet—an object not bound to any star—experiencing a dramatic growth spurt. The planet, designated Cha 1107-7626, is thought to be five to ten times the mass of Jupiter and is currently in the…
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Plato Spacecraft Nears Final Tests After Completing Sunshield and Solar Arrays
Plato Reaches a Major Milestone in Its Journey to Find Exoplanets The completion of the combined sunshield and solar array module marks a pivotal milestone for the Plato mission, as engineers at ESA’s Test Centre in the Netherlands finalize the spacecraft’s build. After arriving at the facility, the team carried out a delicate operation in…
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Plato spacecraft completes final assembly in ESA test facility ahead of space launch
Final assembly completes the Plato spacecraft The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Plato mission has reached a major milestone. In the Netherlands, engineers completed the final assembly by installing the combined sunshield and solar panel module onto the spacecraft. The operation, carried out in ESA’s dedicated clean room at the Test Centre, marks the last essential…