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    Category Astronomy/Space

    TESS just found a planet in a new way—and more may be hiding in its eight years of data

    July 3, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    microlensing
    This animation illustrates the concept of gravitational microlensing. When one star in the sky appears to pass nearly in front of another, the light rays of the background source star become bent due to the warped space-time around the foreground star. This star acts like a virtual magnifying glass, amplifying the brightness of the background source star. If the nearer star harbors a planetary system, then those planets can also act as lenses, each one producing a short deviation in the brightness of the source. When astronomers find planets this way, they can measure their mass and orbital distance from their host star. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/CI Lab

    For the first time, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission has identified a planet orbiting a ...

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    Nearby ‘Super Earth’ may be a better candidate for life than previously thought

    July 1, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Artist’s conception of the view from the surface of the habitable-zone super-Earth exoplanet GJ 3378b. The planet has a minimum mass just over twice that of Earth and orbits its star at a distance that causes it to receive almost the same amount of starlight as Earth does. The planet joins a growing population of potential hosts for life in the nearby universe. Image credit: Nikolai Berman/UC Irvine.

    Using the Hobby-Eberly Telescope at McDonald Observatory, astronomers have taken a closer look at a nearby exoplanet and discovered it may be more Earth-like than previously thought. The planet, known as GJ 3378b, orbits a small, cool star called a red dwarf...

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    A rare supernova peeled back a star’s layers and revealed a hidden secret

    June 30, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An illustration of the ‘extremely stripped’ supernova 2021yfj. Keck Observatory / Adam Makarenko

    Astronomers studying the rare supernova SN 2021yfj discovered material from one of the deepest layers of a dying star, providing a rare look at its hidden interior. The finding confirms key theories about how massive stars forge the elements that help build planets, worlds, and life.

    Astronomers have glimpsed the inner structure of a dying star in a rare kind of cosmic explosion called an “extremely stripped supernova.”

    In a paper published in Nature, Steve Schulze of Northwestern University in the United States and colleagues describe the supernova 2021yfj and a thick shell of gas surrounding it.

    Their findings support our existing theories of what happens inside massive ...

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    NASA’s Lucy finds a wobbling peanut-shaped asteroid with signs of ancient water

    June 28, 2026, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Black background graphic with a large white title at top. Upper left shows a gray, pea-nut-shaped, rock-like object. Upper right shows a rectangular inset image of a dark textured rock fragment. Near the center are a mission patch logo and a small globe with Antarctica highlighted. Lower half contains two side-by-side charts with axes, tick marks, and blue and green plotted lines with scattered blue data points. Additional white, blue, and green labels appear throughout the graphic.
    During its April 20, 2025, encounter with the main-belt asteroid Donaldjohanson, NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered evidence for iron-rich clays on the surface using its infrared spectrometer. These clays, which are similar to those found in carbon-rich meteorites such as QUE 97990, indicate that water was briefly present in the asteroid during the distant past.
    NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Dan Gallagher

    A bizarre wobbling asteroid revealed by NASA’s Lucy mission is exposing hidden clues about ancient water, cosmic collisions, and the origins of the solar system. NASA’s Lucy spacecraft discovered that asteroid Donaldjohanson is a wobbling, peanut-shaped relic born from a violent collision and slowly reshaped by the subtle force of sunlight...

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