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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Habitable planet potential increases in the outer galaxy

    September 2, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Longstanding model of the Galactic habitable Zone, which is estimated to exist between 7-9 kiloparsecs from the center of the galaxy. However, recent research calls this into question. (Credit: NASA/Caltech)
    Longstanding model of the Galactic habitable Zone, which is estimated to exist between 7-9 kiloparsecs from the center of the galaxy. However, recent research calls this into question. (Credit: NASA/Caltech)

    What can the galactic habitable zone (GHZ), galactic regions where complex life is hypothesized to be able to evolve, teach scientists about finding the correct stars that could have habitable planets?

    This is what a recent study accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers investigated a connection between the migration of stars, commonly called stellar migration, and what this could mean for finding habitable planets within our galaxy...

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    Unusual COâ‚‚-rich disk detected around young star challenges planet formation models

    September 1, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Unusual carbon dioxide-rich disk detected around young star challenges planet formation models
    An image of the star-forming region NGC 6357 with the young star XUE 10. Observations with JWST/MIRI reveal a planet-forming disk whose spectrum shows clear detections of four distinct forms of carbon dioxide (CO2), but only little water, providing new insights into the chemical environment where planets are taking shape. Credit: Stockholm University (SU) and María Claudia Ramírez-Tannus, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA).

    A study led by Jenny Frediani at Stockholm University has revealed a planet-forming disk with a strikingly unusual chemical composition: an unexpectedly high abundance of carbon dioxide (CO2) in regions where Earth-like planets may one day form.

    The discovery, made using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), challenges long-standing assumptions about th...

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    White dwarf stars could create surprisingly common long-lived habitable zones

    August 31, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A comparison between the white dwarf IK Pegasi B (centre), its A-class companion IK Pegasi A (left) and the Sun (right). This white dwarf has a surface temperature of 35500 K (Credit : RJ Hall)

    A new study by Manuel Barrientos and colleagues from the University of Oklahoma reveals that between 0.6% and 2.5% of white dwarfs in our solar neighborhood undergo dramatic cooling delays that could extend habitable zones for billions of additional years. The secret lies in an element known as neon-22, which, after carbon and oxygen, is the most abundant element inside white dwarfs.

    When white dwarfs contain at least 2.5% neon-22 by mass, they undergo a process called “distillation” as their cores crystallize...

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    Astronomers capture breathtaking first look at a planet being born

    August 29, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    WISPIT2b, a gas giant forming around a young Sun-like star, has been directly imaged for the first time inside a spectacular multiringed disk. Still glowing and actively accreting gas, the planet offers a unique opportunity to study planetary birth and evolution.

    An international team of astronomers, co-led by researchers at University of Galway, has made the unexpected discovery of a new planet.

    Detected at an early stage of formation around a young analog of our own Sun, the planet is estimated to be about 5 million years-old and most likely a gas giant of similar size to Jupiter.

    The study, which was led by Leiden University, University of Galway and University of Arizona, has been published in the international journal Astrophysical Journal Letters.

    The ground-breaking...

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