TESS tagged posts

TESS discovers a Planet the size of Mars but with the Makeup of Mercury

Caption:An illustration of a red dwarf star orbited by an exoplanet.
Credits:Credit: NASA/ESA/G. Bacon (STScI)

The boiling new world, which zips around its star at ultraclose range, is among the lightest exoplanets found to date. The TESS mission has discovered an ultra-short-period planet (USP) that is also super light. The planet is named GJ 367 b, and it orbits its star in just eight hours. The planet is about the size of Mars, and half as massive as the Earth, making it one of the lightest planets discovered to date.

Ultra-short-period planets are small, compact worlds that whip around their stars at close range, completing an orbit — and a single, scorching year — in less than 24 hours...

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New study shows the Largest Comet ever observed was Active at Near-Record Distance

The comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB), represented in this artist rendition as it might look in the outer Solar System, is estimated to be about 1000 times more massive than a typical comet. The largest comet discovered in modern times, it is among the most distant comets to be discovered with a coma, which means ice within the comet is vaporizing and forming an envelope of dust and vapor around the comet’s core. Credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / Spaceengine

A new study by University of Maryland astronomers shows that comet Bernardinelli-Bernstein (BB), the largest comet ever discovered, was active long before previously thought, meaning the ice within it is vaporizing and forming an envelope of dust and vapor known as a coma...

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Unravelling the Mystery of Brown Dwarfs

Illustration-Nolan_Grieves-Scientists_Characterize_Five_Exotic_Astronomical_Objects-WebUnige.jpg
This artist’s illustration represents the five brown dwarfs discovered with the satellite TESS. These objects are all in close orbits of 5-27 days (at least 3 times closer than Mercury is to the sun) around their much larger host stars. Â© 2021 Creatives Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) – Thibaut Roger – UNIGE

Brown dwarfs are astronomical objects with masses between those of planets and stars. The question of where exactly the limits of their mass lie remains a matter of debate, especially since their constitution is very similar to that of low-mass stars...

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Not just for finding planets: Exoplanet-hunter TESS telescope spots bright Gamma-ray Burst

Credits: NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser

NASA has a long tradition of unexpected discoveries, and the space program’s TESS mission is no different. SMU astrophysicist and her team have discovered a particularly bright gamma-ray burst using a NASA telescope designed to find exoplanets — those occurring outside our solar system — particularly those that might be able to support life.

It’s the first time a gamma-ray burst has been found this way.

Gamma-ray bursts are the brightest explosions in the universe, typically associated with the collapse of a massive star and the birth of a black hole. They can produce as much radioactive energy as the sun will release during its entire 10-billion-year existence.

Krista Lynne Smith, an assistant professor of physics at Southern Methodist Uni...

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