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    A Warm Jupiter Orbiting a Cool Star

    September 16, 2020, Categories  Uncategorized

    A planet observed crossing in front of, or transiting, a low-mass star has been determined to be about the size of Jupiter. While hundreds of Jupiter-sized planets have been discovered orbiting larger sun-like stars, it is rare to see these planets orbiting low-mass host stars and the discovery could help astronomers to better understand how these giant planets form.

    “This is only the fifth Jupiter-sized planet transiting a low-mass star that has been observed and the first with such a long orbital period, which makes this discovery really exciting,” said Caleb Cañas, lead author of the paper and a Ph.D. student at Penn State and NASA Earth and Space Science Fellow.

    Originally detected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) spacecraft, astronomers characterized ...

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    NASA’s TESS delivers new insights into an Ultrahot World

    July 2, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Explore KELT-9 b, one of the hottest planets known. Observations from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have revealed new details about the planet’s environment. The planet follows a close, polar orbit around a squashed star with different surface temperatures, factors that make peculiar seasons for KELT-9 b.
    Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    Measurements from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have enabled astronomers to greatly improve their understanding of the bizarre environment of KELT-9 b, one of the hottest planets known.

    “The weirdness factor is high with KELT-9 b,” said John Ahlers, an astronomer at Universities Space Research Association in Columbia, Maryland, and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland...

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    Breakthrough study of Perplexing Stellar Pulsations

    May 17, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Sound waves bouncing around inside a star cause it to expand and contract, which results in detectable brightness changes. This animation depicts one type of Delta Scuti pulsation — called a radial mode — that is driven by waves (blue arrows) traveling between the star’s core and surface. In reality, a star may pulsate in many different modes, creating complicated patterns that enable scientists to learn about its interior.
    Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

    Astronomers have detected elusive pulsation patterns in dozens of young, rapidly rotating stars thanks to data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)...

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    Surprise! TESS shows ancient North Star undergoes Eclipses

    January 9, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    TESS image with Alpha Draconis circled
    The star Alpha Draconis (circled), also known as Thuban, has long been known to be a binary system. Now data from NASA’s TESS show its two stars undergo mutual eclipses. Credit: NASA/MIT/TESS

    NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have shown that Alpha Draconis, a well-studied star visible to the naked eye, and its fainter companion star regularly eclipse each other. While astronomers previously knew this was a binary system, the mutual eclipses came as a complete surprise.

    “The first question that comes to mind is ‘how did we miss this?'” said Angela Kochoska, a postdoctoral researcher at Villanova University in Pennsylvania who presented the findings at the 235th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu on Jan. 6...

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