🎉 Happy Leap Year! 🎉

Brightest object ever found by Astronomers!

Discovery Alert! In a discovery announced on Feb 19, 2024 Astronomers unveil the universe's brightest phenomenon - quasar J059-4351, powered by a supermassive black hole. Discover how ESO's Very Large Telescope captured this cosmic marvel, shedding light on its unprecedented luminosity and rapid growth. Read the full article here -

Unveiling the Universe's Brightest Phenomenon - Quasar J0529-4351

#SpaceExploration #CosmicDiscovery #ESO #QuasarJ0594351

Game Changer Discovery released on Mar 13, 2024: Webb Telescope Reveals Recipe for Life May Be Commonplace in the Universe

The James Webb Space Telescope has discovered complex organic molecules (COMs) around young stars that haven't even formed planets yet. These COMs, often linked to life on Earth, were found frozen in ice.

This discovery suggests life's building blocks might be much more common in the universe and could be delivered to young planets by comets and asteroids. Webb's future observations will help us understand how COMs form and move throughout stellar systems, potentially revealing prime locations for life beyond Earth. #JWST #SpaceNews #Astrobiology

Read more here - Webb Telescope Reveals Recipe for Life May Be Commonplace in the Universe

Discovery Alert! In a new discovery released on September 12, 2023, James Webb Telescope Validates Hubble's Findings on Universe Expansion Rate. Read full article here

Prepare to be awestruck because NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has just dropped some mind-blowing revelations about the universe's expansion rate, and it's a cosmic rollercoaster of discoveries! 🌠

🔭 Imagine a telescope that can peer back in time and unveil the secrets of our universe's evolution. That's exactly what the Webb Telescope, NASA's latest star player, has been up to!

🌟 The Hubble Constant Mystery: One of the cosmos' biggest head-scratchers has been the Hubble Tension – a cosmic conundrum stemming from a puzzling mismatch between the measured expansion rate (Hubble constant) and its prediction from the Big Bang. 🌌

🌠 Cepheid Variables & Type Ia Supernovae: Webb's got some stellar assistants – Cepheid variables and Type Ia supernovae. These cosmic gems help astronomers measure vast cosmic distances and, by extension, the Hubble constant. 💫

🌈 Infrared Vision Superpowers: What sets Webb apart is its remarkable near-infrared vision. Unlike visible light, infrared light pierces through cosmic dust, offering clearer views of these celestial distance markers. 🌌

🪐 Results So Far: Webb's observations have confirmed the precision of the Hubble Space Telescope's earlier measurements while significantly reducing measurement noise. It's like seeing the universe's secrets with a magnifying glass! 🔍🌠

🔮 The Hubble Tension Deepens: But here's the kicker: the Hubble Tension persists! The universe seems to be expanding faster than we predicted. Could this be a hint of exotic dark energy, dark matter, or something completely unexpected? 🌌✨

🚀 The Cosmic Adventure Continues: With Webb confirming Hubble's measurements, the quest to decipher the universe's mysteries deepens. What's next? More observations, more data, and more cosmic riddles to solve! 🌌🔍

Join us as we journey into the heart of the cosmos, armed with the Webb Telescope's revelations and an insatiable curiosity for the universe's grand secrets. Stay tuned for more cosmic updates! 🌠🛰️

Zoom Into Wolf-Rayet 124 as seen through James Webb Telescope in this new image released on March 14, 2023

WATCH Hamas terrorists indiscriminately shoot at bathrooms during the Nova Music Festival.

This just shows you that Hamas does not care who—they just kill. #ISRAEL #israelwar #hamas

Mysterious Cosmic Threads Discovered at the Heart of the Milky Way Galaxy a potential target for the James Webb Space Telescope. Read full article here

Celebrating One Year of James Webb Telescope Image of the Carina Nebula

Read full article here

Webb Telescope finds water around Comet 238P/Read in Main Asteroid Belt.

In an exciting new discovery released by the James Webb Space Telescope on May 15, 2023, Webb Telescope finds water around Comet 238P/Read in Main Asteroid Belt. #jameswebbspacetelescope #jwst #webbdiscoveries. Full article here - https://www.jameswebbdiscovery.com/discoveries/webb-telescope-finds-water-around-comet-238pread-in-main-asteroid-belt

The water vapour from the sublimation of water ice on Comet 238P/Read, as shown in this artist's impression, creates the distinctive tail and hazy coma that distinguishes comets from asteroids. The detection of water vapour by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope at Comet Read is a significant milestone in the study of main belt comets and in understanding the origin of water on Earth.  Credits: NASA/ESA

Discovery Alert! New Discovery from James Webb Telescope released on September 11, 2023 - Exoplanet Bombshell: Webb Finds Methane & CO2—Is K2-18 b Habitable? Read full article here

Hold onto your cosmic hats because NASA's James Webb Space Telescope just dropped a bombshell! 🛰️🤯We're talking about K2-18 b, a mesmerizing exoplanet located 120 light-years away from our little blue dot, Earth. 🌍Imagine an exoplanet 8.6 times the mass of Earth, elegantly orbiting a cool dwarf star called K2-18 right within the habitable zone. 🌟 And here's the kicker: Webb's latest investigation has unveiled the presence of mysterious carbon-bearing molecules, including methane and carbon dioxide, in K2-18 b's atmosphere! 🌬️💨But wait, there's more! The scarcity of ammonia and the abundance of these cosmic gases hint at a tantalizing possibility: could there be a hidden water ocean beneath a hydrogen-rich sky on K2-18 b? 🌊🌌It's the stuff of sci-fi dreams come true! 🚀🌠This mind-blowing discovery not only challenges our understanding of exoplanets but also redefines the way we hunt for signs of life beyond our solar system. 🌌👽So, buckle up, fellow cosmic explorers, because Webb's journey to uncover the secrets of the universe has only just begun! 🌌🔭Stay tuned for more updates from the cosmos, and remember, the universe always has a surprise or two up its sleeve! 🌌🪐💫Visit www.jameswebbdiscovery.com for all exciting discoveries made by JWST.

#WebbTelescope #K218bDiscovery #CosmicRevelation #SpaceExploration #AstroAdventures 🌌🚀🔍

An astronomical waltz reveals a sextuplet of planets

An international collaboration between astronomers using the CHEOPS and TESS space satellites, including NCCR PlanetS members from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, have found a key new system of six transiting planets orbiting a bright star in a harmonic rhythm. This rare property enabled the team to determine the planetary orbits which initially appeared as an unsolvable riddle.

CHEOPS is a joint mission by ESA and Switzerland, under the leadership of the University of Bern in collaboration with the University of Geneva. Thanks to a collaboration with scientists working with data from NASA’s satellite TESS, the international team could uncover the planetary system orbiting the nearby star HD110067. A very distinctive feature of this system is its chain of resonances: the planets orbit their host star in perfect harmony. Part of the research team are researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva who are also members of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS. The findings have just been published in Nature.

The planets in the HD110067 system revolve around the star in a very precise waltz. When the closest planet to the star makes three full revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time. This is called a 3:2 resonance. “Amongst the over 5000 exoplanets discovered orbiting other stars than our Sun, resonances are not rare, nor are systems with several planets. What is extremely rare though, is to find systems where the resonances span such a long chain of six planets” points out Dr. Hugh Osborn, CHEOPS fellow at the University of Bern, leader of CHEOPS observation programme involved in the study, and co-author of the publication. This is precisely the case of HD110067 whose planets form a so-called “resonant chain” in successive pairs of 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3 resonances, resulting in the closest planet completing six orbits while the outer-most planet does one.

A seemingly unsolvable puzzle

Although multiple planets were initially detected thanks to their transits, the exact arrangement of the planets was unclear at first. However, the precise gravitational dance enabled the scientists’ team to solve the puzzle of HD110067. Prof. Adrien Leleu from the University of Geneva, in charge of analysing the orbital resonances, and co-author of the study, explains: “A transit occurs when a planet, from our point of view, passes in front of its host star, blocking a minute fraction of the starlight, creating an apparent dip of its brightness.” From the first observations carried out by NASA’s TESS satellite, it was possible to determine that the two inner planets called ‘b’ and ‘c’ have orbital periods of 9 and 14 days respectively. However, no conclusions could be drawn for the other four detected planets as two were seen to transit once in 2020 and once in 2022 with a large 2-year gap in the data, and the other two transited only once in 2022.

The solution to the puzzle for those four additional planets finally began to emerge thanks to observations with the CHEOPS space telescope. While TESS aims at scanning all of the sky bit by bit to find short-period exoplanets, CHEOPS is a targeted mission, focusing on a single star at a time with exquisite precision. “Our CHEOPS observations enabled us to find that the period of planet ‘d’ is 20.5 days. Also, it ruled out multiple possibilities for the remaining three outer planets, ‘e’, ‘f’ and ‘g’,” reveals Osborn.

Predicting the precise waltz of the planets

That is when the team realized that the three inner planets of HD110067 are dancing in a precise 3:2, 3:2 chain of resonances: when the innermost planet revolves nine times around the star, the second revolves six times and the third planet four times.

The team then considered the possibility that the three other planets could also be part of the chain of resonances. “This led to dozens of possibilities for their orbital period,” explains Leleu, “but combining existing observational data from TESS and CHEOPS, with our model of the gravitational interactions between the planets, we could exclude all solutions but one: the 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, 4:3 chain.” The scientists could therefore predict that the outer three planets (‘e’, ‘f’ and ‘g’) have orbital periods of 31, 41 days, and 55 days.

This prediction allowed to schedule observations with a variety of ground-based telescopes. Further transits of planet ‘f’ were observed, revealing it was precisely where theory predicted it based on the resonant-chain. Finally, reanalysis of the data from TESS revealed two hidden transits, one from each of planets ‘f’ and ‘g’, exactly at the times expected by the predictions, confirming the periods of the six planets. Additional CHEOPS observations of each planet, and in particular planet ‘e’ are scheduled in the near future.

A key system for the future

From the handful of resonant-chain systems found so far, CHEOPS has highly contributed to the understanding of not only HD110067, but also of TOI-178. Another well-known example of a resonant-chain system is the TRAPPIST-1 system which hosts seven rocky planets. However, TRAPPIST-1 is a small and incredibly faint star which makes any additional observations very difficult. HD110067, on the other hand, is more than 50 times brighter than TRAPPIST-1.

“The fact that the planets in the HD110067 system have been detected by the transit method is key. While they pass in front of the star, light also filters through the planetary atmospheres” points out Jo Ann Egger, PhD student at the University of Bern, who computed the composition of the planets using CHEOPS data, and co-author of the study. This property is allowing astronomers to determine the chemical composition and other properties of the atmospheres. Since a lot of light is required, the bright star HD110067 and its orbiting planets are an ideal target for further studies to charachterize the planetary atmospheres. “The sub-Neptune planets of the HD110067 system appear to have low masses, suggesting they may be gas- or water-rich. Future observations, for example with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), of these planetary atmospheres could determine whether the planets have rocky or water-rich interior structures,” concludes Egger.

TOP IMAGE....A rare family of six exoplanets has been unlocked with the help of ESA’s Cheops mission. The planets in this family are all smaller than Neptune and revolve around their star HD110067 in a very precise waltz. When the closest planet to the star makes three full revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time. This is called a 3:2 resonance. The six planets form a resonant chain in pairs of 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3, resulting in the closest planet completing six orbits while the outer-most planet does one. Cheops confirmed the orbital period of the third planet in the system, which was the key to unlocking the rhythm of the entire system. This is the second planetary system in orbital resonance that Cheops has helped reveal. The first one is called TOI-178. Credit © ESA

LOWER IMAGE....Tracing a link between two neighbour planet at regular time interval along their orbits, creates a pattern unique to each couple. The six planets of the HD110067 system create together a mesmerising geometric pattern due to their resonance-chain. Credit © , Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS