News by Subject Space & Planetary

Researchers are busy analysing some of the final data sent back from the Cassini spacecraft which has been in orbit around Saturn for more than 13 years until the end of its mission in September 2017. For the last leg of its journey, Cassini was put on a particularly daring orbit passing between Saturn and its rings which brought it closer to Saturn than ever before, allowing scientists to obtain images of Saturn's ultraviolet auroras in unprecedented resolution.

The small red planet is losing water more quickly than what theory as well as past observations would suggest. An international research team has just revealed that water vapor is accumulating in large quantities and unexpected proportions at an altitude of over 80 km in the Martian atmosphere. The capacity of water to escape would greatly increase during certain seasons.

The discoveries include the first circumbinary planet revealed by observations from NASA's TESS mission, which will search nearly the entire sky.

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite has found its first circumbinary planet, a world orbiting two stars. Called TOI 1338 b, the planet lies 1,300 light-years away and is 6.9 times larger than Earth.

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star's habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface.

Harvard scientists have observed a massive, wave-shaped gaseous structure made up of stellar nurseries, forming one of the largest coherent structures ever observed in our Galaxy. Dubbed the 'Radcliffe Wave,' the tremendous structure is surprisingly close to the sun, given that this is the first time it has been observed. The findings were made possible by a new 3D map of our neighborhood in the Milky Way, enabled by open data gathered by European and American space and ground observatories.

NASA's TESS satellite has shown that the bright star Alpha Draconis and its fainter, previously known companion actually undergo mutual eclipses: a complete surprise.