HD 106906 b is an exoplanet 336 light-years away, 11 times the size of Jupiter, and possibly an analog of our own not-yet-discovered Planet 9. Plus, a large body of water ice has been discovered on Mars, and we interview lead author Dan Berman of the Planetary Science Institute. Also included, stories on Jupiter, Uranus’s moons, a young galaxy, and how space weather impacts habitability.
We’re back! Today we’re bringing you all the latest news, from a fast radio burst in our galaxy to the first brown dwarf discovered using radio telescopes. And telescopes are the hot topic today: using them, renaming them, and sadly, breaking them. Plus the Atacama Desert and Martian life, Europa’s glow, and a roundup of recent planetary science stories.
New images taken with the ALMA Observatory show a young proto-stellar disk with the rings and gaps of planetary formation growing together, once again challenging our preconceptions. And other research into stellar formation adds heavy metals to the mix to match models to observations. Plus an old, metal-poor galaxy halo.
While Venus has dominated the news cycle this week, scientists were publishing papers on other planets, both within our solar system and without. We look at a warm Jupiter orbiting a cool star, the composition of Uranus’ moons (save your jokes for the Q&A), and how life may be hard to detect on Mars. Plus Hubble has released a brand new image of Jupiter with Europa, and they are gorgeous.
Join us for this week’s Planetary Pandemonium as host Beth Johnson covers some of the planetary science news for the week, including metal hydrogen (WHAT), Galilean moons (IO), and a newly discovered asteroid, courtesy of a citizen scientist (WOW). Plus an update on Arecibo Observatory.
Join us today as we share some mission updates, good and bad. The bad: Arecibo Observatory suffered damage from a snapped cable. The good: OSIRIS-Rex performed a final dress rehearsal for taking a sample of Bennu and NASA’s TESS finished its primary mission. Plus, we’re joined by postdoc Kynan Hughson to talk about this week’s Ceres news!
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