Sharing out-of-this-world astrophysics with our on-this-world audience. Brought to you by @CaltechIPAC
Pasadena, CA.
Joined April 2010
- Tweets1.5K
- Following215
- Followers142K
- Likes582
Check out #ExploreExoplanets episdoes 9 & 10, featuring a TESS planet (TOI-700 d) with special guest Dr. Emily Gilbert!
exploreexoplanets.ipac.calte…
exploreexoplanets.ipac.calte…
Over One Thousand TESS Planets Discovered!
This week's 70 planets mark a new milestone: over 1,000 planets have been discovered with data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS)! These additions bring the archive's total confirmed planet count to 6,445. 🧵
ALT This image has an artist's illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) orbiting in space next to bold white text that says TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). Above that text is brown text in a italic-serif font that says 1,000 Planets.
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Ad astra ⭐
At 7:26am ET (1126 UTC) on Aug. 30, @NASARoman took to the skies en route to its new home 1 million miles away from Earth. It should reach its final destination in one month: go.nasa.gov/4iDR2Hz
ALT A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket carrying NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope transiting the Sun as it lifts off to space. The rocket's trail creates a fluffy plume that extends below the Sun. The background sky is a golden haze. Credit: NASA/John Kraus
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has officially launched and is heading to its forever home at L2!
Over the next three months, the observatory will perform final checks and power its instruments before revealing its first images by early 2027.
nasa.gov/Roman
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
XLSSC 122 is the cosmic rule-breaker scientists didn’t see coming 🫣
This is the earliest galaxy cluster to exhibit strong gravitational lensing, bending light from galaxies behind it, and it breaks the previous record by a few billion years!
ipac.caltech.edu/news/new-jw…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Euclid captures the Milky Way’s crowded heart 📸 🧡
The largest and most detailed visible light image ever made of the center of our Milky Way is revealed by @ESA’s Euclid mission 🎉
Quick Release 2 data is now available in @NASA_IRSA!
euclid.caltech.edu/news/esa-…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
CoRoT-2 b is flipping the script 😵💫 ❤️🔥
Typically, hot Jupiters are tidally locked, meaning one side always faces their star. But new research from Aurora Kesseli, staff scientist at @NExScI_IPAC, suggests CoRoT-2 b isn't tidally locked!
ipac.caltech.edu/news/oddbal…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
The most common types of exoplanets are oddly missing from our own solar system 🤔
Scaling K2, an ongoing project at @NExScI_IPAC, is diving into this enigma:
ipac.caltech.edu/news/findin…
These clouds host molecules like water, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide, which are vital to the chemistry that allows life to develop. Researchers believe these ice reservoirs, attached to the surfaces of tiny dust grains, are where the universe’s water is formed & stored.
The first image shows the chemical signatures of water ice (shown in bright blue) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (orange) in Cygnus X, one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our Milky Way galaxy.
NASA's SPHEREx mission is mapping 'interstellar glaciers' across our galaxy, and these icy regions may be the origins of glaciers—and all water—on Earth 💧
spherex.caltech.edu/news/int…
Amaze! Amaze! Amaze! 🪨🎶🎵
@caltechipac scientist Catherine Clark was quoted in a @PhysicsToday article about the science behind the book and recently released movie @projecthailmary
Check out her quote about Rocky's home planet here:
physicstoday.aip.org/news/sc…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Hello, Moon. It’s great to be back.
Here’s a taste of what the Artemis II astronauts photographed during their flight around the Moon. Check out more photos from the mission: nasa.gov/artemis-ii-multimed…
ALT A crescent Earth setting behind the Moon\u2019s horizon. Credit: NASA
ALT Earth setting behind the Moon as seen by the Artemis II crew. Over half the left side of the image is filled by the gray lunar surface, pocked with craters. Credit: NASA
ALT A close view of the Moon. Jagged circles of craters dot the gray surface, fading to dark on the left side of the image. Credit: NASA
ALT A crescent Earth setting behind a hemisphere of the Moon. Credit: NASA
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Caltech and NASA JPL scientists are tracking Artemis II on its way to the Moon. These images were taken using the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory, one of the largest telescopes in the world.
A green-tinted double whammy: it's St. Patrick's Day & #MessierMarathon week! 💚
Messier 81 is a sight to behold in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In the night sky, M81 is visible with binoculars! (but it won't look green like in this infrared image 😉)
🧵1/3
This 8-micron image reveals infrared emissions from hot dust, heated by nearby luminous stars. These dust particles absorb ultraviolet and visible light, re-emitting it as longer infrared wavelengths.
🧵2/3
This wobbly, energetic black hole is the first of its kind, and its discovery offers new insights into how galaxies evolve:
ipac.caltech.edu/news/astron…
"It's like seeing 2-year-old children act like teenagers"
Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were hastily producing new stars.
Read more: ipac.caltech.edu/news/young-…
