Sharing out-of-this-world astrophysics with our on-this-world audience. Brought to you by @CaltechIPAC
Pasadena, CA.
Joined April 2010
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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…
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.
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky!
This is the most comprehensive spectral view of the infrared sky, with 102 colors (or wavelengths) of infrared light from observations made between May and December 2025.
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
IPAC scientist finds evidence for a planet in the same star system as #Avatar's Pandora!
If confirmed by additional observations, "Its very existence [...] would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive, and evolve in chaotic environments."
ipac.caltech.edu/news/nasa-s…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Betelgeuse’s Companion Star May Have Been Seen at Last 👯♀️
ipac.caltech.edu/news/betelg…
"It always amazes me how much we still have to learn. Even stars like Betelgeuse, which we have studied for literally thousands of years, can still surprise us," said David Ciardi.
ALT Image: An arrow points to the companion. Note that the image processing introduces a 180º ambiguity in the location of the companion, which is resolved by analyzing phase information. Credit: Howell et al. 2025
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Want to learn more? Jessie’s podcast with @ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC is a great listen for anyone fascinated by what’s out there in the cosmos. Listen wherever you get your podcasts or on @spotify: open.spotify.com/show/7Bi7MW…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Have you ever wondered if humans could live on another planet? 🤔
@NASA’s chief scientist of exoplanets and TED Fellow, Jessie Christiansen, has helped identify nearly 6,000 exoplanets — some blazing hot, others with the potential to sustain life.
She breaks down 3 contenders for life beyond Earth and more in her @TEDTalks: bit.ly/4ePNwWI
#NASA #exoplanets #spaceexploration #TEDTalk
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
This giant planet orbiting a tiny star is challenging our current theories 🧩🤔
Planet TOI-6894b is a low-density gas giant with a radius a bit larger than Saturn. The host star is the lowest mass star to have a transiting giant planet discovered to date.
ipac.caltech.edu/news/discov…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Let the science begin! 🥁
On May 1, NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory began regular science operations, which consist of taking about 3,600 images per day.
Read more here: spherex.caltech.edu/news/nas…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
How many digits of Pi do you know? 3.14...how about galaxy NGC 314? Check it out on @NED_nasa_ipac to celebrate #PiDay2025! NED is like Google for the sky, especially for objects outside the Milky Way, and it's one of IPAC's many science data archives.
ned.ipac.caltech.edu/byname?…
ALT An image of galaxy NGC 341 taken in the optical by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This image can be found in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Datatabase (NED).
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
The SPHEREx team has received full acquisition of signal from the observatory, indicating the spacecraft is functioning nominally and is power positive.
Congratulations to both the SPHEREx and PUNCH mission teams on a successful launch! 🚀
Two missions took the carpool lane to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket 🚀
SPHEREx, which will survey the entire sky, and PUNCH, which will study the Sun, successfully launched from @SLDelta30 on March 11 at 11:10pm ET (March 12 0310 UTC): nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-l…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
🍿A Rocket Launch Double Feature!🍿
This is an exciting week for IPAC: @LunarTrailblazr & SPHEREx are two NASA satellites scheduled for back-to-back launches!
Here’s where you can watch the action and excitement leading up to liftoff—and beyond! 🚀🚀
ipac.caltech.edu/news/a-rock…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
After over 26 million images and nearly 200 billion sources detected by the telescope, the NEOWISE team has delivered the final data release.
To commemorate this milestone, IPAC has shared 6 new, undiscovered images using data from the NEOWISE archive.
neowise.ipac.caltech.edu/new…
ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC retweeted
Happy holidays from IPAC! 🎉
As we look forward to supporting new and on-going missions, including the anticipated launches of SPHEREx and Lunar Trailblazer in 2025, we also look back at some highlights from 2024. Read more at ipac.caltech.edu/holiday-car…
