binary stars

NASA’s Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin – NASA Science

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NASA’s Webb Finds New Evidence for Planet Around Closest Solar Twin – NASA Science

Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system. … Read more

NASA Citizen Scientists Find New Eclipsing Binary Stars – NASA Science

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NASA Citizen Scientists Find New Eclipsing Binary Stars – NASA Science

When two stars orbit one another in such a way that one blocks the other’s light each time it swings around, that’s an eclipsing binary. A new paper from NASA’s Eclipsing Binary Patrol citizen science project presents more than 10,000 of these rare pairs – 10,001 to be precise. These objects will help future researchers study … Read more

Discovery Alert: A Possible Perpendicular Planet – NASA Science

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Discovery Alert: A Possible Perpendicular Planet – NASA Science

A newly discovered planetary system, informally known as 2M1510, is among the strangest ever found. An apparent planet traces out an orbit that carries it far over the poles of two brown dwarfs. This pair of mysterious objects – too massive to be planets, not massive enough to be stars – also orbit each other. … Read more

With NASA’s Webb, Dying Star’s Energetic Display Comes Into Full Focus – NASA Science

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With NASA’s Webb, Dying Star’s Energetic Display Comes Into Full Focus – NASA Science

Gas and dust ejected by a dying star at the heart of NGC 1514 came into complete focus thanks to mid-infrared data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Its rings, which are only detected in infrared light, now look like “fuzzy” clumps arranged in tangled patterns, and a network of clearer holes close to the … Read more

Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System – NASA Science

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Webb Watches Carbon-Rich Dust Shells Form, Expand in Star System – NASA Science

Every shell is racing away from the stars at more than 1,600 miles per second (2,600 kilometers per second), almost 1% the speed of light. “We are used to thinking about events in space taking place slowly, over millions or billions of years,” added Jennifer Hoffman, a co-author and a professor at the University of … Read more

NASA’s TESS Spots Record-Breaking Stellar Triplets – NASA

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NASA’s TESS Spots Record-Breaking Stellar Triplets – NASA

Watch how the three stars in the system called TIC 290061484 eclipse each other over about 75 days. The line at the bottom is the plot of the system’s brightness over time, as seen by TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). The inset shows the system from above.NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Professional and amateur astronomers … Read more

NASA’s Fermi Mission Nets 300 Gamma-Ray Pulsars … and Counting – NASA Science

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NASA’s Fermi Mission Nets 300 Gamma-Ray Pulsars … and Counting – NASA Science

This visualization shows 294 gamma-ray pulsars, first plotted on an image of the entire starry sky as seen from Earth and then transitioning to a view from above our galaxy. The symbols show different types of pulsars. Young pulsars blink in real time except for the Crab, which pulses slower than in real time because … Read more