ESA’s exoplanet mission Cheops has revealed a unique planetary system consisting of six exoplanets, five of which are locked in a rare rhythmic dance as they orbit their central star. The sizes and masses of the planets, however, don’t follow such an orderly pattern. This finding challenges current theories of planet formation.

A research team – the first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data – has discovered that the rate at which ice is disappearing across the planet is speeding up. The findings also reveal that 28 trillion tonnes of ice was lost between 1994 and 2017 – equivalent to a sheet of ice 100 metres thick covering the whole of the UK.

The rapidly rising global population, sustainability and climate change are among the challenges the agriculture sector faces in the business of producing food. Fortunately, information from satellites can help. A new commercial service – the first in the world – cleverly combines radar data from Copernicus Sentinel-1 and optical data from Copernicus Sentinel-2 to offer daily maps of field-scale crop biomass. Importantly, these maps are completely unimpeded by cloud cover. This new service allows farmers to better monitor and assess the growth of their produce, and, ultimately, make more effective decisions.

Perth, Australia (SPX) Jan 25, 2021
Scientists from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and The University of Western Australia (UWA) have set a world record for the most stable transmission of a laser signal through the atmosphere. In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, Australian researchers teamed up with researchers from the French National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) and

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 25, 2021
When three galaxies collide, what happens to the huge black holes at the centers of each? A new study using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and several other telescopes reveals new information about how many black holes are furiously growing after these galactic smash ups. Astronomers want to learn more about galactic collisions because the subsequent mergers are a key way that galaxies a

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 25, 2021
The red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 is home to the largest group of roughly Earth-size planets ever found in a single stellar system. Located about 40 light-years away, these seven rocky siblings provide an example of the tremendous variety of planetary systems that likely fill the universe. A new study published in the Planetary Science Journal shows that the TRAPPIST-1 planets have remarkably

Boston MA (SPX) Jan 22, 2021
Astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard and Smithsonian have detected the first Jupiter-like planet without clouds or haze in its observable atmosphere. The findings were published this month in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Named WASP-62b, the gas giant was first detected in 2012 through the Wide Angle Search for Planets (WASP) South survey. Its atmosphere, however, had

Liege, Belgium (SPX) Jan 25, 2021
A new international study led by astrophysicist Eric Agol from the University of Washington has measured the densities of the seven planets of the exoplanetary system TRAPPIST-1 with extreme precision, the values obtained indicating very similar compositions for all the planets. This fact makes the system even more remarkable and helps to better understand the nature of these fascinating worlds.

Moscow, Russia (SPX) Jan 20, 2021
Scientists from the Joint Institute for High Temperatures Russian Academy of Sciences (JIHT RAS) and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have experimentally confirmed the presence of an intermediate phase between the crystalline and liquid states in a monolayer dusty plasma system. The theoretical prediction of the intermediate - hexatic - phase was honoured with the Nobel Pr

London, UK (SPX) Jan 22, 2021
The research, led by Queen Mary Emeritus Professor Bernard Carr in the School of Physics and Astronomy, together with F. Kuhnel (Munich) and L. Visinelli (Frascati), investigated how these SLABs could form and potential limits to their size. Whilst there is evidence of the existence of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galactic nuclei - with masses from a million to ten billion times tha