Space, astronomy and planetary science

In our solar system, the “ice giants” Neptune and Uranus are far less dense than rocky Venus and Earth. But astrophysicists on NASA’s TESS mission have now found an exoplanet, TOI-849b, that appears to be 40 times more massive than Earth, yet just as dense. This illustration depicts the exoplanet, UCF-1.01. Like TOI-849b, this exoplanet also orbits close to a star and is like “hot Neptune....

TESS mission discovers massive ice giant

Neptune-sized planet may be remnant core of a much larger planet.

July 1, 2020

CHIME, pictured here, consists of four large antennas, each about the size and shape of a snowboarding half-pipe, and is designed with no moving parts. Rather than swiveling to focus on different parts of the sky, CHIME stares fixedly at the entire sky, looking for fast radio burst sources across the universe.

Astronomers detect regular rhythm of radio waves, with origins unknown

Signal from 500 million light years away is the first periodic pattern of radio bursts detected.

June 17, 2020

Physics graduate student Danielle Frostig awaits the lifting of travel restrictions to mount a astronomical instrument she helped develop on the Magellan Telescope in Las Campanas, Chile.

Capturing stardust

Danielle Frostig, a physics graduate student, is developing an instrument to study how the heaviest elements in the universe are produced.

June 12, 2020

Researchers at MIT, the University of Oklahoma, and elsewhere, with the help of citizen scientists, have identified a brown dwarf with a disk that is the youngest of its kind within about 100 parsecs of Earth. The brown dwarf, named W1200-7845 and depicted in this image, appears to have the kind of disk that could form planets.

Citizen scientists spot closest young brown dwarf disk yet

Discovery made through the Disk Detective project could help the search for new planets.

June 2, 2020

Artist's depiction of LES-9. The LES-9 vehicle was launched in 1976 along with a “sister” satellite, LES-8.

Lincoln Laboratory decommissions Lincoln Experimental Satellite–9

After more than 44 years of providing satellite communications, the LES-9 workhorse retires from service with a record of groundbreaking technical achievement.

May 27, 2020

Max Collinet PhD ’19 and Professor Tim Grove work together to extract an experimental sample from a one-of-a-kind rock-melting machine at MIT that reveals clues about planetesimals and the formation of the rocky planets like Earth and Mars.

When baby planets melt

MIT scientists identify first magmas generated in solar system’s building blocks, unexpectedly answering questions about meteorites and formation of rocky planets.

May 7, 2020

To ensure the best coverage of our solar system, MIT Assistant Professor Richard Linares envisions a constellation of "statites" that communicate and work together, only activating the statite in the optimum position to fly by or rendezvous with an interstellar object successfully. Other statites in the constellation can continue to wait for the next ISO to appear.

To catch an interstellar visitor, use a solar-powered space slingshot

MIT research proposal for rendezvous missions with interstellar objects selected for NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts Program.

May 6, 2020

New research suggests that next-generation telescopes might look first for hydrogen atmospheres, as hydrogen can be a viable, easily detectable biosignature of life.

Study: Life might survive, and thrive, in a hydrogen world

When searching for extraterrestrial life, astronomers may want to look at planets with hydrogen-rich atmospheres.

May 4, 2020

The multi-wavelength 3C 279 jet structure is seen in April 2017. The wavelengths (λ) in millimeters, observation days, and arrays are noted in each panel.

Event Horizon Telescope observes a black hole-powered jet

MIT Haystack Observatory researchers coauthor a paper announcing the observation of a surprising structure in a distant quasar, 3C 279.

April 14, 2020

Ulrich Becker, a professor emeritus in the Department of Physics, died on March 10 at the age of 81.

Professor Emeritus Ulrich Becker, who made major contributions to particle physics, dies at 81

Longtime MIT physicist and mentor created instruments that advanced high-energy physics, including the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the J particle.

April 9, 2020