Discovery Alert! New JWST Image Released On August 29, 2023. James Webb Telescope's Intimate Portrait

Quadrantid meteor shower to light up night skies after midnight on Jan 3, 2024. Read more here

Get ready for an astronomical treat on Jan 3-4 as the Quadrantids, the potentially 'strongest meteor shower of the year,' paint the night sky with their brilliance! 🌠🌌

🌟 Experiencing Shooting Stars and Meteor Showers in 2024 Capturing the Dance of Celestial Fireworks: A Meteor Shower Extravaganza in 2024

🌠 Quadrantids (Peak: Jan 3–4, Best seen in Northern Hemisphere): Renowned for its dazzling fireball meteors, this shower promises a celestial spectacle that's not to be missed. Find a location away from city lights for an optimal view and kick off the new year with this cosmic wonder!

Read the full article for a detailed guide on the Quadrantids and other meteor showers throughout the year, along with tips for optimal viewing.

Are you ready for the Quadrantids meteor shower and a night filled with cosmic wonder? 🌌🤩 Don't miss the opportunity to witness this celestial spectacle in 2024! Happy stargazing! 🌠💫 #Quadrantids2024 #MeteorShowerMagic #Stargazing #CelestialWonders

Discovery Alert! In a discovery released on January 17, 2024, Webb Telescope's Jaw-Dropping Pics Show Galaxies as Never Seen Before!

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#WebbTelescope #CosmicDiscovery #GalacticMarvels #NASA #SpaceExploration

🚀✨ Explore the Cosmos with Us: Webb Telescope's Unveiling of NGC 346! ✨🌌 New Image from James Webb Telescope released on October 10, 2023

We've got an interstellar treat for you! 🛰️ Get ready to embark on a cosmic journey as we delve into the wonders of NGC 346, revealed by the awe-inspiring James Webb Space Telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). 🌟

Our latest article takes you through this incredible revelation - from the ethereal colors to the secrets of cosmic dust, star formation, and the history of our universe. 🌌💫

It's a breathtaking masterpiece, with blues representing silicates and PAHs, and gentle red hues warming up the dust, thanks to the brightest stars in this celestial wonderland. 🎨💫

But there's more! The image showcases a vivid spectrum, letting us see the cosmos in a whole new light. 🌈✨

Join us in celebrating the brilliance of NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, N. Habel (JPL), and the image-processing magic by P. Kavanagh (Maynooth University). 🌠🙌

Share the cosmic love, dive into the article, and tell us what your favorite cosmic wonder is in the comments! Let's get lost in the beauty of the universe together! 🚀💖

Read more here 🌠👇 🌟🔭

What year will betelgeuse go supernova? Understand the timeline here

Read full article here - https://www.jameswebbdiscovery.com/faqs/what-year-will-betelgeuse-go-supernova

Ratio of Planets to the Sun

How tiny are we REALLY? Ever feel insignificant? Our sun makes our planets look like pebbles! It's 1.3 MILLION times bigger than everything else in our solar system! That's where the incredible James Webb Space Telescope comes in. With its massive mirror, Webb will peer deeper into space than ever before, revealing hidden secrets and maybe even new worlds! What do you think it will find out there? Follow this page for the latest James Webb Discoveries

What is the coldest space in the universe. Read here for an answer

🌟 Located a staggering 5,000 light-years away in the captivating Southern constellation of Centaurus, the Boomerang Nebula boasts a chilling temperature of just one degree Kelvin above absolute zero, approximately -460 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrr, it's the epitome of cosmic chill! ❄️🌌

Did you know which is the largest known galaxy and how big it is? Milky way is only 100,000 light years across in comparison. Read here

An astronomical waltz reveals a sextuplet of planets

An international collaboration between astronomers using the CHEOPS and TESS space satellites, including NCCR PlanetS members from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva, have found a key new system of six transiting planets orbiting a bright star in a harmonic rhythm. This rare property enabled the team to determine the planetary orbits which initially appeared as an unsolvable riddle.

CHEOPS is a joint mission by ESA and Switzerland, under the leadership of the University of Bern in collaboration with the University of Geneva. Thanks to a collaboration with scientists working with data from NASA’s satellite TESS, the international team could uncover the planetary system orbiting the nearby star HD110067. A very distinctive feature of this system is its chain of resonances: the planets orbit their host star in perfect harmony. Part of the research team are researchers from the University of Bern and the University of Geneva who are also members of the National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS. The findings have just been published in Nature.

The planets in the HD110067 system revolve around the star in a very precise waltz. When the closest planet to the star makes three full revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time. This is called a 3:2 resonance. “Amongst the over 5000 exoplanets discovered orbiting other stars than our Sun, resonances are not rare, nor are systems with several planets. What is extremely rare though, is to find systems where the resonances span such a long chain of six planets” points out Dr. Hugh Osborn, CHEOPS fellow at the University of Bern, leader of CHEOPS observation programme involved in the study, and co-author of the publication. This is precisely the case of HD110067 whose planets form a so-called “resonant chain” in successive pairs of 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3 resonances, resulting in the closest planet completing six orbits while the outer-most planet does one.

A seemingly unsolvable puzzle

Although multiple planets were initially detected thanks to their transits, the exact arrangement of the planets was unclear at first. However, the precise gravitational dance enabled the scientists’ team to solve the puzzle of HD110067. Prof. Adrien Leleu from the University of Geneva, in charge of analysing the orbital resonances, and co-author of the study, explains: “A transit occurs when a planet, from our point of view, passes in front of its host star, blocking a minute fraction of the starlight, creating an apparent dip of its brightness.” From the first observations carried out by NASA’s TESS satellite, it was possible to determine that the two inner planets called ‘b’ and ‘c’ have orbital periods of 9 and 14 days respectively. However, no conclusions could be drawn for the other four detected planets as two were seen to transit once in 2020 and once in 2022 with a large 2-year gap in the data, and the other two transited only once in 2022.

The solution to the puzzle for those four additional planets finally began to emerge thanks to observations with the CHEOPS space telescope. While TESS aims at scanning all of the sky bit by bit to find short-period exoplanets, CHEOPS is a targeted mission, focusing on a single star at a time with exquisite precision. “Our CHEOPS observations enabled us to find that the period of planet ‘d’ is 20.5 days. Also, it ruled out multiple possibilities for the remaining three outer planets, ‘e’, ‘f’ and ‘g’,” reveals Osborn.

Predicting the precise waltz of the planets

That is when the team realized that the three inner planets of HD110067 are dancing in a precise 3:2, 3:2 chain of resonances: when the innermost planet revolves nine times around the star, the second revolves six times and the third planet four times.

The team then considered the possibility that the three other planets could also be part of the chain of resonances. “This led to dozens of possibilities for their orbital period,” explains Leleu, “but combining existing observational data from TESS and CHEOPS, with our model of the gravitational interactions between the planets, we could exclude all solutions but one: the 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, 4:3 chain.” The scientists could therefore predict that the outer three planets (‘e’, ‘f’ and ‘g’) have orbital periods of 31, 41 days, and 55 days.

This prediction allowed to schedule observations with a variety of ground-based telescopes. Further transits of planet ‘f’ were observed, revealing it was precisely where theory predicted it based on the resonant-chain. Finally, reanalysis of the data from TESS revealed two hidden transits, one from each of planets ‘f’ and ‘g’, exactly at the times expected by the predictions, confirming the periods of the six planets. Additional CHEOPS observations of each planet, and in particular planet ‘e’ are scheduled in the near future.

A key system for the future

From the handful of resonant-chain systems found so far, CHEOPS has highly contributed to the understanding of not only HD110067, but also of TOI-178. Another well-known example of a resonant-chain system is the TRAPPIST-1 system which hosts seven rocky planets. However, TRAPPIST-1 is a small and incredibly faint star which makes any additional observations very difficult. HD110067, on the other hand, is more than 50 times brighter than TRAPPIST-1.

“The fact that the planets in the HD110067 system have been detected by the transit method is key. While they pass in front of the star, light also filters through the planetary atmospheres” points out Jo Ann Egger, PhD student at the University of Bern, who computed the composition of the planets using CHEOPS data, and co-author of the study. This property is allowing astronomers to determine the chemical composition and other properties of the atmospheres. Since a lot of light is required, the bright star HD110067 and its orbiting planets are an ideal target for further studies to charachterize the planetary atmospheres. “The sub-Neptune planets of the HD110067 system appear to have low masses, suggesting they may be gas- or water-rich. Future observations, for example with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), of these planetary atmospheres could determine whether the planets have rocky or water-rich interior structures,” concludes Egger.

TOP IMAGE....A rare family of six exoplanets has been unlocked with the help of ESA’s Cheops mission. The planets in this family are all smaller than Neptune and revolve around their star HD110067 in a very precise waltz. When the closest planet to the star makes three full revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time. This is called a 3:2 resonance. The six planets form a resonant chain in pairs of 3:2, 3:2, 3:2, 4:3, and 4:3, resulting in the closest planet completing six orbits while the outer-most planet does one. Cheops confirmed the orbital period of the third planet in the system, which was the key to unlocking the rhythm of the entire system. This is the second planetary system in orbital resonance that Cheops has helped reveal. The first one is called TOI-178. Credit © ESA

LOWER IMAGE....Tracing a link between two neighbour planet at regular time interval along their orbits, creates a pattern unique to each couple. The six planets of the HD110067 system create together a mesmerising geometric pattern due to their resonance-chain. Credit © , Thibaut Roger/NCCR PlanetS

Webb Telescope Detects Universe’s Most Distant Organic Molecules

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OTD last year, Webb revealed protostar features within the dark cloud L1527. The protostar itself is tucked within the "neck" of this hourglass form at a distance of 460 light years from earth. Read more here