SPACERIUM

  We all must have seen the movie Interstellar, and it seems very inspiring, but is it all true? Yes, it can be true, because in our exoplanet discovery phase, the Kepler telescope has discovered many exoplanets and one of them is Kepler-22b also known as The Ocean Planet , it is exactly like Interstellar's Miller's planet which revolves around a star and not a black hole, it is orbiting right in the habitable zone of our Earth which may be creating an underwater world! Kepler-22b: A Potential Ocean Paradise Imagine a planet eerily similar to our own, bathed in the gentle glow of a sun-like star. This is the tantalizing possibility that Kepler-22b presents. Discovered in 2011 , it was one of the first exoplanets found within the habitable zone of its star, Kepler-22. This "Goldilocks zone" is the sweet spot where liquid water, the essential ingredient for life as we know it, could exist on a planet's surface. Here's where things get truly exciting! Unlike Ea...

Gazing into the inky expanse of space, we encounter countless stars, each with its own story. But nestled amongst the familiar and predictable, there exists a celestial oddball: KIC 8462852 , better known as Tabby's Star or the delightfully blunt "WTF Star" . This F-type main-sequence star, similar to our Sun but slightly larger, has become an enigma due to its bizarre dimming behavior. Unlike the well-understood dips caused by transiting planets, Tabby's Star exhibits dramatic and irregular drops in brightness, sometimes by a staggering 20%. This unpredictable dimming has astronomers scratching their heads and proposing a multitude of theories to explain this cosmic light show. The Usual Suspects: Why Tabby's Star Plays Hide and Seek Before diving into the fantastical, let's explore some more grounded possibilities for the erratic dimming: Planetary Leviathan on a Chaotic Orbit: Imagine a behemoth of a planet, 1000 times Earth's mass , with a wildly irr...

  Exoplanets and stars seem so familiar, and it has become common as that thing is no longer unique, but have you seen a real exoplanet? Your answer will be yes, the images we see are real, no, those images are artistic, but scientists have captured a planet for the first time that revolves around a star that is dimmer than itself, I s the star dimmer than the planet? WTF, yes it's absolutely right, and the star's diameter is around 7,00,000 km and the diameter of the planet is around 2,00,000 km , it's strange but true...... Fasten your spacesuits, space explorers! Today, we're setting course for 2M1207b , a colossal exoplanet that holds a pivotal place in our quest to unravel the mysteries of alien worlds. The First to be Seen: A Pioneering Discovery in Exoplanet Imaging Imagine a planet so massive, we could directly capture its image! That's precisely what makes 2M1207b groundbreaking. Discovered in 2004 , it's one of the first exoplanets ever directly ima...

Solar System, a topic of exploration which is vast and mysterious in itself, and perhaps this is because in spite of being our home town, it is so big that we have not been able to understand it 100%. In Solar System our parent star SUN has 8 planets revolving in its orientational orbit and out of that the third rocky habitable planet means EARTH is our home, where I am sitting and writing this blog… really fascinating! Solar System sounds like such a familiar name, right? Do we know it completely? You are saying right, we know about the parent star Sun and the 8 planets revolving around it and a little about Pluto, some asteroids, some moons, that's the solar system, right? Not actually, and today we are going to talk about the same topic which everyone knows but is under-rated, that is dwarf planets, you must know that Pluto is placed in the category of dwarf planets because it is small and its orbit is not like other planets, not only Pluto, there are more than 100 dwarf planets...

 Beyond the familiar planets of our solar system lies a realm of icy mysteries. One such object, nicknamed the "sugar world," has captured the imagination of scientists and astronomy enthusiasts alike. This is Arrokoth, a distant resident of the Kuiper Belt that holds clues to the origins of our solar system and the potential for life elsewhere. A Snowman in the Kuiper Belt Imagine a cosmic snowman, sculpted from ancient ice and bathed in the faint light of the distant sun. That's what Arrokoth appears to be – a two-lobed, reddish world composed primarily of frozen ices.  In 2019, NASA's intrepid New Horizons spacecraft became the first to visit this intriguing object, revealing its unique composition and bizarre nickname. The Sweet Secret: Unveiling the Reddish Hue The moniker "sugar world" stems from the discovery of organic molecules, including simple sugars like glucose and ribose, on Arrokoth's surface. However, don't be fooled by the name. Thes...

Ever since the James Webb Space Telescope was launched, it has been telling us a lot about the universe. Similarly, it has discovered a galaxy that was formed 290 million years after the Big Bang and it is the oldest and farthest galaxy discovered till date. Earlier we had talked about JADES-GS-z7-01-QU  & JADES-GS-z13-0 galaxy, which was the oldest galaxy at that time, but JADES-GS-z14-0 has broken all the records. The JADES Team: Peering into the Distant Past JADES is an international team of astronomers leveraging the JWST's immense power to study the early universe. By observing faint objects at extreme distances, they effectively look back in time, piecing together the cosmos's story. Their recent discovery of JADES-GS-z14-0 pushes the frontier of our knowledge even further. JADES-GS-z14-0: A Galaxy Born in Infancy JADES-GS-z14-0 is estimated to have formed a mere 290 million years after the Big Bang, when the universe was only 2% of its current age. This makes it t...

  We have explored many exoplanets, we have seen many unique and mysterious exoplanets, but this one is something different. I don't think any of you would not like cotton candy! So, we have found a similar planet which would be appropriate to call "The Cotton Candy Planet" this is WASP - 193b, it is so light that its mass is not even 10% of Jupiter, and it is orbiting very close to its star Have you ever dreamt of a planet made entirely of cotton candy? A world where fluffy pink clouds stretched as far as the eye could see, just waiting to be plucked and devoured (sugar crash not included, of course)? Well, buckle up space cadets, because astronomers might have just found the next best thing: WASP-193b, the so-called "Cotton Candy Planet"! Lost in Space (But Not Lost in the Stars): Unlike your local candy store, WASP-193b isn't exactly around the corner. This fluffy giant resides a whopping 850 light-years away in the constellation Sextans. That's a cos...

As you all know, Voyager-1 is the only human made craft which has become the farthest traveller in our space journey till date, and its 46 year journey has been quite wonderful. Voyager-1 spacecraft was launched on September 5, 1977 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Voyager-2 was also launched along with it. The motive of both these spacecraft was to continue their journey in our universe leaving the planets of the Solar System behind and explore other planets. And today, even after 46 years, it is crossing the boundaries of the Solar System and moving ahead in the outer space. It is a matter of great pride that this spacecraft made with such old technology is still looking at us and saying bye-bye and going away. As you all know that Voyager-1 crossed the heliosphere on 25th August 2012 and entered the interstellar space and is currently 15 billion miles away from us. Due to old technology and huge distance, after so many years, its transmission system which converts the data into binary ...

  The vast canvas of the cosmos isn’t silent to the demise of stars. Stellar death can be a dazzling supernova explosion or a more gradual process, but it’s always a powerful finale, a crescendo in the grand symphony of the universe. This celestial drama unfolds in a stunning variety of ways, with each star meeting its fate in a unique and awe-inspiring manner. The Dance of Planetary Nebulae When a medium-sized star, similar in mass to our Sun, nears the end of its life, it sheds its outer layers. This expanding shell of gas and dust, called a planetary nebula, can reach several light-years in diameter. These breathtaking celestial structures come in diverse shapes, from delicate bipolars to intricate rings, as captured by powerful telescopes like Hubble. Planetary nebulae, despite their name, have nothing to do with planets; they are the final breaths of a dying star, a testament to the delicate balance of life and death in the cosmos. The Cosmic Drama of the Crab Nebula A particu...

  Hey everyone, have you ever called someone long distance and gotten nothing but static on the other end? That's kind of what's happening with Voyager 1, our brave little spacecraft exploring the vast emptiness beyond our solar system. After traveling for over 40 years and sending back amazing pictures and information, Voyager 1 started speaking gibberish in November 2023. Instead of the usual stream of scientific data, we're now getting a confusing mess of 0s and 1s (basically the computer language spaceships use). It's like it forgot how to talk to us! What Broke Down? The culprit seems to be the Flight Data System (FDS), a tiny computer onboard Voyager 1 that packages all the cool space stuff it finds into a message we can understand. It's like a translator between space geek and Earthling. There are two main ideas about what went wrong: Space Junk Mail: Tiny particles zipping around space, called cosmic radiation, might have messed up the FDS's memory. Imag...

The mysteries of the universe never cease to amaze us. The vast expanse, filled with complexities, challenges our understanding and pushes us to discover beyond our imagination. Among these profound discoveries is a recent revelation that has captivated astronomers and cosmologists alike: the Big Ring. What is the Big Ring? The Big Ring is a colossal ring-shaped structure composed of galaxies and galaxy clusters, found near the celestial arrangement of Boötes, around 9.2 billion light-years away from Earth. This massive formation has a diameter of approximately 1.3 billion light-years, making it one of the largest structures ever observed in the universe. Its circumference spans about 4 billion light-years, encompassing several galaxies and clusters. Who Discovered the Galaxy Ring? In 2024, Alexia Lopez, a PhD student at the University of Central Lancashire, made this ground-breaking discovery. Lopez's keen interest in large cosmic structures led her to this remarkable finding. Her...

Skywatchers, get ready to be dazzled! Comet C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan-ATLAS) is hurtling towards Earth with the potential to become a naked-eye spectacle this fall. But this icy visitor holds more secrets than just its potential brightness. Let's delve deeper into the unique characteristics of C/2023 A3 and embark on a journey through time to understand its origins. A Double Discovery with a Global Effort: The story of C/2023 A3's discovery highlights the power of international collaboration in astronomy. While the Purple Mountain Observatory in China gets the official credit for spotting it first in January 2023, the ATLAS project in South Africa independently picked up the faint signal just weeks later. This double detection emphasizes the constant vigilance required to track these celestial visitors from the outer reaches of our solar system. A Time Capsule from the Solar System's Formation: Comets are like frozen time capsules, preserving materials from the early days of o...

  Citizen science strikes again! Thanks to the collaborative efforts of enthusiastic skywatchers and professional astronomers, a remarkable exoplanet named TOI-4633 c has been discovered. This Neptune-sized world orbits within the habitable zone of a sun-like star, making it a prime candidate in the ever-growing search for life beyond Earth. Discovery Through Collaboration: The story of TOI-4633 c's discovery is a testament to the power of collaboration. Data collected by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) was meticulously combed through by citizen scientists participating in the Planet Hunters TESS program. This vigilance led to the identification of a subtle dimming in the light of a distant star, TOI-4633 A, caused by the exoplanet transiting (passing in front of) its host star. Further analysis by astronomers confirmed the existence of TOI-4633 c. A World of Possibility: TOI-4633 c is a gas giant, estimated to be roughly 48 times Earth's mass and 3.2 ti...

  J1407b is a cosmic marvel, unlike anything in our own solar system. This giant exoplanet, located a staggering 433.8 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus, boasts the largest ring system ever discovered. Buckle up, space enthusiasts, because J1407b's rings are so vast, they make Saturn's look like mere trinkets. A Ring System Beyond Imagination Imagine a planet adorned with rings that dwarf even the most majestic giants in our solar system. That's J1407b. Its ring system stretches a mind-boggling 180 million kilometers (112 million miles) across. To put that in perspective, that's wider than the distance between the Sun and Earth!  At 200 times the size of Saturn's rings, J1407b's rings are truly colossal. Discovery and Nature of the Beast Discovered in 2012, J1407b wasn't spotted directly. Instead, astronomers cleverly observed the dimming of its parent star, J1407, over a 56-day period. This long and complex eclipse hinted at a massive object w...

  The universe holds countless mysteries, with some dating back to its very birth. Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) unveiled a glimpse into this cosmic past, capturing the farthest black hole collision ever observed. This collision, occurring within a galaxy system called ZS7, offers a groundbreaking opportunity for astronomers to understand the behavior of black holes in the infant universe. A Look Back in Time The beauty of astronomy lies in its ability to act as a time machine. Since light travels at a finite speed, observing distant objects allows us to see them as they existed millions or even billions of years ago. In the case of ZS7, the black hole collision we're witnessing transpired a mere 740 million years after the Big Bang, a time when the universe was only a fraction of its current age. This record-breaking observation provides invaluable insight into how black holes behaved in these primordial conditions. The Titans Collide The JWST's keen eye wasn...