Icy-pebble loop sets strict upper limit on circumjovian turbulence
Derived bound α < 10^{-3} for cold ice means Jupiter's moon-forming disk must have been very quiet.
· “An Upper Limit on Turbulent Viscosity in the Circumjovian Nebula”
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Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Interplanetary medium, planetary physics, planetary astrobiology, extrasolar planets, comets, asteroids, meteorites. Structure and formation of the solar system
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Cold Jupiter eccentricities reveal violent origins for hot Jupiters
A 5.75σ difference in outer companion eccentricity supports divergent formation histories for hot and warm Jupiters.
Cold Kuiper belt mass peaks in 75-km bodies
New JWST-era fits show the primordial planetesimal mass distribution is broad and lognormal across five decades of mass.
· “The size and mass distribution of cold classical TNOs for 5<H<13”
Hot and cold Kuiper Belt objects share one faint-end power law
JWST reaches magnitude 29.8, a full magnitude deeper than Hubble, and both TNO populations trace the same shallow slope.
· “The Luminosity Function of Ultra-Faint Trans-Neptunian Objects Detected by JWST”
5-km TNOs share colors of giant cousins
Cold classical objects down to 5 km preserve primordial surfaces, supporting formation by pebble-cloud collapse.
· “Combined JWST and HST Deep Imaging to Characterize the Smallest Known Trans-Neptunian Objects”
Relativistic time scale for any planet validated to 10⁻²¹ s/s
Open-source tool agrees with independent solutions at 0.02 ns per century, enabling sub-nanosecond lunar and Mars navigation.
· “TEMPUS: Relativistic coordinate time scales for any solar-system body from arbitrary ephemerides”
Interplanetary dust seeds silicate clouds on exoplanets
Model shows 100x Earth's dust flux can produce high-altitude silicate features observed on a warm Neptune.
· “Interplanetary Dust Ablation Seeds Silicate Clouds in Exoplanet Atmospheres”
Centaur lifetimes sit on a chaos floor that astrometry can't beat
The only 'quasi-stable' Centaur is reclassified: it crosses Uranus and dies in about 3 Myr.
External UV leaves a distinct chemical fingerprint on planet-forming disks—until it…
Grid of 45 disk models predicts when JWST sees bright CH3+ and H2 emission and when it does not, separating internal and external…
Six brown dwarfs confirmed, 13 fakes exposed in Gaia follow-up
Spectroscopic vetting of 20 Gaia DR3 substellar candidates shows that 13 are stellar twins mimicking dark companions and six are genuine…
New dataset validates 1,134 real LEO satellite maneuvers
Tiered multi-source evidence enables large-scale evaluation of maneuver detection for the first time
· “MAD-LEO: A Maneuver-Annotated Orbital Dataset for LEO Satellites with Tiered Multi-Source Evidence”
Dayside sea ice can concentrate nutrients for life on water worlds
Freeze-thaw cycles at ice-ocean margins could provide the chemical feedstock needed for abiogenesis.
· “Sea Ice as an Origin of Life Location for Hycean and Ocean Worlds”
Routine accretion drives mid-IR line changes in young binary
Modest flux oscillations, not outbursts, explain most Spitzer-to-JWST line variability in protoplanetary disks
CNEOS fireball speeds miss by about 1 km/s on average
Seven entries look interstellar, but no single vector proves it — independent 3D trajectories are required.
· “Calibration of CNEOS Fireball Velocities and the Robustness of Nominally Hyperbolic Events”
0.38 eccentricity of pi Mensae d traced to giant b
RV reanalysis and N-body integrations show the outer giant both excites and confines the inner planet's orbit.
· “An Outer Giant Excites and Constrains the Orbit of π Mensae d”
One per-particle quantity is missing from lunar charge models
Models assume a charge source they never derive; breakdown forecasts for shadowed craters rest on that step.
· “Mechanisms of Electrostatic Charge Formation and Retention in Lunar Regolith”
Flybys eject most wide planets in the Galactic Bulge
Roman will see the imprint of repeated stellar encounters on planet orbits.
· “Shaving the Outskirts of Planetary Systems Probed by Roman via Stellar Flybys”
Full cluster census cuts accretion rates by factor 14
Including weak and non-accretors flattens the M_dot–M_⋆ relation, prodding predictions for planetary-mass objects
New rotation kernels work for any exoplanet orbit
Analytical formulas connect reflected‑light line shapes to spin – orbit alignment, even for non‑transiting planets.
Posterior sampling cuts radial velocity errors threefold
New diffusion-model prior recovers stellar spectra better than empirical templates, even with fewer observations.
Contrasting C/O ratios reveal distinct paths for Uranus and Neptune
CO disequilibrium chemistry suggests the two ice giants formed differently, with Neptune's building blocks possibly closer to the Sun.
JWST TTVs hint at a third planet around LP 890-9
Transit timing variations from 20 JWST visits point to a sub-Earth planet between two known rocky worlds.
Roman to measure metallicities of 150 microlensing planetary hosts
Combining multi-band imaging with Einstein radius yields first occurrence–metallicity relation for cold low-mass planets beyond the snow…
· “Enabling Metallicity Measurements of Microlensing Lenses through Multi-band Lens Photometry”
Unique organic signatures in three temperate exoplanets
Homogeneous survey of all JWST MIRI exoplanet spectra finds complex molecules only in temperate sub-Neptunes, not in hotter planets.
· “A Homogeneous Survey of JWST MIRI Transmission Spectra of 10 Exoplanets”
Planets around binary stars can park in resonance and survive
1,200 simulations map which binary mass ratios and eccentricities keep two low-mass planets stable.
· “Stability of circumbinary planets: the role of binary properties and migration scenarios”
Updated NIRS3 calibration resolves 8% offset and reveals Ryugu's two-faced surface
New photometric parameters from the full Hayabusa2 dataset show an east-west dichotomy in phase ratio and phase reddening, pointing to…
First kinematic signature tied to a directly imaged planet
ALMA resolves excess CO emission across the Hill sphere of forming giant planet WISPIT 2b, opening a direct window onto planet formation.
· “Mapping the WISPIT2 Planet-Hosting Cavity at Sub-Hill-Radius scales”
Formation theory predicts low metallicity for GEMS
Simulations show giant exoplanets around M dwarfs accrete fewer heavy elements, a prediction testable with JWST and Ariel.
· “The metallicity of giant exoplanets around low-mass stars and how Ariel can help”
Comet 3I/ATLAS kept its odd polarisation through perihelion
New small-phase-angle data fix the minimum at -2.9% and point to unusually bright, weakly absorbing dust.
· “Multi-Wavelength Post-Perihelion Polarimetry of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS”
Rapid disk clearing can freeze planet resonces
A linear scaling law identifies when decaying gas torques trap pairs in mean-motion resonance instead of letting them escape.
PLATO M-dwarf pipeline reaches 50% completeness at S/N 7.7
Habitable-zone Earths around M dwarfs have a 40% recovery probability; false-alarm rate is 6% at the chosen operating point.
Rocky debris accretion detected in A-type planet hosts
Persistent oxygen and nickel excess with unchanged C/O ratio points to silicate-rich, volatile-poor material polluting stellar surfaces.
· “Signatures of rocky debris accretion in AF-Type planet hosts”
Gint from exoplanet ocans is retrievable above 120° phase
The central discovery is that the spectral reddening caused by ocean glint at large phase angles (≥120°) produces a distinctive shape that…
· “Retrieving Ocean Glint Reflectance Signatures from Directly Imaged Earth-like Exoplanets”
Planets find a quiet lane in triple-star systems
New analytical formulas pin down where circumbinary planets stay calm, guiding searches.
· “Circumbinary planets in coplanar triple-star systems: I. Minimum eccentricity variation region”
Composition gradients expand sub-Neptune interior possibilities fivefold
Non-convective layers with varying composition allow up to 5x more H-He mass and weaken rock-iron correlations in models of K2-18 b and…
· “Composition gradients in sub-Neptunes: K2-18 b and TOI-270 d as case studies”
TNO surface composition in 0.7 seconds from a learned inverse
Transformer and normalizing flow trained on synthetic spectra retrieve multimodal posteriors, but real JWST data reveals a sim-to-real bias.
· “TNFlow: Amortized Posterior Inference for Trans-Neptunian Object Surface Composition”
Ethane detected in Titan's atmosphere at 5.2-sigma
Lab cross-sections, not line lists, made it possible — a path to molecules with no line list at all.
· “Detection of hydrocarbons in Titan using high-resolution cross-correlation spectroscopy”
Dry CO2 ice, not water or geysers, reshapes Sisyphi gullies
Infrared spectra show translucent CO2 ice all spring, yet gully changes happen only as the ice thins.
Serpens disks match those of sparse star-forming regions
Three-dimensional stellar density from Gaia shows that Serpens is not crowded enough to truncate protoplanetary disks, resolving an…
After 4.5 billion years, a stellar flyby still fits TNOs better
Long-term evolution improves alignment between simulation and observed trans-Neptunian objects, strengthening the flyby hypothesis.
One starspot line can fake a planet's atmosphere
Simulations show spot-only lines mimic Earth-like atmospheric absorption at the few-ppm level and dampen hot-Jupiter signals.
· “Effect of stellar spot-only spectral lines in high-resolution transit spectroscopy”
Six moons top list for hosting submoons
Numerical simulations rank Iapetus, Titan, Callisto, Rhea, Ganymede, and Phoebe as most dynamically favorable for submoon survival.
· “Dynamically favorable hosts for submoons around Jupiter and Saturn”
446 infrared-excess candidates found in a crowded Galactic field
Multi-wavelength SEDs and periodic light curves hint at debris disks in a high-extinction region of the Milky Way.
A 10,000-year ring rain built Pan's five-lobed ridge
Particle paths through Saturn's Lagrange points reproduce Pan's pentagonal ridge with no extra assumptions.
· “Low-energy ring particle accretion as the origin of Pan's equatorial ridge”
Five for five: known M-dwarf hot Jupiters all orbit aligned
New measurements bring the spin-aligned sample to five and narrow the migration debate.
· “New and Updated Rossiter-McLaughlin Measurements for Three Hot Jupiter-Hosting M Dwarfs”
Eclipse hints at an atmosphere on the lava planet TOI-431b
Its dayside is 1.8σ dimmer than a bare rock's maximum, and dark lava can't explain it.
· “JWST MIRI reveals a potential atmosphere on the ultra-hot rocky planet TOI-431b”
TRAPPIST-1 planets seen in radial velocity for first time
Combined Doppler signal of all seven Earth-sized worlds matches transit-timing mass predictions at 1860:1 odds.
· “Radial velocity detection of the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system with SPIRou and NIRPS”
Hot Neptune WASP-195 b keeps an aligned orbit around its hot star
One of the few Neptune-size planets around a hot star with a measured spin-orbit angle — and it is aligned.
· “POSEIDON III: The Aligned Orbit of the Hot Neptune Around the Hot Star WASP-195”
UV instrument ready to probe Jupiter's icy moon habitability
JUICE-UVS exceeds pre-launch calibration requirements, promising high-resolution maps of atmospheres, auroras, and surfaces.
· “The Ultraviolet Spectrograph on ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer Mission (JUICE-UVS)”
This paper analyzes the timing of dimming events from Boyajian's star and finds strong…
The timing of dimming families in Boyajian's star strongly favors a recurrent fragment model (period ~781 days) over independent…
· “Revisiting orbital recurrence in the dimmings of Boyajian's star (KIC~8462852)”
No evidence that Beta Pic c caused the 1981 brightness event
Search for similar dust transits in photometry from 2017-2023 finds no signal, placing upper limit on circumplanetary material.
· “The Hill sphere transits of Beta Pictoris c and the search for another 1981-like event”
Galactic tides vary by an order of magnitude along Sun's orbit
New Gaia-based model shows tidal parameters are far from constant, reshaping Oort cloud comet dynamics.
· “Galactic tides in the Solar System within a non-axisymmetric Milky Way model adjusted to Gaia data”
Dust trap at 111 AU halts grain drift in DoAr 25
New 1.25–8.8 mm maps show why two low-mass disks diverge: one traps its grains, the other lets them drift inward.
· “Drift-dominated dust evolution. A multiwavelength analysis of dust rings in CY Tau and DoAr25”
Nearest stars yield direct images of mature giant planets
A 3.5-meter coronagraph aims for 10⁻⁹ contrast to unlock reflected-light spectra of Jupiter analogs within 50 pc
Fast-spinning 0.2–0.5 km asteroids imply internal cohesion
Survey of 15 near-Earth asteroids finds several spinning below the 2.2-hour barrier, needing 10^2–10^4 Pa of cohesion.
One in five stars has a companion
A conference review: companions are the rule for cool stars, and new surveys are rewriting stellar evolution.
Ru isotopes put Earth's late veneer in the inner Solar System
High-precision iron meteorite data resolve the NC-CC dichotomy in ruthenium and place the bulk silicate Earth on the non-carbonaceous…
· “The NC-CC dichotomy in ruthenium isotopes: Implications for the origin of the late veneer”
Two flybys and low thrust can reach Halley in 2061
A rendezvous mission concept using only proven technology is now possible, with two launch windows in 2036 and 2037
· “Double Gravity-Assist Rendezvous Trajectory to Halley's Comet Using Deep-Space Low Thrust”
Binary fraction holds at 45% down to 0.4 solar masses
A 366,000-star Gaia census shows the companion rate only collapses below 0.4 solar masses.
· “Mass-dependent multiplicity fraction in low mass stars revealed by Gaia astrometry”
A planet's past HZ history matters more than its present orbit
Bayesian ages of 146 stars reveal that 97 HZ planets have always been temperate, while 46 others may never have been clement
· “Precise Stellar Age Constraints and Habitable Zone Evolution in Exoplanet Systems”
Interstellar comet 3I's gas moves at half the normal speed
IFU spectra from Hobby-Eberly Telescope show that a slow outflow and bright iron/nickel lines set 3I apart from Solar System comets.
Orbit alone can now forecast where a meteorite lands before impact
ESA's automated pipeline turns pre-impact orbits into strewn field maps, with past falls reproduced to within 100–200 m.
Smallest ultra-short-period sub-Earth found around Sun-like star
RV measurements pin down masses for K2-223 b and c, and reveal a tentative Jupiter-like outer companion.
Warm Jupiter obliquities capped at 12° at 90% confidence
Six planets with no detectable flattening imply low tilts, disfavoring chaotic formation histories.
· “Constraining the Planetary Obliquity Distribution of Warm Jupiters”
Syzygy method maps three-body relative periodic orbits
New numerical procedure exploits two consecutive alignments to compute and continue families of Poincaré, Hill, and binary-type solutions…
· “Families of relative periodic orbits in the planar three-body problem via consecutive alignments”
Most sub-Neptunes need more Ariel transits than baseline
Cloudy and metal‑rich atmospheres can require two to ten times the mission's reference number of observations.
Distant giant planets keep moderate tilt to inner worlds
A 19-system survey shows orbits stay within 16 degrees, not random
· “Transiting Planetary Systems with Distant Giant Companions Remain Moderately Coplanar”
Thermal crack trap may hold water for Martian microbes
Salt crystals could keep nighttime moisture inside during the dry day, offering a possible daytime habitat
· “Current water trapping micro-habitats on the surface of Mars”
Over 200 exoplanet hosts linked to star clusters via Gaia
A new catalogue assigns Gaia source IDs to 14,000+ exoplanet host stars, placing 229 in 89 clusters for age-resolved planetary studies.
1,400 km² of orbiting mirrors could double Mars base sunlight
Solar-sail mirrors would reach Mars without propellant, but must be seven times lighter than any sail flown.
· “Doubling Sunlight for a Human Mars Base With Orbiting Solar Reflectors”
Randomized opacities keep C/O error bars calibrated
When line lists disagree, neural retrievals trained on perturbed opacities cover the true C/O as often as their 90% label claims.
· “Amortized Opacity Marginalization Improves C/O Interval Calibration for Brown-Dwarf Retrievals”
Neural emulator runs exoplanet chemistry at 1.7% median error
Trained on a classical kinetics solver, it runs state-to-state evolution fast enough for 3D exoplanet climate models.
· “Accelerating Chemical Kinetics for Exoplanet Atmospheres using Neural Networks”
Where solids survive around young white dwarfs
Iron, rock, and snow must stay beyond 16–130 au to later pollute the star
· “Where planetary solids survive sublimation around young and hot white dwarfs”
3D simulations map how PDS 70c's disk grows with planet mass
Gas around the forming giant planet stays sub-Keplerian and compact, with disk radius up to 0.40 Hill radus
DAVINCI data will shrink Venus-spectrum uncertainty up to 15x
A sharper Venus benchmark lets JWST and future observatories read CO2-world spectra with a firmer prior.
· “The Venus Benchmark: Resolving Degeneracies in Terrestrial Exoplanet Spectra with DAVINCI”
No planets needed: disk heating alone can forge an edge ring
Bright rims appear in disks too young for planets; this shows how their own heat and dust growth could make them.
The paper applies a model from a 2024 study to a larger sample of dust rings around young…
Using 19 dust rings in 10 protoplanetary disks, the authors derive low Stokes numbers (10^-4 to 10^-2) and low turbulence parameters (10^-5…
· “Using Ringed Disks to Determine Fundamental Parameters of Planet Formation”
Dust, not gas, drives the dips of young stars
Multicolor photometry reveals a broken extinction law pointing to opaque dust cores.
· “Conspicuous Gas, Cryptic Dust: Spectroscopy and Chromaticity of Complex Periodic Variables”
21-year survey yields 11 new stellar companions in binary systems
Gaia astrometry provides true masses for three systems, including a potential brown dwarf at the desert edge.
Planar 3-body escapes match 3D theory
Unexpected agreement suggests emissivity factor is key; simulations challenge planar flux prediction
· “Planar Three-Body Problem: theoretical predictions and simulation results”