compiled by Arlene & David Kaplan

Webb Telescope Sees a Carbon Dioxide Atmosphere Way Out There The James Webb Space Telescope is having a fantastic rookie season.On Thursday a team of astrophysicists using the new telescope to probe exoplanets added to what has been a cavalcade of discoveries when they announced that they had detected carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time…more

James Webb: Space telescope reveals ‘incredible’ Jupiter views The world’s largest and most powerful space telescope has revealed unprecedented views of Jupiter. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took the pictures of the Solar System’s biggest planet in July. The images show auroras, giant storms, moons and rings surrounding Jupiter in detail that astronomers have described as “incredible”…more

African Crater Adds an Asteroid Strike to the Late Dinosaur Era About 66 million years ago, Earth was smacked in the face by an asteroid. No, not that one. Another one. In the journal Science Advances, scientists on Wednesday reported that a huge, buried pit off the coast of Guinea in West Africa had all of the appearances of an impact crater made by a meteor…more

The Juicy Secrets of Stars That Eat Their Planets The sun has nourished life on Earth, but it will not be so hospitable forever. Five billion years into the future, our solar system’s star will grow so immense that Mercury, Venus and, possibly, Earth will be swallowed whole. It may seem like an ignominious end to our beloved home. But scientists think that this process of “planetary engulfment,”…more

A Watermark, and ‘Spidey Sense,’ Unmask a Forged Galileo Treasure Galileo Galilei was peering through a new telescope in 1610 when he noticed something strange: several bright objects flickering around the planet Jupiter that seemed to change positions nightly. His discovery, of moons orbiting Jupiter, was a major crack in the notion, widely held since antiquity, that everything in the universe revolved around the Earth…..more

Astronomers May Have Found the Galaxy’s Youngest Planet Over the last 30 years, astronomers have found more than 5,000 exoplanets, an eclectic menagerie of worlds far from our stellar neighborhood. The latest may be a mere infant. In the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists on Tuesday announced compelling evidence for a world just 1.5 million years old…more

Nasa: Artemis Moon rocket second launch attempt called off The US space agency has had to postpone the launch of its new Artemis I Moon rocket for the second time in a week. Controllers were unable to stop a hydrogen leak on the vehicle, almost from the start of Saturday’s countdown procedure…more

Biomass: Giant ‘space brolly’ to weigh Earth’s forests It looks for all the world like a giant brolly, but there’s no rain where it’s going. This immense reflector-antenna is heading into space, to “weigh” Earth’s forests. It’s a key component on the European Space Agency’s Biomass mission, now under construction in the UK at aerospace manufacturer Airbus…more