A brief roundup of the latest astronomy news
New nearest exoplanet
A new planet has been detected around our nearest neighbouring star, Proxima Centauri, the third found so far. The planet is around a quarter of the mass of Earth, making it one of the lightest exoplanets ever discovered.
Puffy planets lose atmosphere
Astronomers have observed at least two examples of mini-Neptunes having their puffy outer atmosphere stripped away by their star, transforming them into super-Earths. Astronomers suspected the evolution of the two classes of planets might be linked, but this is the first time a connection has been observed.
Solar storm destroys 40 satellites
SpaceX suffered a mass loss of satellites during a launch on 3 February. The batch of 49 satellites was launched straight into a solar storm, which knocked out at least 40 of the satellites before they could reach a safe orbit. Most of the satellites have already re-entered Earth’s atmosphere and burned up.
Young cluster filled with dead galaxies
An ancient galactic ‘city’ has been found that contains lots of ‘dead’ galaxies, despite dating from a time when the cosmos was just two billion years old. If these desolate clusters are found to be common in the early Universe, it may trigger a rethinking of how galaxy clusters form.
China cleans up dead satellite
In late January, China used a space debris mitigation satellite to move a defunct spacecraft 300km out of geostationary orbit. It’s hoped that parking more satellites in these ‘graveyard’ orbits will help prevent collisions, slowing the spread of space junk.
Life chemicals could form in space
One of the basic building blocks of life, peptides, could form on the surface of dust grains in space, according to a new study, which has worked out a potential chain of reactions that could create the chemicals. Peptides created in deep space could have then made their way to Earth, helping to kickstart life.