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A low-mass planet candidate orbiting Proxima Centauri at a distance of 1.5 AU
Butler, R. Paul; Jenkins, James S.; Anglada-Escudé, Guillem +18 more
Our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, hosts a temperate terrestrial planet. We detected in radial velocities evidence of a possible second planet with minimum mass mc sin ic = 5.8 ± 1.9 M⊕ and orbital period Pc = 5.21+0.26-0.22 years. The analysis of photometric data and spectrosc…
Direct evidence of nonstationary collisionless shocks in space plasmas
Pulkkinen, Tuija I.; Russell, Christopher T.; Dandouras, Iannis +11 more
Evidence for a large exomoon orbiting Kepler-1625b
Teachey, Alex; Kipping, David M.
Exomoons are the natural satellites of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system, of which there are currently no confirmed examples. We present new observations of a candidate exomoon associated with Kepler-1625b using the Hubble Space Telescope to validate or refute the moon's presence. We find evidence in favor of the moon hypothesis, bas…
Krypton isotopes and noble gas abundances in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Mall, Urs; Bar-Nun, Akiva; De Keyser, Johan +24 more
The ROSINA mass spectrometer DFMS on board ESA's Rosetta spacecraft detected the major isotopes of the noble gases argon, krypton, and xenon in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Earlier, it has been shown that xenon exhibits an isotopic composition distinct from anywhere else in the solar system. However, argon isotopes, within error, w…
The development of lower-atmosphere turbulence early in a solar flare
Fletcher, L.; Labrosse, N.; Jeffrey, N. L. S. +1 more
We present the first observational study of the onset and evolution of solar flare turbulence in the lower solar atmosphere on an unprecedented time scale of 1.7 s using the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph observing plasma at a temperature of 80,000 K. At this time resolution, nonthermal spectral line broadening, indicating turbulent velocit…
Einstein@Home discovers a radio-quiet gamma-ray millisecond pulsar
de Palma, Francesco; Fusco, Piergiorgio; Gargano, Fabio +129 more
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are old neutron stars that spin hundreds of times per second and appear to pulsate as their emission beams cross our line of sight. To date, radio pulsations have been detected from all rotation-powered MSPs. In an attempt to discover radio-quiet gamma-ray MSPs, we used the aggregated power from the computers of tens of …
Prebiotic chemicals--amino acid and phosphorus--in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Wurz, P.; Bochsler, P.; Altwegg, K. +29 more
The importance of comets for the origin of life on Earth has been advocated for many decades. Amino acids are key ingredients in chemistry, leading to life as we know it. Many primitive meteorites contain amino acids, and it is generally believed that these are formed by aqueous alterations. In the collector aerogel and foil samples of the Stardus…
The presence of clathrates in comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Wurz, P.; Fuselier, S. A.; Rubin, M. +6 more
Cometary nuclei are considered to most closely reflect the composition of the building blocks of our solar system. As such, comets carry important information about the prevalent conditions in the solar nebula before and after planet formation. Recent measurements of the time variation of major and minor volatile species in the coma of the Jupiter…
Detection of argon in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko
Wurz, P.; Bochsler, P.; Altwegg, K. +28 more