News

LPL Postdoc and Sagan Fellow Feng Long along with researchers at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory have discovered that planet-forming disks of gas and dust around tiny stars live much longer than previously thought. The findings provide new insights into planet formation and the habitability of planets outside our solar system.

A new U of A study challenges decades of scientific assumptions about the origin of Pluto and its largest moon Charon.

The discovery of tiny salt grains in an asteroid sample brought to Earth by the Japanese Hayabusa spacecraft provides strong evidence that liquid water may be more common in the solar system's largest asteroid population than previously thought.

GJ 486 b is about 30% larger than the Earth and three times as massive, which means it is a rocky world with stronger gravity than Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star in just under 1.5 Earth days. It is too close to its star to be within the habitable zone, with a surface temperature of about 800 degrees Fahrenheit. And yet, Webb observations show hints of water vapor.

After years of preparation and anticipation, exoplanet researchers are ecstatic about the first official scientific observation of an exoplanet by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope.

Dr. Sarah Moran was awarded a Postdoctoral Research Development Grant (PRDG) from the University of Arizona for a project titled “Alteration of Planetary Hazes Related to Composition of Host Star”.