* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Thursday, June 5, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    ‘Sinners,’ starring Michael B. Jordan, is now streaming on Prime Video – About Amazon

    Experience the Thrills of ‘Sinners’ Starring Michael B. Jordan – Now Streaming on Prime Video!

    California Mid-State Fair announces entertainment lineups for Frontier and Mission stages – KSBY News

    Exciting Entertainment Lineup Unveiled for California Mid-State Fair’s Frontier and Mission Stages!

    Spotify & OpenAI: Will Gen AI ‘Hollow Out’ Entertainment? – Technology Magazine

    Will Generative AI Transform the Future of Entertainment

    Author Richard Russo Will Speak At Sandwich Town Hall – CapeNews.net

    Join Us for an Inspiring Evening with Author Richard Russo at Sandwich Town Hall!

    Entertainment Partners Acquires CASHét, Digital Payments Vendor for Productions – Variety

    Entertainment Partners Acquires CASHét, Digital Payments Vendor for Productions – Variety

    Salem’s Harborwalk Garden Cultivates Community with Entertainment, Food, and Events – 105.7 WROR

    Discover the Vibrant Community Spirit at Salem’s Harborwalk Garden: A Hub for Entertainment, Food, and Fun!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Domo to Participate in the D.A. Davidson Technology Summit – Business Wire

    Domo Set to Shine at the D.A. Davidson Technology Summit!

    When fiction becomes fact: 3 pieces of modern technology inspired by Star Trek – Redshirts Always Die

    From Screen to Reality: 3 Modern Technologies Inspired by Star Trek

    The Isfahan Center for Nuclear Technology – UCF, ZPP, and IRR10 – Alma Research and Education Center

    Exploring the Isfahan Center for Nuclear Technology: Innovations and Insights from UCF, ZPP, and IRR10

    Inside the tedious effort to tally AI’s energy appetite – MIT Technology Review

    Inside the tedious effort to tally AI’s energy appetite – MIT Technology Review

    Finland Set to Lead EU Quantum Technology Defense Project – IoT World Today

    Finland Set to Lead EU Quantum Technology Defense Project – IoT World Today

    AI for lawyers: Win back your time using technology – nationaljurist.com

    Reclaim Your Time: How AI is Transforming the Legal Profession

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    ‘Sinners,’ starring Michael B. Jordan, is now streaming on Prime Video – About Amazon

    Experience the Thrills of ‘Sinners’ Starring Michael B. Jordan – Now Streaming on Prime Video!

    California Mid-State Fair announces entertainment lineups for Frontier and Mission stages – KSBY News

    Exciting Entertainment Lineup Unveiled for California Mid-State Fair’s Frontier and Mission Stages!

    Spotify & OpenAI: Will Gen AI ‘Hollow Out’ Entertainment? – Technology Magazine

    Will Generative AI Transform the Future of Entertainment

    Author Richard Russo Will Speak At Sandwich Town Hall – CapeNews.net

    Join Us for an Inspiring Evening with Author Richard Russo at Sandwich Town Hall!

    Entertainment Partners Acquires CASHét, Digital Payments Vendor for Productions – Variety

    Entertainment Partners Acquires CASHét, Digital Payments Vendor for Productions – Variety

    Salem’s Harborwalk Garden Cultivates Community with Entertainment, Food, and Events – 105.7 WROR

    Discover the Vibrant Community Spirit at Salem’s Harborwalk Garden: A Hub for Entertainment, Food, and Fun!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Domo to Participate in the D.A. Davidson Technology Summit – Business Wire

    Domo Set to Shine at the D.A. Davidson Technology Summit!

    When fiction becomes fact: 3 pieces of modern technology inspired by Star Trek – Redshirts Always Die

    From Screen to Reality: 3 Modern Technologies Inspired by Star Trek

    The Isfahan Center for Nuclear Technology – UCF, ZPP, and IRR10 – Alma Research and Education Center

    Exploring the Isfahan Center for Nuclear Technology: Innovations and Insights from UCF, ZPP, and IRR10

    Inside the tedious effort to tally AI’s energy appetite – MIT Technology Review

    Inside the tedious effort to tally AI’s energy appetite – MIT Technology Review

    Finland Set to Lead EU Quantum Technology Defense Project – IoT World Today

    Finland Set to Lead EU Quantum Technology Defense Project – IoT World Today

    AI for lawyers: Win back your time using technology – nationaljurist.com

    Reclaim Your Time: How AI is Transforming the Legal Profession

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Science

Some exoplanets are shrinking. Here’s why

November 17, 2023
in Science
Some exoplanets are shrinking. Here’s why
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

News

Science & Astronomy

An artist's illustration shows a bright blue planet in the foreground with a yellow, glowing star in the background.

Scientists have found new evidence suggesting how sub-Neptunes like the one shown here can lose their atmospheres
(Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, and D. Player (STScI))

The air around a few planets beyond our solar system is leaking away into space, causing these worlds to get smaller, astronomers reported on Wednesday (November 15). And these planets’ atmospheres aren’t getting blown away by harsh winds from their stars as you might expect, but rather by their own doing. 

About 90 tons of air from Earth’s protective blanket, responsible for sheltering life, is known to escape into space every day because our atmosphere gets heated by the sun. At this super slow rate, however, scientists think it would take our planet at least 15 trillion years to be completely stripped of its atmosphere. So there’s nothing to worry about on that front.

But a few exoplanets, especially some bigger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, are actually pushing away their atmospheres from within through a process known as “core-powered mass loss,” a new study finds. This mechanism is believed to be able to shrink a puffy, sub-Neptune planet all the way down to a rocky super-Earth. With this information, astronomers say they now have sufficient  data to explain why they don’t see many  exoplanets with sizes about 1.5 to two times Earth’s. That’s the sweet spot between a super-Earth and sub-Neptune.

“Exoplanet scientists have enough data now to say that this gap is not a fluke,” study lead author Jessie Christiansen, a scientist at Caltech, said in a statement. “There’s something going on that impedes planets from reaching and/or staying at this size.”

Related: NASA’s exoplanet-hunting telescope spies 8 ‘super-Earths’

The team suspects that “something” is radiation from deep within these sub-Neptune planets, specifically their hot cores, pushing away atmospheres. “That radiation is pushing on the atmosphere from underneath,” said Christiansen.

An alternate (but unlikely) theory for these sub-Neptunes is a phenomenon called photoevaporation, in which a planet’s atmosphere is blasted away due to a star’s radiation, like “a hair dryer on an ice cube.” This is probably not the solution to this mystery, however, because the process is thought to occur in the first 100 million years of a planet’s birth, while the new study analyzed much older sub-Neptunes.

Christiansen and her colleagues analyzed exoplanet data collected by NASA’s Kepler 2 mission, a revised exoplanet-hunting effort after the Kepler spacecraft faced some technical setbacks. The team looked for sub-Neptunes orbiting stars in two star clusters: The Praesepe or Beehive cluster, which hosts about 1,000 stars, and the Hyades cluster, which hosts about 500 stars and forms the head of the “Bull” in the Taurus constellation. They’re 600 million years old and 800 million years old, respectively.

In this age range, scientists found almost all stars had sub-Neptunes with atmospheres orbiting them, suggesting photoevaporation did not occur (or they’d have completely lost their atmospheres by now).

In planets around stars more than 800 million years old in K2’s database, however, only 25 percent exhibited  orbiting sub-Neptunes. Because the older age of those stars is close to the 1 billion year time frame when core-powered mass loss is expected to have occurred, the core-pushing-related mechanism is likely the reason behind atmospheric escape on these planets, the new study argues. 

Either way, “if you don’t have enough mass, you can’t hold on, and you lose your atmosphere and shrink down,” said Christiansen.

This research is described in a paper published Wednesday (Nov. 15) in The Astronomical Journal. 

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!

Sharmila is a Seattle-based science journalist. She found her love for astronomy in Carl Sagan’s The Pale Blue Dot and has been hooked ever since. She holds an MA in Journalism from Northeastern University and has been a contributing writer for Astronomy Magazine since 2017. Follow her on Twitter at @skuthunur.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Space.com – https://www.space.com/nasa-kepler-telescope-exoplanets-shrinking-size

Tags: ExoplanetsscienceShrinking
Previous Post

Algol, the ‘Demon star of Perseus,’ gets eclipsed this week. Here’s how to see it

Next Post

Lego’s Apollo 11 Lunar Lander is 20% off this weekend

The Ecology of Visitation – National Park Service (.gov)

Exploring the Impact of Visitor Interactions on Natural Ecosystems

June 5, 2025
Students play with science at Camp Invention at School of Innovation – News-Herald

Unleashing Creativity: Students Dive into Science at Camp Invention!

June 5, 2025
Are cold plunges good for you? Here’s what the science says. – The Washington Post

Unlocking the Benefits of Cold Plunges: What Science Reveals!

June 5, 2025
Casino magnate Alvin Chau’s wife Heidi Chan embraces Buddhist lifestyle after husband’s incarceration – VnExpress International

Casino magnate Alvin Chau’s wife Heidi Chan embraces Buddhist lifestyle after husband’s incarceration – VnExpress International

June 5, 2025
How each of the 32 teams qualified for the 2025 Club World Cup – The New York Times

Unveiling the Path: How All 32 Teams Earned Their Spot in the 2025 Club World Cup

June 5, 2025
Service side of the U.S. economy contracts for first time in almost a year due to trade fights – MarketWatch

U.S. Service Sector Shrinks for the First Time in Nearly a Year Amid Trade Tensions

June 5, 2025
‘Sinners,’ starring Michael B. Jordan, is now streaming on Prime Video – About Amazon

Experience the Thrills of ‘Sinners’ Starring Michael B. Jordan – Now Streaming on Prime Video!

June 5, 2025
Sutter Health investing $23 million in primary and behavioral care – Healthcare Finance News

Sutter Health investing $23 million in primary and behavioral care – Healthcare Finance News

June 5, 2025
Gov. Shapiro sues USDA over canceled $13M food purchasing program – LancasterOnline

Gov. Shapiro sues USDA over canceled $13M food purchasing program – LancasterOnline

June 5, 2025
Domo to Participate in the D.A. Davidson Technology Summit – Business Wire

Domo Set to Shine at the D.A. Davidson Technology Summit!

June 5, 2025

Categories

Archives

June 2025
MTWTFSS
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
30 
« May    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (667)
  • Economy (681)
  • Entertainment (21,587)
  • General (15,261)
  • Health (9,723)
  • Lifestyle (684)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (682)
  • Politics (690)
  • Science (15,901)
  • Sports (21,185)
  • Technology (15,667)
  • World (668)

Recent News

The Ecology of Visitation – National Park Service (.gov)

Exploring the Impact of Visitor Interactions on Natural Ecosystems

June 5, 2025
Students play with science at Camp Invention at School of Innovation – News-Herald

Unleashing Creativity: Students Dive into Science at Camp Invention!

June 5, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version