Observations Of Exocomets - Astrobiology Active small bodies in extrasolar systems provide insights into the orbital evolution and physical processes shaping planetary systems.

Observations Of Exocomets
astrobiology.com/2026/03/obse... #astrobiology #exocomet

Visual Inspection Of Potential Exocomet Transits Identified Through Machine Learning And Statistical Methods - Astrobiology In this work, we explore several ways to detect possible exocomet transits in the TESS (The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) light curves.

Visual Inspection Of Potential Exocomet Transits Identified Through Machine Learning And Statistical Methods
astrobiology.com/2026/02/visu... #astrobiology #AI #machineLearning #exocomet

Original post on astrobites.org

How to ID some extrasolar dusty snowballs Exocomets are becoming more interesting, given their detections are more promising and well studied. So, naming them is of more importance now than ever. T...

#Daily #Paper #Summaries #astronomy #comets #exocomet #exoplanets #nomenclature #observations […]

Original post on astrobites.org

How to ID some extrasolar dusty snowballs Exocomets are becoming more interesting, given their detections are more promising and well studied. So, naming them is of more importance now than ever. T...

#Daily #Paper #Summaries #astronomy #comets #exocomet #exoplanets #nomenclature #observations […]

Transit Distances And Composition Of Low-velocity Exocomets In The β Pictoris System - Astrobiology β Pictoris is a young nearby A5V star, about 20 Myr old, embedded in a prominent debris disc

Transit Distances And Composition Of Low-velocity Exocomets In The β Pictoris System
astrobiology.com/2026/01/tran... #astrobiology #Exocomet

A Nomenclature For Individual Exocomets - Astrobiology With recent observational advancements, exocomet studies have entered a new era

A Nomenclature For Individual Exocomets
astrobiology.com/2026/01/a-no... #astrobiology #exocomet

Is 3I/ATLAS A Threat To Life On Earth? Harvard’s Avi Loeb Flags This World War I Toxic Compound Found In Exocomet Is a high Methanol to Hydrogen Cyanide ratio in 3I/ATLAS a concern?

3I/ATLAS: Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb’s List Of Dos & Don'ts If Exocomet Turns Out To Be Alien Space Probe 👽 Prof Loeb charts 15 guiding principles to take an ETI threat on Earth 🌍

3I/ATLAS: More Pics Captured By Canadian Astrophotographer Paul Craggs Of The Interstellar Comet Interstellar bestseller

🚨 Possible brightening in comet 3I/ATLAS!
Observers report an uptick since Sept 17 (UTC). Our @Unistellar data shows 2 points brighter than predicted—promising but sparse.
As 3I nears the Sun it’s getting tougher to spot, so more observations in the next few nights are key! #exocomet

A shoutout to the astro community! I need an exocomet researcher to interview for my next article for @popularastronomi.se so if you are one, or know one who are willing to share their work and answer some questions, please let me know asap!
#Astronomy #exocomet

<p><strong>Astronomers have imaged planetesimal belts in 74 planetary systems as part of the REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS) survey.</strong></p> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_103127" style="width: 590px"><a href="https://cdn.sci.news/images/enlarge12/image_13660e-Exocometary-Belts.jpg"><img alt="This gallery contains 74 images of different star systems with exocometary belts taken with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter (ALMA) radio telescope facilities. Image credit: Luca Matrà." aria-describedby="caption-attachment-103127" class="wp-image-103127 size-full" height="464" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" src="https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts.jpg 580w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts-300x240.jpg 300w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts-74x58.jpg 74w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts-60x49.jpg 60w" width="580"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-103127">This gallery contains 74 images of different star systems with exocometary belts taken with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter (ALMA) radio telescope facilities. Image credit: Luca Matrà.</p></div> <p>To find evidence for comets outside our Solar System, astronomers turned to two facilities that detect particular bands of radio waves: the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).</p> <p>Because of the size of the dust and rocks in these belts, this type of light is particularly good at finding and imaging these structures.</p> <p>The stars in the study ranged in ages from very young to middle-aged like our Sun.</p> <p>“A joint program between SMA and ALMA dubbed REASONS marks a significant milestone in the study of exocometary belts because its images and subsequent analysis reveal where the pebbles and the exocomets are located,” said Trinity College Dublin astronomer Luca Matrà and colleagues.</p> <p>“In these regions, it is so cold (minus 250 to minus 150 degrees Celsius) that most compounds including water are frozen as ice on these exocomets.”</p> <p>“Exocomets are boulders of rock and ice, at least a kilometer in size, which smash together within these belts to produce the pebbles that we observe here with the ALMA and SMA arrays of telescopes,” Dr. Matrà said.</p> <p>“Exocometary belts are found in at least 20% of planetary systems, including our own Solar System.”</p> <p>“The Kuiper Belt is an example of a cometary belt in our own Solar System.”</p> <p>“Located far beyond the orbit of Pluto, some scientists think the Kuiper Belt is the source of water for the inner Solar System where Earth is located, delivered through comets billions of years ago.”</p> <p>The new images show a remarkable diversity of structure in the belts. Some are narrow rings, while others are wider and could be categorized more as disks than belts.</p> <p>Moreover, some of the 74 exocomet systems have multiple rings or disks and some of those are eccentric, meaning not a circular orbit but more like an oval.</p> <p>This provides evidence that yet undetectable planets or perhaps moons are present and their gravity affects the distribution of pebbles in these systems.</p> <p>“Arrays like the ALMA and SMA used in this work are extraordinary tools that are continuing to give us incredible new insights into the universe and its workings,” said Dr. David Wilner, an astrophysicist at the Harvard &amp; Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.</p> <p>“The REASONS survey required a large community effort and has an incredible legacy value, with multiple potential pathways for future investigation.”</p> <p>“The REASONS dataset of belt and planetary system properties will enable studies of the birth and evolution of these belts, as well as follow-up observations across the wavelength range, from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes and upcoming ALMA’s plans to zoom even further into the details of these belts.”</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/01/aa51397-24/aa51397-24.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">paper</a> describing the results was published in the journal <em>Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</em>.</p> <p><span style="color: #808080;">_____</span></p> <p><span style="color: #808080;">L. Matrà <em>et al</em>. 2025. REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS): A population of 74 resolved planetesimal belts at millimetre wavelengths. <em>A&amp;A</em> 693, A151; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451397</span></p>

Astronomers Discover Exocometary Belts around 74 Stars Astronomers have imaged planetesimal belts...

www.sci.news/astronomy/exocometary-be...

#Astronomy #ALMA #Debris #belt #Exocomet #Kuiper #Belt #Planetary #system #Planetesimal #Planetesimal

Event Attributes

<p><strong>Astronomers have imaged planetesimal belts in 74 planetary systems as part of the REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS) survey.</strong></p> <div class="wp-caption aligncenter" id="attachment_103127" style="width: 590px"><a href="https://cdn.sci.news/images/enlarge12/image_13660e-Exocometary-Belts.jpg"><img alt="This gallery contains 74 images of different star systems with exocometary belts taken with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter (ALMA) radio telescope facilities. Image credit: Luca Matrà." aria-describedby="caption-attachment-103127" class="wp-image-103127 size-full" height="464" sizes="(max-width: 580px) 100vw, 580px" src="https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts.jpg" srcset="https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts.jpg 580w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts-300x240.jpg 300w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts-74x58.jpg 74w, https://cdn.sci.news/images/2025/02/image_13660-Exocometary-Belts-60x49.jpg 60w" width="580"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text" id="caption-attachment-103127">This gallery contains 74 images of different star systems with exocometary belts taken with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter (ALMA) radio telescope facilities. Image credit: Luca Matrà.</p></div> <p>To find evidence for comets outside our Solar System, astronomers turned to two facilities that detect particular bands of radio waves: the Submillimeter Array (SMA) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA).</p> <p>Because of the size of the dust and rocks in these belts, this type of light is particularly good at finding and imaging these structures.</p> <p>The stars in the study ranged in ages from very young to middle-aged like our Sun.</p> <p>“A joint program between SMA and ALMA dubbed REASONS marks a significant milestone in the study of exocometary belts because its images and subsequent analysis reveal where the pebbles and the exocomets are located,” said Trinity College Dublin astronomer Luca Matrà and colleagues.</p> <p>“In these regions, it is so cold (minus 250 to minus 150 degrees Celsius) that most compounds including water are frozen as ice on these exocomets.”</p> <p>“Exocomets are boulders of rock and ice, at least a kilometer in size, which smash together within these belts to produce the pebbles that we observe here with the ALMA and SMA arrays of telescopes,” Dr. Matrà said.</p> <p>“Exocometary belts are found in at least 20% of planetary systems, including our own Solar System.”</p> <p>“The Kuiper Belt is an example of a cometary belt in our own Solar System.”</p> <p>“Located far beyond the orbit of Pluto, some scientists think the Kuiper Belt is the source of water for the inner Solar System where Earth is located, delivered through comets billions of years ago.”</p> <p>The new images show a remarkable diversity of structure in the belts. Some are narrow rings, while others are wider and could be categorized more as disks than belts.</p> <p>Moreover, some of the 74 exocomet systems have multiple rings or disks and some of those are eccentric, meaning not a circular orbit but more like an oval.</p> <p>This provides evidence that yet undetectable planets or perhaps moons are present and their gravity affects the distribution of pebbles in these systems.</p> <p>“Arrays like the ALMA and SMA used in this work are extraordinary tools that are continuing to give us incredible new insights into the universe and its workings,” said Dr. David Wilner, an astrophysicist at the Harvard &amp; Smithsonian’s Center for Astrophysics.</p> <p>“The REASONS survey required a large community effort and has an incredible legacy value, with multiple potential pathways for future investigation.”</p> <p>“The REASONS dataset of belt and planetary system properties will enable studies of the birth and evolution of these belts, as well as follow-up observations across the wavelength range, from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to the next generation of Extremely Large Telescopes and upcoming ALMA’s plans to zoom even further into the details of these belts.”</p> <p>A <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/01/aa51397-24/aa51397-24.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">paper</a> describing the results was published in the journal <em>Astronomy &amp; Astrophysics</em>.</p> <p><span style="color: #808080;">_____</span></p> <p><span style="color: #808080;">L. Matrà <em>et al</em>. 2025. REsolved ALMA and SMA Observations of Nearby Stars (REASONS): A population of 74 resolved planetesimal belts at millimetre wavelengths. <em>A&amp;A</em> 693, A151; doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202451397</span></p>

Astronomers Discover Exocometary Belts around 74 Stars Astronomers have imaged planetesimal belts...

www.sci.news/astronomy/exocometary-be...

#Astronomy #ALMA #Debris #belt #Exocomet #Kuiper #Belt #Planetary #system #Planetesimal #Planetesimal

Event Attributes

Bright spot with a pink-to-orange oval ring around it, on black background, labeled HD216956.

#Astronomers have imaged 74 #exocomet belts around nearby stars in a new survey called REASONS. Researchers said this month that the images show light being emitted from 74 exocomet belts and the tiny icy or rocky pebbles in them. Read more: earthsky.org/space/exocomet-belts-sta...

Scientists Unveil Stunning New Images of Hidden Exocomet Belts Around 74 Nearby Stars Astrophysicists have achieved a major breakthrough by capturing images of exocomet belts around 74 nearby stars. Using the ALMA and SMA telescopes, they identified millimeter-sized pebbles in these belts,...

Scientists Unveil Stunning New Images of Hidden Exocomet Belts Around 74 Nearby Stars #Science #Space #Astrophysics #Exocomet #Telescopes

Exocomet Models in Transit: Light Curve Morphology in the Optical -- Near Infrared Wavelength Range astrobiology.com/2024/05/exoc... #astrobiology #exoplanet #astronomy #exocomet #comets