An international team of astronomers, including researchers from the University of Liège and collaborators in UK, Chile, the USA, and Europe, has discovered a giant planet orbiting the smallest known star to host such a companion The host star, TOI-6894, is a red dwarf with only 20% the mass of the Sun, typical of the most common stars in our galaxy. Until now, such low-mass stars were not thought capable of forming or retaining giant planets. But as published today…

The detection of atmospheric methane and silicon monoxide suggests that it originated in a region analogous to the Solar System’s domain of gas and ice giants. Observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have provided new clues about how the exoplanet WASP-121b has formed and where it might have originated in the disc of gas and dust around its star. These insights stem from the detection of multiple key molecules: water vapour, carbon monoxide, silicon monoxide, and methane. With…

MISTRAL is a new generation receiver installed on the Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) and built by the Sapienza University of Rome for the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) as part of the upgrade of the radio telescope for the study of the Universe at high frequencies, funded by a PON (National Operational Program) project, concluded in 2023 and now providing its first significant scientific results. MISTRAL stands for “MIllimetric Sardinia radio Telescope Receiver based on Array of Lumped elements kids”….

Could black holes help explain high-energy cosmic radiation? The universe is full of different types of radiation and particles that can be observed here on Earth. This includes photons across the entire range of the electromagnetic spectrum, from the lowest radio frequencies all the way to the highest-energy gamma rays. It also includes other particles such as neutrinos and cosmic rays, which race through the universe at close to the speed of light. Curiously, “cosmic rays” are not actually rays…