ExploreAstro at Caltech/IPAC

Amaze! Amaze! Amaze! 🪨

Caltech IPAC scientist Catherine Clark was quoted in a Physics Today article about the science behind the book and recently released movie Project Hail Mary.

https://physicstoday.aip.org/news/science-inspires-but-does-not-limit-andy-weirs-fiction

The Physics Today writer, Jenessa Duncombe, interviews book author Andy Weir about the spreadsheets and calculations that inspire his novels. Weir said “I just like to do things my own way: meticulously, nerdishly, scientifically.”

Duncombe consulted Clark on Rocky’s homeworld, Erid:
One fictional exoplanet, Erid, at the heart of the story, was inspired by a nearby three-star system, 40 Eridani, that is the target of exoplanet searches. Catherine Clark, an astronomer who studies multistar systems, has studied the stars of 40 Eridani. No exoplanets have been confirmed there, says Clark, “but as a nearby bright star, 40 Eridani A is a good candidate for future planet searches.”

Would you want to meet an extraterrestrial like Rocky, question? 🎶 🎵 🎶

A green-tinted double whammy: it's St. Patrick's Day & week! 💚

The galaxy Messier 81, with its magnificent spiral arms, is a sight to behold in this image from NASA's retired Spitzer Space Telescope. Found in Ursa Major and a mere 12 million light-years away, M81 is visible with just binoculars or a small telescope! (but it won't look green like in this infrared image 😉)

This 8-micron image reveals infrared emissions from hot dust, heated by nearby luminous stars. These dust particles absorb ultraviolet and visible light, re-emitting it as longer infrared wavelengths.

The dust particles are composed of silicates (chemically similar to beach sand), carbonaceous grains and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and trace the gas distribution in the galaxy. The well-mixed gas (which is best detected at radio wavelengths) and dust provide a reservoir of raw materials for future star formation.

This wobbly, energetic black hole is the first of its kind, and its discovery offers new insights into how galaxies evolve

https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/astronomers-discover-the-first-galaxy-wide-wobbling-black-hole-jet-in-a-disk-galaxy

Using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island, astronomers have uncovered the largest and most extended stream of super-heated gas ever observed flowing from a nearby galaxy, providing the clearest evidence yet that a supermassive black hole can dramatically reshape its host galaxy far beyond its core.

The discovery centers on galaxy VV 340a, where observations revealed vast structures of energized gas stretching up to 20,000 light-years from the galaxy’s center — far beyond what has ever been seen before. The work was led by Justin Kader at the University of California, Irvine and Vivian U at Caltech/IPAC, and is published in Science. Vivian U presented their findings at a press conference on January 8, 2026 at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Phoenix, AZ.

The team plans to pursue deeper, higher-resolution radio observations to determine whether a second supermassive black hole may be causing the jet’s wobble, a potential first step toward identifying a binary black hole system.

“We’re only beginning to understand how common this kind of activity may be,” said U. “With Keck Observatory and these other powerful observatories working together, we’re opening a new window into how galaxies change over time.”

"How do [heavy elements] form in less than 1 billion years? It was a surprise to see such chemically mature galaxies," says Andreas Faisst, a staff scientist at IPAC. "It's like seeing 2-year-old children act like teenagers."

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were hastily producing new stars.

IPAC scientist Andreas Faisst presented these results at the 247th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on January 6, 2026, in Phoenix, AZ. Faisst led the observations as part of the ALPINE-CRISTAL-JWST Survey. The survey program consists of an international team of more than 50 scientists across more than 15 institutions.

The results focus on 18 galaxies located 12.5 billion light-years away, and show that the galaxies are maturing faster in several ways than researchers previously believed. For one, the galaxies are more chemically enriched than expected, which means they have produced more heavy elements, in particular carbon and oxygen, than was thought possible during this early age of the cosmos.

The cartoon shows the evolution of metal production in galaxies. Credit: Caltech/Andreas Faisst

Read more: https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/young-galaxies-grow-up-fast

NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky! This is the most comprehensive spectral view of the infrared sky, with 102 colors (or wavelengths) of infrared light from observations made between May and December 2025. It will complete three additional all-sky scans during its two-year primary mission.

The SPHEREx Science Data Center (SSDC) is based at IPAC and reduces the data for scientists to access in IRSA - Infrared Science Archive. The large amount of data available through IRSA gives users a comprehensive view of the astronomical objects they want to study.

This all-sky mosaic image is built from a selection of the 102 infrared colors the observatory can detect. Infrared colors are invisible to the human eye but are represented here in visible colors. The infrared colors included in these images were selected to show the glow of stars (mapped to blue, green, and red), overlaid with features tracing hot hydrogen gas (blue), and cosmic dust (red). The bright feature running through the middle of the images is the Milky Way Galaxy, lit up by billions of stars within it. Most of the points of light above and below it are other galaxies.

https://spherex.caltech.edu/news/nasa-s-spherex-observatory-completes-first-cosmic-map-like-no-other
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

This shimmering view of interstellar gas and dust was captured by the 's Euclid space telescope. The nebula is part of a so-called dark cloud, named LDN 1641. It sits at about 1300 light-years from Earth, within a sprawling complex of dusty gas clouds where stars are being formed, in the constellation of Orion.

Euclid is surveying the sky to create the most extensive 3D map of the extragalactic universe ever made. Its main objective is to enable scientists to pin down the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy.

Yet the mission will also deliver a trove of observations of interesting regions in our galaxy, like this one, as well as countless detailed images of other galaxies, offering new avenues of investigation in many different fields of astronomy.

The Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI) is involved in providing algorithms and developing operations-quality code to be included in the near-infrared data reduction pipeline as part of the Euclid Consortium's Science Ground Segment. In addition, IPAC operates the US Science Data Center.

IPAC scientist finds new evidence for a planet in the same star system as Pandora from Avatar! 💙🌐⭐️⭐️⭐️
https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/nasa-s-jwst-finds-new-evidence-for-planet-around-closest-solar-twin

Charles Beichman, Executive Director of NExScI Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech IPAC, and Aniket Sanghi, a Ph.D. student at Caltech, are co-first authors of a new paper with strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just 4 light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a compelling target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system.

If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.

“With this system being so close to us, any exoplanets found would offer our best opportunity to collect data on planetary systems other than our own. Yet, these are incredibly challenging observations to make, even with the world’s most powerful space telescope, because these stars are so bright, close, and move across the sky quickly,” said Beichman.

"Its very existence in a system of two closely separated stars would challenge our understanding of how planets form, survive, and evolve in chaotic environments," said Sanghi.

Image credit:
This artist’s concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. Observations of the triple star system Alpha Centauri using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope indicate the potential gas giant, about the mass of Saturn, orbiting the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth. Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)

Avatar James Cameron

This giant planet orbiting a tiny star is challenging current theories on planet formation 🧩🤔
https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/discovery-of-giant-planet-orbiting-tiny-star-challenges-theories-on-planet-formation

The planet (TOI-6894b) is a low-density gas giant with a radius a little larger than Saturn’s but with only ~50% of Saturn’s mass. The star (TOI-6894) is the lowest mass star to have a transiting giant planet discovered to date and is just 60% the size of the next smallest star to host such a planet.

IPAC scientist Catherine Clark, a co-author on the paper, contributed the high-resolution imaging data, which was used to ensure that the properties of the planet are accurate and not influenced by the presence of a second star.

ICYMI we’ve released 18(!!) episodes of Explore Exoplanets 🎙️🪐
https://youtu.be/rJtW9wWiqBo

Leave a comment on your favorite episode! What’s your favorite real or fictional planet? Who do you want to see as our next guest? Do you have a question for our experts?

Keep an eye out for new episodes coming soon!

Explore Exoplanets Highlights ICYMI we’ve released 18(!!) episodes of Explore Exoplanets!Leave a comment on your favorite episode! What’s your favorite real or fictional planet? Who do yo...