New Henrietta spectrograph to probe alien atmospheres

How does a star affect the makeup of its planets? And what does this mean for the habitability of distant worlds? Carnegie's Luke Bouma is exploring a new way to probe this critical question—using naturally occurring space weather stations that orbit at least 10% of M dwarf stars during their early lives. He presented his work at the American Astronomical Society meeting (AAS 247) held in Phoenix in January.

Earth and the moon may look very different today, but they formed under similar conditions in space. In fact, a dominant hypothesis says that the early Earth was hit by a Mars-sized object, and it was this giant impact that spun off material to form the moon. But unlike Earth, the moon lacks plate tectonics and an atmosphere capable of reshaping its surface and recycling elements such as oxygen over billions of years.

When you go out to run errands on the weekend, you're on a "tour" as defined by human mobility researchers. Same if you book a guided tour of a famous city or take a trip on a cruise boat that reaches multiple ports. A characteristic of such tours is that you begin and end up in the same place and take intermediate stops along the way. The number of stops is the tour's "length."

From left to right, NASA astronauts Andre Douglas, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronauts Jenni Gibbons, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, and CSA astronaut Jeremy Hansen pose for a photo before the Artemis II crew proceed to a media event on March 27, 2026. Douglas and Gibbons are the backup crew members […]