Martian dust devils are fleeting, but the footprints they leave behind can endure for months. Now, researchers have used those tracks to learn about the whirlwinds and potentially guide future mission planning.
As wind swirls across the landscape on both Mars and Earth, it sweeps up ground particles that reveal the dry columns. The whirlwinds dance across the landscape, leaving a path revealed by excavated particles. On the active surface of Earth, such paths are hard to spot. But on the nearly inactive surface of Mars, they can remain for months, long after the devils’ minutes-long lifetimes.
“Dust devils themselves are difficult to capture in images because they are so short-lived,” Ingrid Daubar, a planetary scientist at Brown University and lead author of the study, told Space.com by email. “The tracks they leave behind last longer, so we are able to observe them more thoroughly.”
Dusting off the fingerprints
On warm, windy days in Earth’s deserts, vortices of sand and debris can form suddenly and move unpredictably. (This author distinctly recalls being “chased” by one such devil in the Mojave Desert as a child in 1990.) Similar conditions on Mars can also produce dust devils. But the whirls on the Red Planet tend to be both wider and taller than their counterparts on Earth, and scientists aren’t sure why.
Questions like these led Dauber and her colleagues to study images from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — the highest-resolution photos of the planet snapped from space. HiRISE can capture features as small as 3 feet (1 meter). But its detailed perspective comes at a price: Its images cover only a small percentage of the Martian surface and are taken by request, though most latitudes and longitudes are well sampled.
Dauber’s team studied 21,475 HiRISE images taken between January 2014 and April 2018 — roughly a quarter of the snapshots captured by the instrument as of autumn 2024. Tracks appear in only 798 of those, or just under 4%. Dust devil tracks (DDTs) suggest dust devils are more common at high northern and southern latitudes and are especially active in each hemisphere’s summer, peaking in the southern hemisphere’s summer.
Dark, sinuous tracks left by dust devils weave across the Martian landscape in the Terra Cimmeria region. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona)
According to the researchers, Mars’ significant orbital eccentricity, or deviation from a perfect circle, causes the atmosphere in the southern summer to circulate more energetically, creating conditions ideal for vortex formation. That, combined with less dust accumulation in the North, makes the southern hemisphere summer an almost perfect storm for dust devils. The observations reflect peak DDT preservation more than dust devil formation, the researchers cautioned, but the culmination coincides with the peak observed by NASA’s Spirit rover at Gusev crater, along with global observations of the sand spouts.
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The researchers also realized that DDTs most commonly form and are preserved in regions of mixed sand, rocks and bedrock, with little bright dust, the most common surface type identified on Mars. Bright dust scooped up from the surface leaves behind trails that are dark from the underlying landscape.
“The material on the ground is critical to the formation of the DDTs,” Dauber said.
A collection of ranging DDTs found in a crater in Arcadia Planitia. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UArizona)
Dusty missions
The first Martian dust devil tracks appeared in images sent back from NASA’s Mariner 9 mission in 1972 (although they weren’t discovered until the images were analyzed in 2014). But it wasn’t until 1998, when higher-resolution images were captured by Mars Global Surveyor, that the tracks could be seriously analyzed.
Dust has hindered past ground missions. Mars rovers take their energy from the sun via solar panels. Over time, dust builds up on the panels, limiting their efficacy. The blockage has shuttered missions like NASA’s Opportunity rover, which explored the surface for 14.5 years. NASA’s InSight lander also succumbed to a dust-related death after four years.
The high winds that birth dust devils can also revitalize robots, however. Opportunity’s twin, Spirit, got a second lease on life after a Martian whirlwind cleaned its solar arrays back in 2005.
Understanding where dust devils are most active can help in the selection of landing sites for future missions. High-latitude bands where DDTs and their progenitors occur more frequently could help to scour solar panels and thus enable a more enduring exploration.
“It depends on the mission — every mission is unique,” Daubar said. There are many requirements for landing sites and exploration, including regions that will allow for a safe touchdown, alongside complex scientific goals.
“It could be that there are only a few places where the specific science goals can be achieved, and then perhaps this could be a deciding factor between those sites,” she said.
A new study of dust devils on Mars was published in May 2025 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
Machine learning is an integral part of high stakes decision making in a broad swath of human-computer interactions. You apply for a job. You submit a loan application. Algorithms determine who advances and who is declined.
Computer scientists from the University of California San Diego and the University of Wisconsin – Madison are challenging the common practice of using a single machine learning (ML) model to make such critical decisions. They asked how people feel when “equally good” ML models reach different conclusions.
Associate Professor Loris D’Antoni with the Jacobs School of Engineering Department of Computer Science and Engineering led the research that was presented recently at the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI). The paper, Perceptions of the Fairness Impacts of Multiplicity in Machine Learning, outlines work D’Antoni began with fellow researchers during his tenure at the University of Wisconsin and is continuing today at UC San Diego.
D’Antoni worked with team members to build on existing evidence that distinct models, like their human counterparts, have variable outcomes. In other words, one good model might reject an application while another approves it. Naturally, this leads to questions regarding how objective decisions can be reached.
“ML researchers posit that current practices pose a fairness risk. Our research dug deeper into this problem. We asked lay stakeholders, or regular people, how they think decisions should be made when multiple highly accurate models give different predictions for a given input,” said D’Antoni.
The study uncovered a few significant findings. First, the stakeholders balked at the standard practice of relying on a single model, especially when multiple models disagreed. Second, participants rejected the notion that decisions should be randomized in such instances.
“We find these results interesting because these preferences contrast with standard practice in ML development and philosophy research on fair practices,” said first author and PhD student Anna Meyer, who was advised by D’Antoni at the University of Wisconsin and will start as assistant professor at Carlton College in the fall.
The team hopes these insights will guide future model development and policy. Key recommendations include expanding searches over a range of models and implementing human decision-making to adjudicate disagreements – especially in high-stakes settings.
Other members of the research team include Aws Albarghouthi, an associate professor in computer science at University of Wisconsin, and Yea-Seul Kim from Apple.
Organized by the Association for Computing Machinery, CHI is the premier international conference on human-computer interaction.
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Exploding stars come in different types, and these different types of supernovae show astronomers different things about the cosmos. There’s a scientific appetite to find more of them and boost our knowledge about these exotic events. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope should be able to feed that appetite.
The Roman is due to launch in about two years, and will make its way to its station at the Sun-Earth L2 orbit. After commissioning, it’ll begin operations. One of its three primary surveys is the High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey. In that survey, the powerful space telescope will image the same section of sky beyond the Milky Way every five days for two years. The team behind the Roman will stitch these scenes together into one comprehensive movie, a sort of cosmic cinema.
These movies will reveal the presence of Type 1a supernovae. These occur in binary star systems where one star is a white dwarf. White dwarfs have immense gravitational force because they’re extremely dense objects. They draw material away from their companion stars, which could be anything from another white dwarf to a giant star. That material builds up on the white dwarf’s surface, and when it reaches a critical mass, it triggers a runaway reaction and a supernova explosion.
Type 1a are different from what we can call standard supernovae. Those are core-collapse supernovae, where a massive star collapses into a neutron star or a black hole, or is completely destroyed and leaves behind only a diffuse nebula.
Since Type 1a supernovae explode at a fixed mass, their peak luminosity is known. For that reason, they serve as standard candles, tools astronomers use to accurately gauge the distance to their home galaxies. These accurate distances allow cosmologists to trace the expansion of the Universe.
The Roman’s High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey is a critical part of its mission and is aimed at finding Type 1a supernovae and other transients. According to new research and simulations, it should find about 27,000 of them, a shocking number that’s about ten times greater than the current number of known Type 1a SN. This comprehensive data set should help cosmologists in their quest to map the expansion of the Universe, a critical part of understanding dark energy.
“Evidence is mounting that dark energy has changed over time, and Roman will help us understand that change by exploring cosmic history in ways other telescopes can’t.” – Dr. Ben Rose – Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Baylor University
The 27,000 number comes from new research published in The Astrophysical Journal titled “The Hourglass Simulation: A Catalog for the Roman High-latitude Time-domain Core Community Survey.” The lead author is Dr. Ben Rose, an assistant Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Baylor University.
The Roman will find these explosions by observing light from distant galaxies and looking back in time. The Roman will push that time boundary and allow astronomers to see Type 1a SN further back than ever. Most of the T1a SN observed so far exploded in the last 8 billion years. The Roman’s High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey (HLTDS) will uncover thousands that exploded longer than 10 billion years ago, and dozens that exploded even earlier than that. These standard candles will fill a missing gap and are critical evidence of the Universe’s expansion in its early age.
This graphic outlines the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope’s High-Latitude Time Domain Survey. The survey’s main component will cover over 18 square degrees — a region of sky as large as 90 full moons — and will detect supernovae that occurred up to about 8 billion years ago. Smaller areas within the survey can look even further back in time, potentially back to when the universe was around a billion years old. The survey will be split between the northern and southern hemispheres, located in regions of the sky that will be continuously visible to Roman. The bulk of the survey will consist of 30-hour observations every five days for two years in the middle of Roman’s five-year primary mission. Image Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
“Filling these data gaps could also fill in gaps in our understanding of dark energy,” lead author Rose said in a press release. “Evidence is mounting that dark energy has changed over time, and Roman will help us understand that change by exploring cosmic history in ways other telescopes can’t.”
This figure compares the Roman’s expected haul of Type 1a SN with the Dark Energy Survey’s cosmological sample of the same. “DES has over 1500 SNe in its cosmological sample with very few at z > 1. However, we expect Roman to have nearly 19,000 SN Ia, with the majority above z > 1,” the authors write. Image Credit: Rose et al. 2025. TApJ
Every supernova is essentially a flash in the cosmos, and dissecting the light from the flash reveals what type of event released it. Core collapse SN and T1a SN aren’t easy to distinguish at such great distances, but the light changes over time, and can be split apart with spectroscopy to learn more about it. The Roman carries two instruments, and one of them, the Wide-Field Instrument (WFI), allows the telescope to do large-scale spectroscopic surveys.
“By seeing the way an object’s light changes over time and splitting it into spectra — individual colors with patterns that reveal information about the object that emitted the light—we can distinguish between all the different types of flashes Roman will see,” said Rebekah Hounsell, study co-author and assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
The Hourglass Simulation “uses the most up-to-date spectral energy distribution models and rate measurements for 10 extragalactic time-domain sources,” the authors explain in their research. “We simulate these models through the design reference Roman Space Telescope survey.”
“In total, Hourglass has over 64,000 transient objects, 11,000,000 photometric observations, and 500,000 spectra,” the authors write. Hourglass showed that the Roman can expect to find “approximately 21,000 Type Ia supernovae, 40,000 core-collapse supernovae, around 70 superluminous supernovae, ∼35 tidal disruption events, three kilonovae, and possibly pair-instability supernovae.”
This impressive data set will drive the study and understanding not only of dark energy, but of many other transient events too. As of 2024, for example, astronomers knew of only about 260 superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). These explosions can be 10p times as luminous as other SN. Only massive stars greater than 40 solar masses are expected to explode as SLSNe, yet astrophysicists aren’t certain what causes them. Finding an additional 70 could provide answers to some outstanding questions.
This artist’s illustration shows the explosion of SN 2006gy, a superluminous supernova about 238 million light-years away. Image Credit: By Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss – http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/sn2006gy/more.html#sn2006gy_xray, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2080784
The Hourglass Simulation is designed to prepare the science community for the Roman’s deluge of data. With its tens of thousands of transients, millions of photometric observations, and hundreds of thousands of spectra, Hourglass will serve as a training tool. “Additionally, Hourglass is a useful data set to train machine learning classification algorithms.”
“With the dataset we’ve created, scientists can train machine-learning algorithms to distinguish between different types of objects and sift through Roman’s downpour of data to find them,” Hounsell added in the press release. “While searching for type Ia supernovae, Roman is going to collect a lot of cosmic ‘bycatch’—other phenomena that aren’t useful to some scientists, but will be invaluable to others.”
Among those other phenomena are Tidal Disruption Events (TDE), which occur when a black hole consumes a star. Astronomers know of about 100 of them, and they can reveal the presence of black holes that are otherwise dormant and undetectable. If the Roman can find an additional 35, that will undoubtedly help them answer some of their questions. Not only are their outstanding questions about black holes’ masses and spina, but there are also questions about how stars behave in the dense regions near galactic centers.
Kilonovae are another type of cosmic explosion and occur when two neutron stars or a neutron star and a black hole collide. Though they’re fainter than SN, Kilonovae release gravitational waves and also produce substantial amounts of heavy elements like gold, platinum, and uranium. There’s only one confirmed kilonova explosion, and there are many outstanding questions about them. Astrophysicists want to understand the composition of these elements in their ejecta, and how often they occur and if there are multiple types. If the Roman can find three more, that’s a massive increase in the dataset scientists have to work with.
This artist’s illustration shows two neutron stars merging, releasing gravitational waves and exploding as a kilonova. There’s only one confirmed kilonova, so if the Roman can find three more, that’s a massive jump in data. Image Credit: By University of Warwick/Mark Garlick, CC BY 4.0
Pair-instability supernovae are another exotic type of stellar explosion that scientists want to know more about. Only extremely massive stars between about 130 to 250 solar masses can explode as pair-instability supernovae (PISNe), and they don’t leave neutron stars or black holes behind. The progenitor stars is completely destroyed, and only an expanding nebula of gas and dust, including heavy elements synthesized in the explosion, is left behind. Astrophysicists want to know the exact stellar mass of their progenitors and what role metallicity plays.
As it stands now, astrophysicists have only a small handful of candidate PISNe, and if the Roman can find ten of them like the simulation suggests, researchers will have a lot more data to work with.
“I think Roman will make the first confirmed detection of a pair-instability supernova,” Rose said. “They’re incredibly far away and very rare, so you need a telescope that can survey a lot of the sky at a deep exposure level in near-infrared light, and that’s Roman.”
As NASA’s next flagship astrophysics mission, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will make an enormous contribution to our understanding of different types of cosmic explosions. By stitching together its observations into movies that show how different cosmic explosions take place, it will advance our scientific knowledge considerably.
“Whether you want to explore dark energy, dying stars, galactic powerhouses, or probably even entirely new things we’ve never seen before, this survey will be a gold mine,” said Rose.
Each time a new telescope mission is launched, it’s after years or even decades of preliminary work, including figuring out what questions need to be asked and what instruments are needed to find the answers. Simulations like the Hourglass simulation are becoming more common, as the astronomy community anticipates and prepares for new data from upcoming missions.
But each mission also produces surprises, and though they’re unpredictable, scientists often mention how excited they are to find surprising new things.
“Roman’s going to find a whole bunch of weird and wonderful things out in space, including some we haven’t even thought of yet,” Hounsell said. “We’re definitely expecting the unexpected.”
An illustration the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in 2027, if it can survive budget cuts. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS
Sadly, the current US administration has taken aim at NASA’s budget and announced that the Roman’s funding will be cut. Since the current administration has gained a reputation for confusing announcements that are sometimes later rescinded, the mission’s future is unclear.
If it is approved and launched, its precious dataset will be a feast for astrophysicists around the world and will help drive a deeper understanding of Nature and some of its most extreme objects and events.
Jason Breen is no stranger to wildlife encounters. As an avid surfer and water sportsman, he’s seen lots of marine animals around his home in Sydney, Australia. In fact, a few years ago, a humpback whale rocketed out of the water right in front of his board.
When Breen recently heard about a huge animal trapped in a tidal pool, the nature lover knew he had to help.
The animal was a blue groper, a large Australian fish known for their bright colored scales and big lips. According to the Australian Marine Conservation Society, blue gropers are notorious among snorkelers and divers for their “friendly and inquisitive natures.”
The Dodo
This blue groper had been washed into the tidal pool during a big storm and got stuck when the waves receded. Now, after a week in the tidal pool with no food, he desperately needed to get back to the ocean.
“He had to be saved, or he was gonna die,” Breen said in a video for The Dodo.
Breen hopped into the tidal pool and began encouraging the fish.
The Dodo
“I’m talking to him, saying, ‘It’s all right,’” Breen said.
Miraculously, the blue groper swam right into his rescuer’s net, as if he knew Breen was there to help.
“They’re very, very friendly fish,” Breen said. “They are like a puppy dog of the ocean.”
Breen quickly ran across the rocks and deposited the blue groper back into the ocean. Watching the fish swim away, Breen felt immense satisfaction.
“It was an unbelievable experience,” Breen said. “I just felt very privileged and very in touch with the ocean.”
The Dodo
Breen thought he’d never see the blue groper again. But it turns out, their story wasn’t over quite yet.
“The next morning, when I went for a surf, he was there,” Breen said. “I would like to think he swam up to say thank you.”
To keep up with Breen’s adventures around Australia, you can follow him on Instagram.
Artist’s illustration of a Jupiter-sized planet closely orbiting a faint red star. — NASA
A baby planet is shrinking from the size of Jupiter with a thick atmosphere to a small, barren world, according to a new study from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
This transformation is happening as the host star unleashes a barrage of X-rays that is tearing the young planet’s atmosphere away at an enormous rate.
The planet, named TOI 1227 b, is in an orbit around a red dwarf star about 330 light-years from Earth. TOI 1227 b orbits very close to its star – less than a fifth the distance that Mercury orbits the Sun. The new study shows this planet outside our solar system, or exoplanet, is a “baby” at a mere 8 million years old.
By comparison, the Earth is about 5 billion years old, or nearly a thousand times older. That makes it the second youngest planet ever to be observed passing in front of its host star (also called a transit). Previously the planet had been estimated by others to be about 11 million years old.
A research team found that X-rays from its star are blasting TOI 1227 b and tearing away its atmosphere at such a rate that the planet will entirely lose it in about a billion years. At that point the planet will have lost a total mass equal to about two Earth masses, down from about 17 times the mass of Earth now.
“It’s almost unfathomable to imagine what is happening to this planet,” said Attila Varga, a Ph.D. student at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York, who led the study. “The planet’s atmosphere simply cannot withstand the high X-ray dose it’s receiving from its star.”
It is probably impossible for life to exist on TOI 1227 b, either now or in the future. The planet is too close to its star to fit into any definition of a ‘habitable zone,’ a term astronomers use to determine if planets around other stars could sustain liquid water on their surface.
The star that hosts TOI 1227 b, which is called TOI 1227, is only about a tenth the mass of the Sun and is much cooler and fainter in optical light. In X-rays, however, TOI 1227 is brighter than the Sun and is subjecting this planet, in its very close orbit, to a withering assault. The mass of TOI 1227 b, while not well understood, is likely similar to that of Neptune, but its diameter is three times larger than Neptune’s (making it similar in size to Jupiter).
“A crucial part of understanding planets outside our solar system is to account for high-energy radiation like X-rays that they’re receiving,” said co-author Joel Kastner, also of RIT. “We think this planet is puffed up, or inflated, in large part as a result of the ongoing assault of X-rays from the star.”
The team used new Chandra data to measure the amount of X-rays from the star that are striking the planet. Using computer models of the effects of these X-rays, they concluded the X-rays will have a transformative effect, rapidly stripping away the planet’s atmosphere. They estimate that the planet is losing a mass equivalent to a full Earth’s atmosphere about every 200 years.
“The future for this baby planet doesn’t look great,” said co-author Alexander Binks of the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany. “From here, TOI 1227 b may shrink to about a tenth of its current size and will lose more than 10 percent of its weight.” The researchers used different sets of data to estimate the age of TOI 1227 b.
One method exploits measurements of how TOI 1227 b’s host star moves through space compared to nearby populations of stars with known ages. A second method compared the brightness and surface temperature of the star with theoretical models of evolving stars.
Of all the exoplanets astronomers have found with ages less than 50 million years, TOI 1227 b stands out for having the longest year and the host planet with the lowest mass.
A paper describing these results has been accepted publication in The Astrophysical Journal, and a preprint is available here.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra progr
The Age and High Energy Environment of the Very Young Transiting Exoplanet TOI 1227b
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Download free coloring and activity pages from the NASA Astrobiology Program! Show us your skills by posting your work on social media and tagging @NASASolarSystem.
Clipper’s Winter Wonderland and Other Seasonal Pages
Europa Clipper is Earth’s first mission to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Earth experiences a ‘Winter Wonderland’ as the seasons change. But the surface of Europa is permanently covered in an icy, frozen shell that hides a vast subsurface ocean of liquid water. Download this free coloring page of Europa Clipper that has been adapted from the Astrobiology Graphic Histories. Files are available in pdf and png.
OSIRIS-REx Samples an Asteroid!
Download free coloring pages based on NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx, spacecraft! The artwork has been adapted from the Astrobiology Graphic Histories, and features the spectacular mission of OSIRIS-REx to collect samples from the asteroid Bennu and return them to scientists on Earth. Files are available as pdf files or png images.
Color Me Mars!
Download free coloring pages from the NASA Astrobiology Program featuring the Perseverance rover. The artwork has been adapted from the Astrobiology Graphic Histories, and features moments in Perseverance’s mission to gather samples from the Martian surface at Jezero crater. Files are available as pdf files or png images. Dig out your markers, paints, and crayons and add some color to Perseverance’s journey!
The James Webb Space Telescope
Download free coloring pages from the NASA Astrobiology Program featuring the James Webb Space Telescope. The artwork has been adapted from the Astrobiology Graphic Histories, and features NASA’s newest, most powerful telescope in space. Files are available as pdf files or png images.
Draw Your Version of Extreme Life
Go on a journey to understand Earth’s extremophiles. Scientists examine harsh environments on Earth in order to identify the mechanisms that life uses to survive at the limits of habitability. This information could provide clues as to whether or not life as we know it might live on other worlds in the Universe.
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Astronomers have discovered a massive new solar system body located beyond the orbit of Pluto. The weird elongated orbit of the object suggests that if “Planet Nine” exists, it is much further from the sun than thought, or it has been ejected from our planetary system altogether.
The strange orbit of the object, designated 2023 KQ14 and nicknamed “Ammonite,” classifies it as a “sednoid.” Sednoids are bodies beyond the orbit of the ice giant Neptune, known as trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), characterized by a highly eccentric (non-circular) orbit and a distant closest approach to the sun or “perihelion.”
The closest distance that 2023 KQ14 ever comes to our star is equivalent to 71 times the distance between Earth and the sun. The sednoid is estimated to be between 136 and 236 miles (220 and 380 kilometers) wide. That makes it 45 times wider than the height of Mount Everest.
This is just the fourth known sednoid, and its orbit is currently different from that of its siblings, though it seems to have been stable for 4.5 billion years. However, the team behind the discovery, made using Subaru Telescope as part of the Formation of the Outer Solar System: An Icy Legacy (FOSSIL) survey, thinks that all four sednoids were on similar orbits around 4.2 billion years ago. That implies something dramatic happened out at the edge of the solar system around 400 million years after its birth.
Not only does the fact that 2023 KQ14 now follows a unique orbit suggest that the outer solar system is more complex and varied than previously thought, but it also places limits on a hypothetical “Planet Nine” theorized to lurk at the edge of the solar system.
The orbit of newly discovered solar system “fossil” 2023 KQ14 (in red) compared to the orbits of the other three sednoids (in white). (Image credit: NAOJ)
“The fact that 2023 KQ14‘s current orbit does not align with those of the other three sednoids lowers the likelihood of the Planet Nine hypothesis,” team leader Yukun Huang of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan said in a statement. “It is possible that a planet once existed in the solar system but was later ejected, causing the unusual orbits we see today.”
Hello 2023 KQ14. Goodbye Planet Nine?
2023 KQ14 was first spotted in the wide field of view of the Subaru Telescope, located on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano, in observations collected during March, May, and August 2023.
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The sednoid was confirmed using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope during follow-up observations performed in July 2024.
This animation shows the motion of Ammonite over several hours. (Image credit: NAOJ/ASIAA)
This data was combined with archival data from other observatories, allowing astronomers to reconstruct the orbit of 2023 KQ14 over the past 19 years.
But this is a celestial body that likely formed as the planets of the solar system were taking shape around the infant sun around 4.6 billion years ago. Thus, astronomers were keen to retell the story of its orbit for much longer than two decades.
The Subaru Telescope stares at the sunset, a sight the distant body 2023 KQ14 will never see. (Image credit: NAOJ)
To do this, Huang and their FOSSIL team colleagues turned to the computer cluster operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan to perform complex numerical simulations. This revealed the orbital stability of 2023 KQ14 for 4.5 billion years and the implications of that steady orbit.
“2023 KQ14 was found in a region far away where Neptune’s gravity has little influence,” team member and planetary scientist Fumi Yoshida said. “The presence of objects with elongated orbits and large perihelion distances in this area implies that something extraordinary occurred during the ancient era when 2023 KQ14 formed.
“Understanding the orbital evolution and physical properties of these unique, distant objects is crucial for comprehending the full history of the solar system.”
Yoshida added that, at present, the Subaru Telescope is one of the only telescopes on Earth capable of making a discovery like that of 2023 KQ14.
“I would be happy if the FOSSIL team could make many more discoveries like this one and help draw a complete picture of the history of the solar system,” Yoshida concluded.
The team’s research was published on Monday (July 14), in the journal Nature Astronomy.
PARIS: Astronomers have, for the first time, observed the earliest stage of planet formation around a distant star, offering fresh insight into how our own solar system may have begun. (Wednesday, July 16)
The planetary system is taking shape around HOPS 315, a young star located some 1,300 light years from Earth in the Orion Nebula. HOPS 315 is believed to resemble the Sun in its infancy.
PLANETS BORN FROM GAS AND DUST
Young stars are typically surrounded by vast rings of gas and dust known as protoplanetary discs, the breeding grounds for new planets. Within these discs, crystalline minerals containing silicon monoxide can clump together, eventually snowballing into kilometre-sized planetesimals. These can go on to become full-fledged planets.
In our own solar system, such minerals, the “starter dough” for planets like Earth and Jupiter, are believed to have been trapped inside ancient meteorites.
Now, researchers have found similar signs of early planet formation in the disc surrounding HOPS 315. The findings were published in the journal Nature.
This figure compares the Roman’s expected haul of Type 1a SN with the Dark Energy Survey’s cosmological sample of the same. “DES has over 1500 SNe in its cosmological sample with very few at z > 1. However, we expect Roman to have nearly 19,000 SN Ia, with the majority above z > 1,” the authors write. Image Credit: Rose et al. 2025. TApJ
This artist’s illustration shows the explosion of SN 2006gy, a superluminous supernova about 238 million light-years away. Image Credit: By Credit: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss – http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/sn2006gy/more.html#sn2006gy_xray, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2080784
This artist’s illustration shows two neutron stars merging, releasing gravitational waves and exploding as a kilonova. There’s only one confirmed kilonova, so if the Roman can find three more, that’s a massive jump in data. Image Credit: By University of Warwick/Mark Garlick, CC BY 4.0
An illustration the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch in 2027, if it can survive budget cuts. Image Credit: NASA/GSFC/SVS
