The Sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona, has long been a mystery to scientists. Recent images from NASA’s CODEX (Coronal Diagnostic Experiment) investigation have revealed that this area is not a homogenous, steady flow of material, but an area with sputtering gusts of hot plasma. These findings were shared at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Anchorage, Alaska.

“We really never had the ability to do this kind of science before,” said Jeffrey Newmark, a heliophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and principal investigator for CODEX. “The right kind of filters, the right size instrumentation — all the right things fell into place. These are brand new observations that have never been seen before, and we think there’s a lot of really interesting science to be done with it.”

NASA’s CODEX is a solar coronagraph, an instrument often employed to study the Sun’s faint corona by blocking the bright face of the Sun. The instrument creates artificial eclipses using circular pieces of material called occulting disks at the end of a long telescope-like tube. These disks are about the size of a tennis ball and are held in place by three metal arms.

The CODEX instrument is doing something new, according to Newmark. Previous coronagraph experiments have measured the density of material in the corona, but CODEX is measuring the temperature and speed of material in the slowly varying solar wind flowing out from the Sun. These new measurements allow scientists to better characterize the energy at the source of the solar wind.

Understanding the speed and temperature of the solar wind helps scientists build a more accurate picture of the Sun, which is necessary for modeling and predicting the Sun’s behaviors.

“The CODEX instrument will impact space weather modeling by providing constraints for modelers to use in the future,” said Newmark. “We’re excited for what’s to come.”

CODEX is a collaboration between NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) with additional contribution from Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF).

The discovery of a 13-billion-year-old signal has been made possible by scientists using Earth-based telescopes to study the cosmic microwave background radiation. This achievement marks a significant milestone in understanding the history of our universe.

Led by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Chicago, the team used telescopes high in the Andes mountains of northern Chile to measure polarized microwave light. This type of measurement is notoriously difficult due to the faintness and scattering nature of the signal, but the scientists overcame these obstacles using uniquely designed telescopes.

The research team compared their data with results from space-based missions like WMAP and Planck, identifying interference and narrowing in on a common signal. By analyzing this signal, they were able to determine how much of what we see is “cosmic glare” caused by light bouncing off the hood of the early universe, so to speak.

This discovery will help refine our understanding of the cosmic microwave background radiation and shed light on the early universe. The findings have significant implications for research into dark matter and neutrinos, two elusive particles that fill the universe but remain poorly understood.

The CLASS telescopes used in this study are part of a larger project aimed at mapping 75% of the night sky. This effort has been supported by the National Science Foundation since 2010, demonstrating the importance of long-term funding for groundbreaking scientific research.

As scientists continue to analyze additional data from the CLASS telescopes, they hope to reach the highest possible precision achievable in understanding our universe’s history and mysteries.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has made another groundbreaking discovery in the field of astronomy, providing precious new insights into how distant exoplanets form and what their atmospheres can look like. The latest findings, published in the leading international journal Nature, reveal the presence of silicate clouds in one of the planet’s atmospheres and a circumplanetary disk thought to feed material that can form moons around the other.

The YSES-1 super-solar system, which consists of two young giant exoplanets orbiting a sun-like star, has been studied using spectroscopic instruments on board the JWST. The main goal of measuring the spectra of these exoplanets was to understand their atmospheres, and the results are nothing short of remarkable.

“We found the tell-tale signature of silicate clouds in the mid-infrared,” said Dr Evert Nasedkin, a Postdoctoral Fellow in Trinity College Dublin’s School of Physics. “Essentially made of sand-like particles, this is the strongest silicate absorption feature observed in an exoplanet yet.”

These silicate clouds are believed to be linked to the relative youth of the planets, and studying them can provide valuable insights into the formation processes of these distant giants. The team also observed a disk around one of the planets, thought to feed material onto the planet and serve as the birthplace of moons – similar to those seen around Jupiter.

“This work highlights the incredible abilities of JWST to characterise exoplanet atmospheres,” said Dr Nasedkin. “With only a handful of exoplanets that can be directly imaged, the YSES-1 system offers unique insights into the atmospheric physics and formation processes of these distant giants.”

In broader terms, understanding how this super-solar system formed offers further insight into the origins of our own solar system, giving us an opportunity to watch as a planet similar to Jupiter forms in real time. The study’s findings can help scientists better understand the chemical makeup at the end of formation and provide hints on how our own planets have changed over time.

“This research was also led by a team of early career researchers such as postdocs and graduate students who make up the first five authors of the paper,” said Dr Kielan Hoch, Giacconi Fellow at the Space Telescope Science Institute. “This work would not have been possible without their creativity and hard work, which is what aided in making these incredible multidisciplinary discoveries.”