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Brown dwarfs, often called “failed stars,” weigh up to 80 times as much as Jupiter, yet their gravity compacts them to about the size of Jupiter in diameter. And like Jupiter, brown dwarfs can have clouds and weather. Astronomers have found evidence that the closest known brown dwarf, Luhman 16A, has Jupiter-like cloud bands. In contrast its companion brown dwarf, Luhman 16B, shows signs of patchy clouds.

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      5 min read
      Astronomers Map Stellar ‘Polka Dots’ Using NASA’s TESS, Kepler
      Scientists have devised a new method for mapping the spottiness of distant stars by using observations from NASA missions of orbiting planets crossing their stars’ faces. The model builds on a technique researchers have used for decades to study star spots.
      By improving astronomers’ understanding of spotty stars, the new model — called StarryStarryProcess — can help discover more about planetary atmospheres and potential habitability using data from telescopes like NASA’s upcoming Pandora mission.
      “Many of the models researchers use to analyze data from exoplanets, or worlds beyond our solar system, assume that stars are uniformly bright disks,” said Sabina Sagynbayeva, a graduate student at Stony Brook University in New York. “But we know just by looking at our own Sun that stars are more complicated than that. Modeling complexity can be difficult, but our approach gives astronomers an idea of how many spots a star might have, where they are located, and how bright or dark they are.”
      A paper describing StarryStarryProcess, led by Sagynbayeva, published Monday, August 25, in The Astrophysical Journal.
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      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
      Download images and videos through NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio.

      NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and now-retired Kepler Space Telescope were designed to identify planets using transits, dips in stellar brightness caused when a planet passes in front of its star.
      These measurements reveal how the star’s light varies with time during each transit, and astronomers can arrange them in a plot astronomers call a light curve. Typically, a transit light curve traces a smooth sweep down as the planet starts passing in front of the star’s face. It reaches a minimum brightness when the world is fully in front of the star and then rises smoothly as the planet exits and the transit ends.  
      By measuring the time between transits, scientists can determine how far the planet lies from its star and estimate its surface temperature. The amount of missing light from the star during a transit can reveal the planet’s size, which can hint at its composition.
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      Scientists have previously analyzed transit light curves from exoplanets and their host stars to look at the smaller dips and peaks. This helps determine the host star’s properties, such as its overall level of spottiness, inclination angle of the planet’s orbit, the tilt of the star’s spin compared to our line of sight, and other factors. Sagynbayeva’s model uses light curves that include not only transit information, but also the rotation of the star itself to provide even more detailed information about these stellar properties.
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      This artist’s concept illustrates the varying brightness of star with a transiting planet and several star spots. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center “Knowing more about the star in turn helps us learn even more about the planet, like a feedback loop,” said co-author Brett Morris, a senior software engineer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “For example, at cool enough temperatures, stars can have water vapor in their atmospheres. If we want to look for water in the atmospheres of planets around those stars — a key indicator of habitability — we better be very sure that we’re not confusing the two.”
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      Currently, the only available data sets that can be fit by Sagynbayeva’s model are in visible light, which excludes infrared observations taken by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. But NASA’s upcoming Pandora mission will benefit from tools like this one. Pandora, a small satellite developed through NASA’s Astrophysics Pioneers Program, will study the atmospheres of exoplanets and the activity of their host stars with long-duration multiwavelength observations. The Pandora mission’s goal is to determine how the properties of a star’s light differs when it passes through a planet’s atmosphere so scientists can better measure those atmospheres using Webb and other missions.
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      Facebook logo @NASAUniverse @NASAUniverse Instagram logo @NASAUniverse By Jeanette Kazmierczak
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      Media Contact:
      Alise Fisher
      202-358-2546
      alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov
      NASA Headquarters, Washington
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      Last Updated Aug 25, 2025 Related Terms
      Astrophysics Exoplanet Atmosphere Exoplanets Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Research Goddard Space Flight Center Kepler / K2 Stars TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) The Universe View the full article
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      NASA’s Hubble Uncovers Rare White Dwarf Merger Remnant
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      Because WD 0525+526’s origin was revealed only once astronomers glimpsed its ultraviolet spectrum, it’s likely that other seemingly “normal” white dwarfs are actually the result of cosmic collisions — a possibility the team is excited to explore in the future.
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      Details
      Last Updated Aug 13, 2025 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Claire Andreoli
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
      Greenbelt, Maryland
      claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
      Ray Villard
      Space Telescope Science Institute
      Baltimore, Maryland
      Bethany Downer
      ESA/Hubble
      Garching, Germany
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      Science Paper: A hot white dwarf merger remnant revealed by an ultraviolet detection of carbon, PDF (23.45 MB)

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    • By European Space Agency
      Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found 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.
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      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. Full illustration and caption shown below. Credits:
      Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC) Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found 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.
      Visible only from Earth’s Southern hemisphere, it’s made up of the binary Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, both Sun-like stars, and the faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky. While there are three confirmed planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the presence of other worlds surrounding Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B has proved challenging to confirm.
      Now, Webb’s observations from its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A. The results have been accepted in a series of two papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
      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.
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      Image A: Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (DSS, Hubble, Webb)
      This image shows the Alpha Centauri star system from several different ground- and space-based observatories: the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky, and the closest Sun-like star to Earth. The ground-based image from DSS shows the triple system as a single source of light, while Hubble resolves the two Sun-like stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B. The image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which uses a coronagraphic mask to block the bright glare from Alpha Centauri A, reveals a potential planet orbiting the star. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, DSS, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI) Several rounds of meticulously planned observations by Webb, careful analysis by the research team, and extensive computer modeling helped determine that the source seen in Webb’s image is likely to be a planet, and not a background object (like a galaxy), foreground object (a passing asteroid), or other detector or image artifact.
      The first observations of the system took place in August 2024, using the coronagraphic mask aboard MIRI to block Alpha Centauri A’s light. While extra brightness from the nearby companion star Alpha Centauri B complicated the analysis, the team was able to subtract out the light from both stars to reveal an object over 10,000 times fainter than Alpha Centauri A, separated from the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth.
      Image B: Alpha Centauri 3 Panel (Webb MIRI Image Detail)
      This three-panel image captures NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observational search for a planet around the nearest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri A. The initial image shows the bright glare of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the middle panel then shows the system with a coronagraphic mask placed over Alpha Centauri A to block its bright glare. However, the way the light bends around the edges of the coronagraph creates ripples of light in the surrounding space. The telescope’s optics (its mirrors and support structures) cause some light to interfere with itself, producing circular and spoke-like patterns. These complex light patterns, along with light from the nearby Alpha Centauri B, make it incredibly difficult to spot faint planets. In the panel at the right, astronomers have subtracted the known patterns (using reference images and algorithms) to clean up the image and reveal faint sources like the candidate planet. Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, A. Sanghi (Caltech), C. Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), D. Mawet (Caltech); Image Processing: J. DePasquale (STScI) While the initial detection was exciting, the research team needed more data to come to a firm conclusion. However, additional observations of the system in February 2025 and April 2025 (using Director’s Discretionary Time) did not reveal any objects like the one identified in August 2024.
      “We are faced with the case of a disappearing planet! To investigate this mystery, we used computer models to simulate millions of potential orbits, incorporating the knowledge gained when we saw the planet, as well as when we did not,” said PhD student Aniket Sanghi of Caltech in Pasadena, California. Sanghi is a co-first author on the two papers covering the team’s research.
      In these simulations, the team took into account both a 2019 sighting of the potential exoplanet candidate by the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, the new data from Webb, and considered orbits that would be gravitationally stable in the presence of Alpha Centauri B, meaning the planet wouldn’t get flung out of the system.
      Researchers say a non-detection in the second and third round of observations with Webb isn’t surprising.
      “We found that in half of the possible orbits simulated, the planet moved too close to the star and wouldn’t have been visible to Webb in both February and April 2025,” said Sanghi.
      Image C: Alpha Centauri A Planet Candidate (Artist’s Concept)
      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. In this concept, Alpha Centauri A is depicted at the upper left of the planet, while the other Sun-like star in the system, Alpha Centauri B, is at the upper right. Our Sun is shown as a small dot of light between those two stars. Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, R. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC) Based on the brightness of the planet in the mid-infrared observations and the orbit simulations, researchers say it could be a gas giant approximately the mass of Saturn orbiting Alpha Centauri A in an elliptical path varying between 1 to 2 times the distance between Sun and Earth.
      “If confirmed, the potential planet seen in the Webb image of Alpha Centauri A would mark a new milestone for exoplanet imaging efforts,” Sanghi says. “Of all the directly imaged planets, this would be the closest to its star seen so far. It’s also the most similar in temperature and age to the giant planets in our solar system, and nearest to our home, Earth,” he says. “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.”
      If confirmed by additional observations, the team’s results could transform the future of exoplanet science.
      “This would become a touchstone object for exoplanet science, with multiple opportunities for detailed characterization by Webb and other observatories,” said Beichman.
      For example, NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027 and potentially as early as fall 2026, is equipped with dedicated hardware that will test new technologies to observe binary systems like Alpha Centauri in search of other worlds. Roman’s visible light data would complement Webb’s infrared observations, yielding unique insights on the size and reflectivity of the planet.
      The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
      To learn more about Webb, visit:
      https://science.nasa.gov/webb
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      Media Contacts
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      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
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      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
      Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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      Last Updated Aug 07, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
      James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) View the full article
    • By NASA
      Explore This Section Science For Educators NUBE: New Card Game Helps… Overview Learning Resources Science Activation Teams SME Map Opportunities More Science Activation Stories Citizen Science   4 min read
      NUBE: New Card Game Helps Learners Identify Cloud Types Through Play
      Different clouds types can have different effects on our weather and climate, which makes identifying cloud types important – but learning to identify cloud types can be tricky! Educational games make the learning process easier and more enjoyable for learners of all ages and create an opportunity for families and friends to spend quality time together.
      The NASA Science Activation Program’s NASA Earth Science Education Collaborative (NESEC) and the Queens Public Library co-developed a new Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) card game called NUBE (pronounced noo-beh) – the Spanish word for cloud. During this fun, interactive game, players match cards by cloud type or sky color – with 11 cloud types and 5 shades of blue (in real life, sky color can be an indication of how many aerosols are in the atmosphere). There are also special cards in the deck, such as Rainmakers, which change the order of play; Obscurations, which require the next player to draw two cards; and Mystery cards, which require players to give hints while other players guess the cloud type. By playing the game, participants practice learning the names of clouds while they begin to appreciate the differences in cloud type and sky color.
      NESEC is collaborating with another NASA Science Activation project team – NASA@ My Library (NAML, led by the Space Science Institute, SSI – to get the game into library programs. NAML recruited and is distributing sets of two or four card decks to 292 U.S. libraries. Participating libraries are located in 45 states, with a large number (>50%) serving rural communities. SSI also promoted the opportunity to its network of libraries and co-presented a webinar with NESEC for interested libraries. Library applications described how they plan to use the game with their patrons, including programs for audiences ranging from kids to seniors related to weather and safety programs, citizen science clubs, home school groups, summer reading, game nights, circulating kits and more. Libraries that receive NUBE commit to use the game in at least one program and complete a short evaluation survey.
      NUBE evolved through several iterations as staff from several Queens Public Library branches tested the game with different age groups, from young kids to teens and adults. The game was also tested at the Challenger Center and the Center for Science, Technology, Education, & Mathematics (STEM) Teaching and Learning at Northern Arizona University. Alex Hernandez Bonifacio, an early Learning Educator at Queens Public Library reported, “It was amazing to see what kids reflected on as they were playing NUBE. For example, there was this third grader who was surprised to realize something could obscure our view of the clouds. She used to think clouds were too high in the sky for anything to block our view of them. While playing NUBE, she became very intrigued about the obscuration cards, and she realized that things closer to the ground like heavy snow could in fact block our view of the clouds!” After incorporating feedback from testers and counting the votes for different graphic design options, NUBE is now ready to be downloaded and enjoyed by all!
      If you’re excited to play this awesome GLOBE Clouds card game and want to learn even more about clouds, you can download the GLOBE Observer app on your smartphone to participate in hands-on NASA scientific research – sharing observations of your environment as a citizen scientist (no citizenship required)! Learn more and discover additional resources for engaging in clouds activities with the GLOBE Observer Clouds Toolkit.
      NESEC, led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) and supported by NASA under cooperative agreement award number NNX16AE28A, is part of NASA’s Science Activation Portfolio. Learn more about how Science Activation connects NASA science experts, real content, and experiences with community leaders to do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond: https://science.nasa.gov/learn
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