A coalition of students, faculty and alumni have come together to raise the funds necessary to replace the radome that sits atop the Building 54, reports Hiawatha Bray for The Boston Globe. “Once the overhaul is complete, MIT’s radio buffs, astronomers, and satellite researchers will have a tool that will serve them for decades,” writes Bray. “And they’ll have also preserved one of the school’s most famous landmarks.”
Gizmodo reporter George Dvorsky writes about how researchers from MIT and other institutions have detected the corona of a supermassive black hole disappearing and then reappearing. Dvorsky writes that their findings suggest this “strange episode was caused by a runaway star.”
The Economist explores how the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), an MIT-led NASA mission, has identified a number of new exoplanets and, in the process, helped astronomers and scientists unearth new details about our universe. This latest discovery, according to The Economist, “will help answer some of the biggest questions in the rapidly growing science of exoplanetology.”
Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder writes for US News & World Report about the planet hunting satellite TESS, which has recently discovered three new exoplanets. "The pace and productivity of TESS in its first year of operations has far exceeded our most optimistic hopes for the mission," said Senior Research Scientist George Ricker, TESS's principal investigator.
Martin Finucane reports for The Boston Globe on the latest findings of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, “a NASA Astrophysics Explorer mission led and operated by MIT and managed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center,” which hunts for exoplanets. TESS recently discovered a rocky super-Earth and two sub-Neptunes in a system known as TOI-270.
A new MIT study shows that NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered three new exoplanets in a system known as TOI-270. “The newly discovered exoplanets are some of the smallest and closest ever found,” reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. “All three planets are similar in size, which is very different from our own solar system filled with extremes.”
Postdoc Maximilian Günther is the lead author on a paper showing that NASA’s TESS satellite has discovered three new exoplanets. “The exoplanets are of a type that does not exist in our solar system, being between the Earth and Neptune in size,” writes Daniel Clery for Science. “That makes the closely packed system, known as TOI-270, a good bet for answering long-standing questions about how such ‘super-Earths’ or ‘mini-Neptunes’ form.”
TESS, an MIT-led NASA mission, has discovered two gaseous exoplanets and one rocky exoplanet within a system known as TOI-270, reports New Scientist. “TOI-270 will soon allow us to study this ‘missing link’ between rocky Earth-like planets and gas-dominant mini-Neptunes, because here all of these types formed in the same system,” says postdoc Maximilian Günther, lead author of a paper on the new system.
The New York Times’ Dennis Overbye reports on a paper from MIT, which shows that NASA’s planet hunting satellite TESS has discovered three new exoplanets in a system 73 light-years from Earth known as TOI-270. “TOI-270 is a true Disneyland for exoplanet science because it offers something for every research area,” says postdoc and lead author Maximilian Günther. “It is an exceptional laboratory for not one, but many reasons.”
Researchers from MIT and the European Space Agency are developing a process to evaluate how operators deploy satellites to help reduce the amount of debris in space, reports Loren Grush for The Verge. “It’s actually encouraging companies to try to beat each other in how good they behave, so they can build their brand,” explains Prof. Danielle Wood.
Writing for The Washington Post, postdoctoral associate Gregory Falco argues that the computer systems operating satellites are vulnerable to cyberattacks. “Computer systems running our satellites haven’t kept up, making them prime targets for an attack,” warns Falco. “This makes our space assets a massive vulnerability — and it could get much worse if we’re not careful.”
Boston Globe reporter Martin Finucane writes about how TESS has discovered an Earth-sized planet orbiting a star 52 light years from Earth. “The new planet HD, 21749c, orbits the star HD 21749. It circles the star in 7.8 days,” Finucane explains. “The planet is probably rocky and uninhabitable, with temperatures on the surface of up to 800 degrees.”
Forbes contributor Jamie Carter writes that TESS has identified an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star 52 light years from Earth. The planet "takes about eight days to orbit the host star and is similar in size to Earth at 89% its diameter,” writes Carter. “A likely rocky world, it's thought to have surface temperatures as high as 800°F /427°C.”
The MIT-led TESS mission has discovered its first Earth-sized exoplanet, reports Ashley Strickland for CNN. “There was quite some detective work involved, and the right people were there at the right time,” says postdoctoral fellow Diana Dragomir. “But we were lucky, and we caught the signals, and they were really clear."
Fortune’s Aaron Pressman writes about this year’s New Space Age Conference at MIT and how it has changed since the first iteration in 2016. SpaceX, rather than Boeing, “was the big incumbent” and “too much money may have flowed into too many startups all chasing the same few satellite opportunities,” writes Pressman.