This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

Is this exoplanet in hot water? Yes, in both the literal and figurative sense!

Let’s start with the literal part. This exoplanet is the second one found to be orbiting the star HD 176071, hence the name HD 176071 b, and is located about 300 light years from our own planet. Scientific analysis has revealed an estimated size about 2.5 times that of Earth, but a mass over eight times larger, indicating that about 50% of the planet’s mass is made up purely of water.

For context, despite water covering about 70% of the Earth’s surface, it makes up only 0.02% of our planet’s mass. That’s practically a drop in the bucket! (Not literally this time, unfortunately; we did the math.)

HD 176071 b is also very, very close to its host star, at a distance of about 2.4 million kilometers. Being in such close proximity to the star means the planet is also very, very hot. For those hoping this watery world could be the universe’s largest sauna, we regret to inform you that it’s more like the universe’s largest cooking pot. Life as we know it already can’t survive on Mercury, and Mercury is almost twenty times as far from our Sun as this planet is from HD 176071.

This makes the planet a so-called “hot water world,” a rare find in the depths of the cosmos. As such, it’s a very lucky observation, especially because it doesn’t actually cross its host star from Earth’s perspective, requiring some unusual tricks to locate it. The team ended up discovering the planet by measuring tiny fluctuations in starlight with the HARPS-N instrument on the Galileo National Telescope.

Unfortunately for HD 176071 b, the hot temperatures aren’t the only phenomenon arising from being so close to its host star. At that distance, the star’s gravity is intense enough to induce extreme tidal forces which cause the planet’s orbit to decay. It’s already hot now, but it’s only going to get hotter from here.

Ultimately, the tidal forces will grow too strong, and HD 176071 b will be torn apart and devoured in the heart of the star. Given that it’s spent all these years cooking up, perhaps being turned into a meal is a fitting fate for it.

Until then, astronomers are eager to play with the star’s food. After all, as we’ve already mentioned, hot water worlds are very rare—even if this one’s likely to turn out well done.

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Why are bugs so weird?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Negin Farsad sit down with entomologist, Jessica Ware, to dig into the extraordinary world of bugs, insects the size of navel oranges, how they invented flying and so much more.

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What are the limits of the human mind?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly turn the telescope inward exploring sensory perception, dreaming, synesthesia, time, and the astonishing flexibility of the human brain with neuroscientist David Eagleman. Why does time seem to slow down during an emergency?

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Full Episode: Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope w/ Jason Rhodes

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

Albert Einstein famously once said, “God does not play dice with the universe.” While that may be true, if this discovery is any indication, it seems that pinball still hasn’t been ruled out.

GW Orionis is a triple star system located about 1,300 light years from Earth, around the north-western parts of the constellation Orion. The stars in the system are still too young to have formed planets, but all three of them are surrounded by a single protoplanetary disk—the concentric rings of gas, dust, and other materials that eventually form planets.

Finding a triple-star system with a protoplanetary disk is already notable, like the universe is sending us a signal. Finding a triple-star system with a protoplanetary disk that has three rings on different orbits . . . well, that’s setting off all the flashing lights and bells.

GW Orionis isn’t the only system with such strange orbits. For some time now, astronomers have been finding systems where exoplanets are orbiting on different rotational axes from their host stars—this is just a particularly stark example!

So what’s going on here? Initially, scientists hypothesized that an unseen gas giant had formed between the middle and outer rings and was perturbing their orbits with its gravitational influence. However, closer inspection revealed the true culprit: the universe’s largest pinball bumper, a 1.9-trillion-kilometer stream of cosmic gas.

The stream emerges from the surrounding molecular cloud and impacts the disk at an angle very similar to that of the outermost ring, suggesting that it knocked the ring out of alignment. Furthermore, the angle of misalignment decreases for rings closer to the star, which makes perfect sense if the force that altered their alignment in the first place originated outside the system.

The researchers who discovered this massive stream believe a similar explanation may hold for other exoplanetary systems with misaligned orbits. However, more examples of this phenomenon will have to be uncovered before this hypothesis can be confirmed.

In the meantime, if the universe really is a cosmic pinball machine, we imagine this would merit a TILT penalty.

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

What does it look like beneath the surface of the sun?

On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice discuss the heliosphere, the Parker Solar Probe, and solar storms with heliophysicist Lika Guhathakurta.

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What’s up with rocket stages crashing into the moon?

Neil deGrasse breaks down headlines about SpaceX rocket stages crashing into the moon and ways of dealing with space junk as we begin a possible permanent presence on the moon.

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Full Episode: Entomology w/ Jessica Ware

Special Edition: Neuroscience w/ David Eagleman

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

Astronomers have found a lot of strange things out there in the universe, so when an astronomer asks “What the heck is that thing?" you know they’ve discovered something interesting.

As with many such discoveries in astronomy, this began with the James Webb Space Telescope. A team of scientists at MIT spotted a mysterious red dot in one of the JWST’s many images of the early universe. Upon closer examination, they discovered that it was unlike anything they’d ever seen before. More precisely, the object in the image was very much like two things that usually don’t go together—it’s the difference between seeing a unicorn and seeing a rhino riding a horse.

Physically, the object resembles a star, and at least some of the energy signatures detected match up with what astronomers might expect. However, it’s thousands of times larger than other stars and emits billions of times more energy. In those respects, it’s closer to a black hole, and some of the other energy signatures align more closely with that interpretation.

So is this object a star, or is it a black hole? Both, kind of! Astronomers are calling it a “black hole star.” (Creative, we know.)

Oversimplifying a bit, a star is essentially a large, dense ball of space gas powered by nuclear fusion. This black hole star appears to function similarly, but instead of fusion, it draws its power from a nascent black hole at its center. The high energy output of the black hole results in a much larger, higher-energy star.

Such a discovery is unprecedented, but it’s not necessarily unanticipated. Astronomers have long suspected that black holes go through an unusual phase of development early in the universe’s lifespan—this may just be our first look at it!

Here’s the real interesting part: This may not be the only black hole star out there. Similar red dots have appeared in many of the JWST’s images, meaning there could be a lot more where that came from! As such, the team has dubbed this object MoM-BH*-1—MoM for “Mirage or Miracle,” the name of the survey that detected it, and “BH*-1” for “black hole star one.”

Astronomers are eager to search for more such objects, and we can only hope that the scientists, unlike the stars themselves, don’t turn out to be full of hot air.

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Could there be a hidden planet lurking beyond Pluto and Neptune?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice tackle a wide-ranging grab bag of fan questions covering Planet 9, galaxy shapes, dark matter, the odds of getting hit by a meteorite, and more!

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What is the Doppler Effect?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice break down the speed of sound and how to make a sonic boom. Plus, learn how highway speed checks utilize the doppler effect.

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Could there be other universes out there?

On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly answer science questions from celebrities like Steven Spielberg, Josh Scherer, Emily Blunt, and more.

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Full Episode: Solar Storms w/ Lika Guhathakurta

Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our YouTube channel.

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StarTalk Books

This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

Prepare for liftoff! Let Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist, host of StarTalk, and namesake of Tyson’s leaping frog) and Lindsey Nyx Walker (StarTalk’s senior producer and head writer) provide you with guidance when you’re . . . lost in space.

Coming September 15th, Lost in Space: 5,000 Facts for Navigating the Universe will give you the rundown on everything from here to the furthest reaches of outer space! You’ll never find a more thorough—or more entertaining—guide to the cosmos.

Did you know?

• 100 trillion neutrinos pass through your body every second.

• In 500 billion years, our sun will become a red giant star and expand to 100 times its original size.

• Astronomers estimate there are two trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

With this book, you can learn all these facts and 4,997 more! Plus, explore the 300+ maps, charts, and photographs, which let you see the wider universe from the comfort of your Earthly home.

If you liked Take Me to Your Leader or To Infinity and Beyond, you’ll love this out-of-this-world read. Start planning your trip through the universe now, and don’t forget your towel!

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

Black holes are voracious, insatiable, all-consuming. So what happens when one gets a bad case of indigestion?

If you know anything about black holes, you probably know that nothing, not even light, can escape from them. (Well, except for Hawking radiation, but that would take an entire article of its own to explain!) Indeed, the “event horizon” of a black hole marks the point of no return for anything being sucked in. Black holes are very, very hungry—but they’re also very, very messy eaters.

As a team of astronomers using the Very Large Telescope (yes, that’s actually what it’s called) found out, it appears that significant portions of a black hole’s meal may never reach the event horizon at all. Instead, it’s ejected back into the universe by powerful “black hole winds.”

The specific black hole system being studied, Swift J1727.8−1613, gets most of its food from a nearby companion star, stripping away stellar material from the star’s outer surface. This materials forms a rotating “accretion disk” which the black hole can grab its meals from, like the universe’s largest revolving sushi bar.

This accretion disk structure is actually not dissimilar from how planets form around young stars. The main difference is that accretion disks rotate much faster than so-called “protoplanetary disks” and are superheated by their black hole’s gravitational influence.

Back in 2023, Swift J1727.8-1613 released a massive burst of X-rays, catching the attention of the Very Large Telescope team. They found that this burst was caused by the black hole violently ejecting massive amounts of material, far more than had been seen in similar systems previously—and that revelation changes a lot about how we view black holes in general.

We tend to think of black holes as bottomless pits that suck in everything around them, but as it turns out, they’re a lot less efficient than we think. In fact, the scientists believe that the amount of matter carried away by black hole winds might eventually add up to the same amount the black hole actually consumed, literally throwing away half of its meal!

Through close observation this feeding frenzy, astronomers have uncovered a new picture of how binary star systems develop. That said, they did get that picture by watching a black hole get sick to its stomach.

Disgusting? Maybe. Scientifically fascinating? Definitely. Looks like sometimes, even a black hole bites off more than it can chew!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

What is light?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice break down perhaps the most important explainer. Learn how electricity and magnetism joined forces (or fields) to become the electromagnetic spectrum we know today.

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Full Episode: Cosmic Queries Grab Bag

Special Edition: Stars Ask

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StarTalk Books

This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

Hey, StarTalk speed demons! Did you catch our recent episode on the science of Formula One racing?

This episode isn’t just a casual Sunday drive—thanks to our friends at Bitdefender, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Gary O’Reilly take a trip all the way down to Miami to experience the Grand Prix and meet with legendary Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton! Not only do we learn about the recent rule changes in F1 and the physics behind them, but Neil also answers Lewis Hamilton’s geekiest questions about the cosmos.

Behind every great racer is a team of great engineers, testing the limits of physics to sate the need for speed! Learn about the venturi effect, the phenomenon which forced engineers to rethink how cars are designed. Plus, we break down how these new designs must be met with new rules of the road.

Ever wondered what it might feel like to live on a planet with up to five times Earth’s gravity? Watch StarTalk producer Alex Picadas take a hot lap around the track and experience the intense G-forces of a modern F1 race!

Our thanks to Bitdefender, the exclusive cybersecurity partner of Scuderia Ferrari HP, for hosting us this episode.

Watch Now

Watch on our YouTube channel.

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

This latest innovation in telescope technology is truly eye-opening . . . or in this case, eye-closing.

If you happen to be into photography, you’re likely familiar with the concept of exposure, the amount of light per unit area that reaches a camera. The longer an image’s exposure time, the brighter the image gets. Your average handheld camera has an exposure time measured in fractions of a second, but since space telescopes are capturing images of the deep, dark vastness of the universe, their exposure times are significantly longer—and that’s where the problems start.

In order for an image to develop properly, it needs to remain consistent for the entire exposure period. Satellites throw a wrench in that plan, blipping across the cosmos and leaving telescopes literally blinded by the light. At its worst, this can ruin a multi-hour exposure in just a few seconds.

With over 10,000 active satellites currently in orbit, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to actually complete an exposure. Fortunately, that’s where a team of researchers at the University of Warwick saw a way out.

What would you do if a bright light flashed in your eyes? You’d blink.

The researchers’ proposed defense system uses a neuromorphic camera placed behind the telescope, allowing it to view a broader area of sky. When it spots a satellite, the camera sends a signal to the observatory, allowing it to briefly close the shutter, delay the start of an exposure, or even move to another target entirely.

The “blinking” analogy isn’t a joke; the researchers actually were inspired by biological retinas. Involuntarily blinking in response to a bright light is called the “dazzle reflex.”

When presenting their system at the UK’s National Astronomy Meeting 2026, the team explained that it caught incoming satellites several seconds before they would’ve contaminated exposures. That’s plenty of time for an automated system to save a lengthy and likely costly exposure in literally the blink of an eye.

This isn’t a perfectly optical, er, optimal solution. Some measurements are so precise, and some cosmic events so brief, that pausing the observation simply isn’t an option. Satellites can also mess with exposures by emitting EM waves outside the visible spectrum, which this early-warning system can’t detect.

Still, I’d keep an eye on this. The team’s got a clear vision for their project, and that’s something any pupil of the sciences can respect!

(All right, I’ll stop before the jokes get any cornea.)

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Could spacetime curve in the opposite direction and produce a repulsive field instead of gravity?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice tackle fan questions about photons, heat death, gravitational waves, neutron stars and more with astrophysicist Michelle Thaller.

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Is there such a thing as objective truth? Are we living in a post-truth world?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly sit down to build a toolkit for finding the truth in an era of motivated reasoning, misinformation, and alternative facts with science historian and professional skeptic, Michael Shermer.

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Full Episode: Cosmic Queries Grab Bag

Special Edition: Stars Ask

Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our YouTube channel.

The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

Subscribe on YouTube

StarTalk Books

This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

Get Your Copy

This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

That’s no moon! Or is it?

Up until now, the definition of a moon—or “natural satellite,” if you want to get technical—has been simple and unambiguous. If it rotates around something that isn’t a star, it’s a moon! That “something” can be a planet, a dwarf planet, or even another moon.

There are a few edge cases for what defines “moon” in our own solar system. Some astronomers consider the Earth-Moon system and/or the Pluto-Charon system a pair of binary planets, by analogy with binary stars (which rotate around each other). The term “moonlet” is also sometimes used for natural satellites which are especially small or orbit small bodies such as asteroids.

However, a recent discovery may have made things a lot less clear. A team of scientists using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope has identified a moon in the nearby solar system CD-35 2772. This is the first time astronomers have discovered a moon outside our own solar system, so to put it lightly, it’s pretty big news!

But it being “big” is exactly the problem. The yet-unnamed satellite is absolutely gigantic, being at least as massive as Jupiter (which is itself large enough to hold 1,000 Earths). The object it orbits is even larger, and it isn’t even a planet—it’s a brown dwarf, somewhere between a gas giant and a true star. We’ve never seen anything quite like this unusual pair in our solar system, and it’s forcing scientists to confront questions they’ve never had to before.

Is this object a moon, or is it a planet? It’s not orbiting a star, but the IAU definition of a planet does allow planets to orbit brown dwarfs. It’s also nothing like any moon we’ve encountered; even ignoring its large size, it’s also gaseous rather than sharing the rocky composition of the moons in our solar system.

On the other hand, the brown dwarf this object is orbiting is, itself, orbiting the true star at the heart of CD-35 2772. If this new object is orbiting an almost-planet, and that almost-planet is orbiting a star, does that make it a moon? Since we’ve never encountered anything like this in our own solar system, the definitions get a little fuzzy.

This may remind some of you of a certain other disputed definition that led to decades of debate. It’s entirely possible that just as the discovery of Pluto ultimately caused the IAU definition of a planet to be amended, this object will force the IAU to change the definition of a moon, explicitly putting it in one category or the other.

Until then, let’s put that “lunacy” aside and focus on the facts. We’ve found the first ever exomoon, and I see a good moon rising on the future of astronomy!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

How do you get entangled particles?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice unpack the experimental side of entanglement, superposition, and the quantum underpinnings of our universe with experimental physicist, Sean Hodgman.

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Are we risking an America where we no longer innovate?

Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down the massive cuts to science funding, how it’s fuelling an American brain drain, and what that means for the future of innovation in America.

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Full Episode: Science Cuts w/ Michelle Thaller

Special Edition: Truth w/ Michael Shermer

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The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky…

By George Chudley, StarTalk Writer

There’s a lot that’s sweet about the Milky Way, and we’re not just talking about the candy bar. A Spain-based team of astronomers just found sugar in space!

The sugar in question was found in the interstellar medium, thin clouds of gas and dust that exist in the space between stars. Using a pair of radio telescopes in Yebes and Granada, the researchers examined a large gas cloud near the center of the Milky Way, then confirmed the presence of sugar by comparing it to samples in the lab.

The specific sugar identified is erythrulose, best known as a key ingredient in many self-tanning cosmetics. Fun fact: These cosmetics work on the same principle as the Maillard reaction, which the cooks in our audience may recognize as the process that turns cooked meat and baked bread brown.

This isn’t the first study to combine sugar and space (and everything . . . nace?); previous studies identified a close relative of table sugar in regions near the center of our galaxy, and the Osiris-Rex spacecraft found several within the asteroid Bennu. However, erythrulose is more complex than any sugar found by astronomers previously, so it’s still a delectable find.

Sugar is a key ingredient in more than just desserts; it’s important to the development of life itself. That said, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it—erythrulose in particular isn’t actually essential for life. It can easily convert into a form that is, though, and that raises all kinds of interesting questions.

Let’s get the one you’re probably all thinking out of the way: could this be a sign of extraterrestrial life? Maybe, but it’s far from certain. A sugar this complex being discovered does add credence to the claim that life could develop elsewhere in the universe, but we already know that such complex sugars can form in our galaxy. After all, if they couldn’t, we wouldn’t be here in the first place!

But it’s that very fact that, itself, raises another question: Where did these sugars come from? One of the major points of conflict in discussing the origin of life is whether the necessary components for life already existed on our planet or were brought here from far away by comets. Finding such a complex sugar just floating around in our own galaxy, with no delivery comets in sight, is pretty significant evidence in favor of the former hypothesis.

Of course, if you’re on the other side of the debate, this discovery may leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Still, adapting your perspective to new evidence is what science is all about—the alternative is a recipe for disaster!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Is there no single shared "now" for everyone in the universe?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Paul Mecurio dive into another grab bag of fan questions about superconducting asteroids, what memories are made of, and if you could ever experience pure unwarped spacetime.

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Could you get sucked out of a hole in the side of your airplane?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Chuck Nice break down all the scientific details to notice on your next flight, from wing shapes to why you shouldn’t jump during takeoff and landing.

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What’s the real difference between dreaming and waking consciousness?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-host Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly sit down with sleep expert Matt Walker to answer fan questions about the most mysterious thing humans do every single night: sleeping & dreaming. What’s the science behind your sleep paralysis demon?

Watch Now

Full Episode: Quantum Entanglement w/ Sean Hodgman

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The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky...

Ever wondered how to destroy a star? If you have, then we’re . . . a little concerned, honestly. Maybe a little less “mad” and a little more “scientist” next time.

Either way, there are a few different ways astronomers know of that stars can be destroyed, and they think they’ve just discovered a new one. It all began with the search for the origin of a minute-long gamma ray burst.

Gamma ray bursts, or GRBs, are the brightest and most powerful explosions in the universe. They’re usually caused by stars going supernova, and most last only a few milliseconds. We’ve seen GRBs that last a full minute or longer before, but they’re still rare enough that any one we see would be worth investigating!

The team of astronomers traced the burst to its origin using the Gemini South telescope (also named Zorro—after the Spanish word for fox, not the masked swordsman), one of the most powerful telescopes on Earth. What they found was evidence that the star—or rather, stars—that emitted the burst had met an end unlike any we’d ever seen before!

Most stars die in one of a few ways, depending on their size. A small star like our own Sun will burn out and become a white dwarf, collapsing all of its mass into a volume about the size of Earth. More massive stars may instead leave behind a hyper-dense neutron star or a black hole, and if they form a binary system with another star, they may go out in a collision.

So what’s the secret fourth option? Well, it’s kind of a combination of options two and three. If two stars are close enough to a supermassive black hole, of the sort that exists at the heart of most galaxies, they may end up colliding and merging even if they’re not already a binary system!

This may not sound too exciting; after all, on the surface, it seems like just a different type of collision. However, it’s actually the first direct evidence of something scientists have suspected for a long time.

The oldest, densest galaxies in the universe are packed with stars and stellar remnants at their cores. Hypothetically, it should be inevitable that these objects will collide at some point, but until this discovery, we’d never actually seen it happen before. Once the astronomers tracked the GRB back to its source, however, they found the remains of the collision just 100 light years from the center of the galaxy.

This isn’t a smoking gun, but it is a sign to update the stars’ cosmic autopsy report . . . and to keep an eye out for any other stars that may have been destroyed in the same way. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

What type of planets orbit black holes?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Negin Farsad sit down with Mordecai-Mark Mac Low to crack open the mysteries of galaxy collisions, dark matter, and the massive planetary systems around black holes.

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What are the physics of F1?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Gary O’Reilly take a trip down to Miami where they explore the new rules–and new engineering–in F1 racing. We explore the venturi effect, G-forces, and get a visit from Ferrari driver, Lewis Hamilton. Plus, StarTalk tests out the G-forces in our very own hot lap!

Watch Now

Full Episode: Cosmic Queries w/ Michelle Thaller

Special Edition: Stars Ask

Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our YouTube channel.

The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

Subscribe on YouTube

This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

Get Your Copy

This week in the sky...

For our fans in the United States, happy Fourth of July! For our fans elsewhere in the world, uh . . . happy International Cherry Pit Spitting Day? (Yes, that’s real.)

In the 250 years since the U.S. of A. was founded, our knowledge of our cosmic backyard has changed in some surprising ways. You may remember when the solar system was considered to have nine planets, but back in 1776, we only knew about six of them!

Uranus wasn’t discovered until 1781, when it was first observed by German-British astronomer William Herschel. As for the discovery of Neptune . . . well, that one’s complicated.

The existence of an eighth planet was first hypothesized by Alexis Bouvard, who observed unexpected perturbations in the orbit of Uranus. The position of this then-hypothetical planet was then confirmed independently by John Couch Adams and Urbain Le Verrier, before it was finally observed for the first time by Johann Gottfried Galle.

We know what you’re all asking, though: What’s the deal with Pluto? Well, Pluto actually wasn’t the first “planet” to be declassified! In between the discovery of Uranus and Neptune, astronomers found four objects that were briefly classified as planets, bringing the total to 11.

However, as more and more of these objects were discovered, it was realized that these objects were actually of an entirely distinct class from planets. (Sound familiar?) Today, we know them as the asteroids Ceres, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta.

As for Pluto itself, the story’s actually a bit more complicated than you may have realized. Remember how Neptune’s existence was predicted before it was actually discovered because of irregularities in Uranus’s orbit? The same thing happened with Pluto—and the search for “Planet X” was, if anything, more fervent.

Perhaps it was that fervor that led astronomers to so quickly classify Pluto as a planet in the first place. Even shortly after its discovery, its planetary status was already being questioned as astronomers realized it was far smaller than it initially seemed. Pluto lining up with the calculated position and orbit of Planet X was a mere coincidence, and as objects such as Eris were discovered in years to come, the debate became unavoidable.

Still, who knows what our own solar system will look like in another 250 years? Perhaps we’ll find another true planet that’s been hidden from us all along, or some new discovery will demand that our definition of a planet is amended yet again, starting the debate all over.

(That said, any amended definition that does include Pluto would have to include the other dwarf planets as well. If you want a new catchy mnemonic acronym, have fun fitting in Quaoar!)

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Did evolution never give us the ability to see reality as it actually is?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly sit down with cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman to explore what neuroscience, evolutionary game theory, and consciousness suggest about the nature of reality itself.

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Full Episode: Planetary Formation w/ Mordecai-Mark Mac Low

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky...

Finding out something new about our universe can send everything we know about astronomy off the rails—but this discovery’s more about keeping things on track.

It’s long been suspected that magnetic fields play a key role in the birth of stars. Stars are formed from collapsing clouds of cosmic gas, and so-called “stellar nurseries” tend to have lots of gas to work with. However, the clouds still need to be arranged in specific ways in order to actually form a star.

Think about it this way: You can ship all the bricks you want to a construction site, but if you want to get a brick house, someone actually needs to be there to build it!

That’s where magnetic fields come in, as revealed in a recent study by researchers at MIT Haystack Observatory. The researchers compare these fields to railroad tracks in how they run through the cosmos, reshaping the flow of materials towards their final destination and ensuring that they get off at the right stop to start forming stars.

Specifically, the study examined DR21, one of the most active stellar nurseries in the universe. As it turns out, the nursery’s so-called “Main Ridge” is the last stop on a lot of magnetic railroads, which feed material directly into the nursery and align it with how gravity ensures accretion and collapse.

With this study confirming a longtime theory, have we reached the end of the line? Not even close! Even once the broader astronomy community gets on board with this research, we’ll still need a new mission and new technology to more closely examine the precise effects of magnetic fields on star formation.

Hopefully, this new research will motivate scientists to go full steam ahead on future magnetic field missions. If we may express our personal opinion . . . we think they can, we think they can!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Did the Milky Way used to be a quasar?

On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice explore quasars, the high energy universe, and the movie we’re making of the night’s sky with astrophysicist & host of PBS Space Time, Matt O’Dowd.

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How does air pressure work?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice break down measuring air pressure and why champagne doesn’t pop in a submarine.

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Full Episode: Consciousness w/ Donald Hoffman

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The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky...

Hey, remember that visitor from another solar system we got last year?

No, we’re not talking about aliens, we’re talking about 3I/ATLAS, a comet that passed by our Sun from a distant corner of the galaxy! NASA’s finally released the observations of the comet conducted by the James Webb Space Telescope, and what they’ve found is, well, striking.

(Not literally, lucky for us! The closest it passed to Earth was a little under twice the distance between the Earth and the Sun.)

First of all, it’s old—potentially up to 10 billion years old, twice the age of the very solar system it stopped by to visit! Second, compared to the amount of water detected on the comet, the amount of methane is unlike anything in our own solar system, as is the amount of carbon dioxide.

Notably, the comet didn’t start releasing detectable amounts of methane gas until it was well on its way through our solar system.

However, scientists actually do have an explanation for that one: our interstellar visitor was catching some rays! As it passed by the Sun, 3I/ATLAS has ice sublimated off its surface into the gases detected by the JWST.

These findings may come as a bit of cosmic culture shock, but as they say, when on Earth, do as the Earthlings do!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Have aliens already secretly visited us?

Neil deGrasse Tyson sits down with legendary director Steven Spielberg and screenwriter David Koepp to discuss their new film Disclosure Day, the science and psychology of alien contact, and why Spielberg believes there’s more out there than meets the eye.

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Is it really “the circle of life”?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice break down the thermodynamics of cannibalism and why, techincally, we are all solar powered.

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Is the fear of heights innate or learned?

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Chuck Nice, and Gary O'Reilly explore taking risks, the neuroscience of fear, and how to overcome it with Alex Honnold, freestyle rock climber, subject of the film Free Solo, and Host of Planet Visionaries: in partnership with the Rolex Perpetual Planet Initiative as well as neuroscientist Heather Berlin.

Full Episode: Quasars w/ Matt O’Dowd

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The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky...

How do you investigate a planet you can’t see?

The answer, as astronomers have just discovered, is elementary: Planetesimals, the fingerprints of stars. These tiny fragments of cosmic material form “protoplanetary disks” surrounding young stars, and when enough of them come together, a planet is born.

Recently, it has been observed that exoplanets orbiting a star carve out rings in the protoplanetary material, allowing astronomers to detect their presence. Even more recently, it’s been suggested that astronomers might be able to use these rings to assess the properties of these exoplanets as well, like a detective analyzing DNA evidence at the scene of a crime.

A team of astronomers at the University of Warwick has used this technique to identify the masses of exoplanets in the planetary system PDS 70 from the widths of the rings they form and the locations of the brightest points in those rings.

Even better, the relationship they’ve established holds regardless of the wavelength of light and the size of the planetesimals, meaning that any telescope can theoretically image any exoplanet if its star’s disc is in view! With this new mystery-solving tool, even the most well-hidden phantom planets won’t be able to escape Starlock Holmes!

(Moonrock Holmes? Sherblack hole-mes? Eh, we’ll workshop it . . . wait a minute, Dick Spacy!)

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Are all galaxies redshifting away?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and comedian Negin Farsad tackle a grab bag of fan questions covering cosmic infrastructure, redshift, werewolves, gravitational waves, and the nature of time itself.

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Full Episode: Disclosure Day w/ Steven Spielberg

Special Edition: Rock Climbing w/ Alex Honnold

Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our YouTube channel.

The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky...

Barring conspiracy theories about aliens building the pyramids, astronomy and archaeology usually aren’t mentioned in the same breath. However, if there’s a cosmic discovery comparable to the unveiling of Tutankhamen’s tomb, it’s this treasure trove of black hole mergers!

Just as there can be binary stars, so, too, are there binary black holes. When those black holes reach the end of their lifespan, they plunge into each other and fuse together into a larger black hole, emitting gravitational wave signals that allow us to detect them.

A couple weeks ago, we knew of about 200 black hole mergers—but with the recent release of the Gravitational Wave Transient Catalogue-5.0, that number has nearly doubled!

This doesn’t just give us more mergers to look at, but mergers of types we’ve never seen before, like between two black holes that were themselves formed by mergers. If that chain continued, it could theoretically grow into a black hole millions or billions of times the mass of the Sun.

With how elusive black hole mergers are and how many have been found at once, it’s no surprise that some researchers have compared the catalogue’s findings to the discovery of a long-lost civilization.

We’d say to watch out for rolling boulder traps, but if you’re investigating a city of black holes, you literally have bigger problems!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

What would happen to Earth if Jupiter stopped rotating?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice answer a grab bag of fan questions about the challenges with space telescopes, the nature of AI, and whether aliens are funny.

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Why can some be a spotter for weight that's heavier than what they can lift?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Chuck Nice explore how forces work and why you don’t need to have the muscliest guy at the gym spotting you on your bench press.

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Can we put the data centers in space?

Neil deGrasse Tyson and co-hosts Chuck Nice and Gary O’Reilly map out the future of human habitation, research, and industry in low Earth orbit with Ariel Ekblaw, founder and CEO of the Aurelia Institute.

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Full Episode: Cosmic Queries w/ Negin Farsad

Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our YouTube channel.

The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

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This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

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This week in the sky...

Now this is an ice discovery!

Thanks to a recent review of data from the decommissioned Kepler telescope, astronomers may have discovered a long-lost twin of our planet. This planet, dubbed HD 137010 b, was first discovered when scientists spotted a brief, slight dimming from a nearby star.

It may seem like a small thing, but stars dimming like this is often the first indication that there’s an undiscovered planet in orbit—and indeed, an analysis of the transit depth revealed a planet about 1.06 times the size of Earth. Furthermore, the planet was estimated to rotate its host star every 355 days, very close to the timing of Earth’s own orbit.

A planet with properties so similar to Earth’s seems like a shoo-in to search for extraterrestrial life but there’s one little difference: HD 137010 b is really, really cold. Scientists estimate its equilibrium temperature at around -90 degrees Fahrenheit—for reference, that’s around the same temperature as the record low in the coldest inhabited city on Earth!

So why are alien hunters still warming up to this planet?

Well, equilibrium temperature doesn’t tell the whole story; we don’t yet know whether the planet has an atmosphere or whether the surface temperature might be warmer. It may not be the hottest find in the universe, but HD 137010 b shouldn’t be given the cold shoulder!

Catch up on the latest video drops from StarTalk:

Is there life in the Venusian Clouds?
Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice are joined by planetary astrobiologist David Grinspoon to discuss NASA’s return to Venus, our space future, and whether we’ll find life in our solar system.

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What’s up with Greenland?
Neil deGrasse Tyson breaks down some important points about Greenland from a scientific, historical, and geopolitical lens.

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Full Episode: Grab Bag Cosmic Queries

Listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our YouTube channel.

The newest addition to the StarTalk Multiverse is where we post podcast highlights and fun original content that doesn't quite fit on the main channel.

Subscribe on YouTube

This enlightening illustrated narrative by the world’s most celebrated astrophysicist explains the universe from the solar system to the farthest reaches of space with authority and humor.

Get Your Copy

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