Interstellar Updates

 

These are items of interest to the interstellar exploration community that we’ve found in our quest for information that will help us advance toward our goals.  If you know of anything we’ve overlooked, or any sources of such information we should monitor, or if you would like to be added to our IRG-updates mailing list and receive these updates in you email every weekday, please send that information to info@irg.space.

You can now search our database of interstellar updates and find items of interest to you.

June 04, 2026 Updates

HETDEX opens massive Cosmic Noon dataset to scientists, novices and AI
https://phys.org/news/2026-06-hetdex-massive-cosmic-noon-dataset.html

The Catastrophic Consequences of Agnosticism for Life Searches and a Possible Workaround
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.02969

First Interstellar Detection of Methyl Carbamate: A New Observational Anchor for Glycine Chemistry
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae69da

Impact of Climate States and Seasons on Future Exo-Earth Observations
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae5e46

Characterizing Transiting Exoplanet Atmospheres in the 2030s with the Hubble Space Telescope
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04144

A Preliminary Exploration on the Effects of Baseline Length for the LIFE Space Mission
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ae6c5b

Simulation and analysis of the effect of detector vibration on the radial velocity inversion of a coherent-dispersive spectrometer
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6501/ae6e8c

Preparing for the Early eVolution Explorer: Detecting the Primordial, Transiting Exoplanet Population
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04283

HAT-P-70b through the Eyes of MAROON-X: Constraining Elemental Abundances of Metals and Insights on Atmosphere Dynamics
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae69d3

A Panchromatic JWST Spectrum of a Giant Starspot on the Fully Convective M Dwarf TOI-3884
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae6fb6

Upper limits on exosatellites around β Pictoris b
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04685

Prospects for Reconstructing the Free-floating Planet Mass Function at the Population Level with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae6e36

Development of a long working distance coupling and ultrafast photoelectric triggering system for microchip laser in coaxial TOF mass spectrometry
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2631-8695/ae7025

All-Sky Ultra-Narrowband Spectral Imaging with the OVRO-LWA: Technosignature Constraints and Axion-Like Particle Prospects
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.04304

Icy Volatile Enhancements in Evolving Protoplanetary Disks
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae60fe

June 03, 2026 Updates

Astrophysical Applications of the Physics Presented in the Film Interstellar
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.01921

A Massive Hot-Jupiter Companion that Disfavors Giant Planet Formation Beyond the Water-Ice Line
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02705

How leaky? A large parameter study of leaky dust traps to quantify the transport of pebbles and ice in protoplanetary discs
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/06/aa59705-26/aa59705-26.html

Broadband spectroscopy of astrophysical ice analogues
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/06/aa59623-26/aa59623-26.html

Low-energy electron-driven functionalization of benzene–water ices to phenol
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/06/aa59133-26/aa59133-26.html

HERMES: HiERarchical Modelling for Exoplanet Science
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02696

One Transit Is All You Need: Detecting Exoplanets Through Learned Stellar Behaviour with EXOVEIL
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02778

The CRIMSON survey I: super-stellar SiO in the directly imaged companion TWA 5 B from high-resolution M-band spectroscopy
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.03824

Orbit Refinement of WASP-18 b and Evidence Against the Existence of WASP-18 c
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02473

A comprehensive Rossiter-Mclaughlin Modelling Framework in TLCM: Application to HD 2685 TOI-135 system
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.03456

A user-friendly package and workflow for generating effective homogeneous rheologies for the study of the long-term orbital evolution of multilayered planetary bodies
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/06/aa59861-26/aa59861-26.html

Bridging the UV Gap: The HST Ultraviolet Foundation for Star Formation Science in the Era of Roman, Euclid, and HWO
https://arxiv.org/abs/2606.02746

June 02 2026 updates

Energy transfer in the solar wind–Mars interaction: the contributions of different electric field terms 

https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag759

 

Woven by the Whirls: The growth and entrainment of cold clouds in turbulent hot winds 

https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1018

 

Evolution of a lEvolution of a long-period Cataclysmic Variable from the viewpoint of the donor star: the case of SDSS J085210.48+783246.6 ong-period Cataclysmic Variable from the viewpoint of the donor star: the case of SDSS J085210.48+783246.6 

https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag995

 

Hall-modified magnetogravitational modes in degenerate and anisotropic rotating plasmas: Application to Stratified White Dwarfs 

https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag957

 

June 01 2026 updates

Mind the Companion : Demographics of Transiting S-type Exoplanets

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.31523

 

Weird Worlds: This sulfurous hell world might change the way we classify exoplanets

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42153839/

 

A growth of early superhump: Multicolor observation of the WZ Sge star TCP J23580961+5502508 

https://doi.org/10.1093/pasj/psag062

 

Evolution of a long-period Cataclysmic Variable from the viewpoint of the donor star: the case of SDSS J085210.48+783246.6  

https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag995

 

May 29, 2026 Updates

Development and demonstration of a Modular Astrobiological Experiments (MAEx) payload for autonomous biological monitoring in Low Earth Orbit (LEO)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29308

Impact of Clouds on the Atmosphere-Mantle Interface of Sub-Neptunes
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.27353

Mars as an Exoplanet: Lessons from a Planet at the Edge of Habitability
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.18949

Characterisation of all known multiple stellar systems within 10 pc
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.04094

Assessing Ariel’s capabilities to observe free-floating brown dwarfs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.28924

Next-generation Exo-REM atmospheric models: application to VHS 1256 b to emulate patchy clouds
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29070

Modeling carbon outgassing from chondritic planetesimals
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29914

Spin-Orbit Geometry of AU Mic b and c from Back-to-Back Transits Observed Contemporaneously with Magellan PFS, LCOGT, and CHEOPS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.29946

An archival summary: 15 years of ALMA observations on disks and planet formation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30023

The evolution and internal structure of Neptunes and sub-Neptunes II. Convective mixing and thermal conductivity
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.30078

Scattered light signatures of flyby-induced warps in protoplanetary discs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.22592

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