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.

March 10, 2026 updates

SCG-HMH (Consolidated concepts) What I think the future should look like
https://zenodo.org/records/18916931

The SCG-HMH Giga factory Concept
https://zenodo.org/records/18925333

Jam-packed star system is most compact of its kind ever found
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-00667-w

On Perihelion Predictions for Visiting Interstellar Cometary Objects
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-11-0389/

Project Icarus: The Pegasus Spacecraft Concept Design ICF Propulsion for an Interstellar Rendezvous Mission _ Part A
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-12-0402/

Project Icarus: The Pegasus Spacecraft Concept Design ICF Propulsion for an Interstellar Rendezvous Mission _ Part B
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-12-0422/

Universal energy limits of radiation belts in planetary and brown dwarf magnetospheric systems
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea4945

CH3OH and HCN in Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Mapped with the ALMA Atacama Compact Array: Distinct Outgassing Behaviors and a Remarkably High CH3OH/HCN Production Rate Ratio
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae433b

Dyson spheres on H-R diagram
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.23270

Estimation of the tidal heating in the TRAPPIST-1 planets: Influence of the internal structure
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa54529-25/aa54529-25.html

The GAPS programme at TNG: LXXI. A sub-Neptune suitable for atmospheric characterization in a multiplanet and mutually inclined system orbiting the bright K dwarf TOI-5789 (HIP 99452)
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa57662-25/aa57662-25.html

Predicting Gaia astrometry’s ability to constrain the populations of circumbinary planets
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag450/8507228

Heat Reveals What Clouds Conceal: Global Carbon and Longitudinally Asymmetric Chemistry on LTT 9779 b
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4494

Limits On the Posteclipse Emission Spectrum of HD 80606 b From High-resolution Spectroscopy
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae45a7

HD 164604 c: A Second Giant Planet on a 15 Yr Orbit and Constraints on the Planet–Planet Mutual Inclination
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4490

Dynamics of Planetary Rings under Thermal Forces
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae4746

Nucleus and Postperihelion Activity of Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Observed by the Hubble Space Telescope
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae471c

Three Saturn-mass Microlensing Planets Identified through Signals from Peripheral-caustic Perturbations
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ae477c

Hydrocarbon complexity and photochemical shielding of prebiotic feedstock molecules in exoplanet atmospheres
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0019103526000989

Planetary systems under the effect of multiple flybys in the galactic bulge
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S003206332600022X

Isotopic Evidence for a Cold and Distant Origin of the Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06911

NASA’s Pandora SmallSat Mission: Simulated Modeling and Retrieval of Near-Infrared Exoplanet Transmission Spectra
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04488

Exoplanet Synchronization in the Habitable Zone: Learning from Venus’ Retrograde Rotation
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae43e4

Implications of the Pessimistic Lower Limit on the Drake Equation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02372

A Direct View of the Chemical Properties of Water from Another Planetary System: Water D/H in 3I/ATLAS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07026

High nitrogen and carbon isotopic ratios in the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07187

Broadband SETI: a New Strategy To Find Nearby Alien Civilizations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07333

Forecasting Catastrophe: Constraints on the Fomalhaut Main Belt Planetesimal Population from Observed Collisional Remnants
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07376

Dust distribution in circumstellar disks harboring multi-planet systems. II. Super-thermal mass planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07711

Post-perihelion Coma Composition of the Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS from Optical Spectroscopy
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.07718

March 09, 2026 Updates

Is the high-energy environment of K2-18b special?
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa57601-25/aa57601-25.html

TOI-3288 b and TOI-4666 b: Two gas giants transiting low-mass stars characterised by NIRPS
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2026/03/contents/contents.html

A Study of Stability and Quintessence Polytropic Matter with Thin Shell Wormholes in Exponential Gravity
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0550321326000866

A Narrowband Technosignature Search toward the Hycean Candidate K2-18 b Using the VLA and MeerKAT
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae448e

Predictions of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Galactic Exoplanet Survey. IV. Lens Mass and Distance Measurements
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae43e6

MANGOS II: Five new giant planets orbiting low-mass stars
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag448/8509368?searchresult=1

Exocomets of β Pictoris II: Two dynamical families of exocomets simulated with REBOUND
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05600

Global Abiotic Sulfur Cycling on Earth-like Terrestrial Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06124

Star-based Navigation in the Outer Solar System
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.06247

March 06, 2026 updates

Exo–IPM Scattering as a Hidden Gatekeeper of Narrowband Technosignatures
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3d33

Metrology of Complexity and Implications for the Study of the Emergence of Life
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.18203

ibSLS: A Biobank for Democratizing Access to Multi-Omics Data and Biospecimens from Spaceflight Research
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.08.675003v1

Collection of Biospecimens from the Inspiration4 Mission Establishes the Standards for the Space Omics and Medical Atlas (SOMA)
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.05.02.539108v1

Blood coagulability changes in females exposed to dry immersion: examining a mechanism for the development of venous thromboembolism in microgravity
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576525008379?via%3Dihub

A whole-planet model of the Earth without life for terrestrial exoplanet studies
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.02267

Universal energy limits of radiation belts in planetary and brown dwarf magnetospheric systems
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea4945

A Bounded Planetary Stability Vector Space and Monte Carlo Prioritization Framework Applied to the NASA Exoplanet Archive: Identification of LHS 1140 b as a Structurally Robust Terrestrial Candidate
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202602.1973

Time-Domain Photometry and Activity Evolution of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS with BHTOM
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.01383

Beyond solar metallicity: How enhanced solid content in disks reshapes low-mass planet torques
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa56720-25/aa56720-25.html

Transit distances and compositions of low-velocity exocomets in the β Pic system
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa57819-25/aa57819-25.html

The GAPS programme at TNG: LXX. HD128717 B/Gaia-6 B: A long-period eccentric low-mass brown dwarf from astrometry and radial velocities
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa57414-25/aa57414-25.html

Timescale diagnostics for saving viscous and MHD-wind-driven dusty discs from external photoevaporation
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa58535-25/aa58535-25.html

Behavior of mandibular fractures under earth and microgravity conditions: a finite element analysis
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-025-00558-w

What to Make of the Earth’s Curiously Intermediate Land Fraction?
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4001

Indications of Rapid Dust Formation in the Inner Region of a Protoplanetary Disk
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae4576

Predicting Gaia astrometry’s ability to constrain the populations of circumbinary planets
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag450/8507228

The ALMA Survey of Gas Evolution of PROtoplanetary Disks (AGE-PRO): Constraints on disk turbulence, fragmentation velocity, and inner pebble fluxes
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag423/8504088

The Multifaceted Potential of Fungi in Extraterrestrial Environments: Exploring Mushrooms in Space
https://rsnz.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/nzb2.70066

Planetary systems under the effect of multiple flybys in the galactic bulge
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S003206332600022X

Extraterrestrial Hydrometeological Phenomena and Their Communicative Implications Interpretive Journalism Perspective
https://zenodo.org/records/18875181

Elastic Membrane Cosmology: The Astrophysical Sonoluminescence
https://zenodo.org/records/18832286

Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase-encoding microorganisms in volcanic astrobiological analogues: an enzyme system to investigate the evolution of life
https://academic.oup.com/femsec/advance-article/doi/10.1093/femsec/fiag022/8497455

Helium Escape in Context: Comparative Signatures of Four Close-in Exoplanets
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae41b5

March 05, 2026 updates

A comprehensive review of humidity management in crewed Spacecraft: Standards, technological advances and applications
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364032126001632

Long-term activity cycles in planetary M stars observed with SOPHIE
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.03643

Spiral formation caused by late infall onto protoplanetary disks
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.03442

NASA’s Pandora SmallSat Mission: Simulated Modeling and Retrieval of Near-Infrared Exoplanet Transmission Spectra
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04488

NASA’s Pandora SmallSat Mission: Simulating the Impact of Stellar Photospheric Heterogeneity and Its Correction
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04519

Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). XVIII. Indication of a possible spiral structure in the dust-continuum emission of the protostellar disk around IRAS 16544-1604 in CB 68
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04719

Prebiotic Resource Constraints and the Origin of Life: A Linear Logic Framework
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.23.644802v1

Contact with Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Multilateral Preparedness
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-04-0116/

Estimating the Maximum Lifetime of Alien Civilizations Consistent With the Fermi Paradox; and Ours As Well
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-07-0253/

Filtered Feynman Path Integrals and Emergent Gravity: A Toy Model for Warp Metrics and Wormhole Formation
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-07-0243/

How long does the human civilization need to last in order to observe another advanced intelligence in the Universe?
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-07-0230/

On Perihelion Predictions for Visiting Interstellar Cometary Objects
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-11-0389/

Project Icarus: An Assessment of the Particle Bombardment Problem on Interstellar Spacecraft
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-06-0216/

 

March 04, 2026 updates

Orbital stability of closely-spaced four-planet systems
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0019103526000916

Disc Fragmentation. III. The need for a new paradigm for formation of planets within close binary systems
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02395

The Effect of Atmospheric Chemistry on the Optical Geometric Albedos of Hot Jupiters
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02409

Low-energy glycine formation and spectral masking in star-forming regions
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12873171/

Water enrichment of forming sub-Neptune envelopes limited by oxygen exhaustion
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02423

Formation of second-generation stellar populations in globular clusters: the role of binary stars and stellar collisions
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10509-026-04555-7

Constraining the Effects of Pre- and Post-accretionary Processes on Ryugu Insoluble Organic Matter
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae40f9

Analysis of Nongravitational Acceleration of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0038094625601161

The SPHEREx Satellite Mission
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae2be2

Reactivity safety analysis of an air-cooled nuclear thermal propulsion reactor
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2468605026000098

Elastic Membrane Cosmology: Chien’s EMC Spatial Resonator: Engineering Blueprint for Macroscopic Vacuum Energy Extraction
https://zenodo.org/records/18857480