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.

February 17, 2026 updates

A new understanding of Einstein–Rosen bridges
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6382/ae3044

Stellar activity and exoplanet observations
https://zenodo.org/records/18196449

Stellar Engines: Advanced Spacecraft Propulsion through Extreme Aerospace Engineering Design
https://link.springer.com/book/9783032180612

Cold-Water CO2 Geysers as Ocean World Plume Analogs: Investigation of Habitability Indicators in Crystal and Champagne Geysers Pre- and Posteruption
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15311074261416868

Astrometric Reconnaissance of Exoplanetary Systems (ARES): I. Methodology validation with HST point-source images of Proxima Centauri
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa57737-25/aa57737-25.html

Accelerating exoplanet climate modelling: A machine learning approach to complement 3D general circulation model grid simulations
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa55631-25/aa55631-25.html

A super-Earth orbiting the early-M dwarf GJ7
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa49545-24/aa49545-24.html

Two Potential Exoplanets around A-type Stars Selected from 18 Planetary Candidates
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae3a88

Keck Observations in the INfrared of Taurus and ρ Oph Exoplanets And Ultracool Dwarfs (KOINTREAU). II. Two Young Bound Companions to Ophiuchus Stars
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae3a84

A JWST Transit of a Jupiter Analog. I. Constraints on the Oblateness of Kepler-167 e
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae3a81

Young Planets around Young Accreting Stars. I. Migration and Inner Stalling Orbits
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae355c

Free-floating Planets Produced by Planet–Planet Scatterings: Ejection Velocity and Survival Rate of Their Moons
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae394f

A Method for Habitability Analysis of Planets with True Polar Wander
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae3147

Pre-perihelion Volatile Evolution of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Indicating Significant Contribution from Extended Source in the Coma
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14218

Carbon from Interstellar Clouds to Habitable Worlds
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10308

Atmospheric constraints on GJ 1214 b from CRIRES+ and prospects for characterisation with ANDES
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14343

The Habitable Worlds Observatory in Historical Context
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14823

Statistical Validation and Vetting of Exoplanet Candidate TOI 7475.01
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14840

The Interplanetary Habitable Zone
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13404

Habitable Zones Around Massive Stars: From the Main Sequence to Supergiants
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13875

Diversities and similarities exhibited by multi-planetary systems and their architectures: II. Radii of singles and multis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.14194

Not Earth-like Yet Temperate? More Generic Climate Feedback Configurations Still Allow Temperate Climates in Habitable Zone Exo-Earth Candidates
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10369

February 16, 2026 Updates

ExoNAMD: Leveraging the spin–orbit angle to constrain the dynamics of multi-planet systems
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa57279-25/aa57279-25.html

Selection and characterisation of the M dwarf targets in the PLATO Input Catalogue
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa57757-25/aa57757-25.html

Starlight-driven flared-staircase geometry in radiation hydrodynamic models of protoplanetary disks
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa56928-25/aa56928-25.html

Energetic particles accelerated via turbulent magnetic reconnection in protoplanetary discs – I. Ionisation rates
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa58004-25/aa58004-25.html

TSSC Comet-centered Data Products from TESS 3I/ATLAS Observations
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae43bd

Dynamical Interactions and Habitability in the TOI-700 Multi-planet System
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ae3eb6

Photometric Analysis of the Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS During its Pre-perihelion Period
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/ae3eb5

Undetected Past Contacts with Technological Species: Implications for Technosignature Science
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae394b

Probing Thermal Gradient of Habitable-zone Rocky Planets as an Anti-indicator of a Global Surface Ocean Using Mid-infrared Direct Imaging
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae367b

Observational Signatures of Circumstellar Gas Tori Formed by Planetary Mass Loss from Close-In Exoplanets
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag293/8482758?searchresult=1

Astrophysics Wrapped 2025: Year-in-Review of Every Astrophysics arXiv Paper from 2025
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12303

Excitation and Damping of Oscillation Modes in Gaseous Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12348

Bayesian Analysis for Remote Biosignature Identification on exoEarths (BARBIE) IV: Analyzing CO2 Detections in the Near-IR to Determine the Long-Wavelength Cut-off for the Habitable Worlds Observatory Coronagraph
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12353

TSSC comet-centered data products from TESS 3I/ATLAS observations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12364

A Protoplanet Candidate in the PDS 66 Disk Indicated by Silicon Sulfide Isotopologues
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12522

KMT-2016-BLG-1337L: A Saturn-mass planet orbiting within a binary system of low-mass stars
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12610

Gaps and Rings: A Near-Universal Trait of Extended Protoplanetary Discs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12906

Pre-perihelion Emergence of the CN Gas Coma in 3I/ATLAS Temporally and Spatially Resolved by the 7-Dimensional Telescope
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12930

TIC-65910228 b / NGTS-38 b, a 180 day transiting warm super-Jupiter
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12977

TIC65910228b: A single-transit discovery of a massive long-period warm Jupiter with TESS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13125

February 13, 2026 updates

Cold and eccentric: a high-spectral resolution view of 51 Eri b with VLT/HiRISE
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10260

Carbon from Interstellar Clouds to Habitable Worlds
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10308

Early Architecture Concepts for the Habitable Worlds Observatory – System Design, Modeling, and Analysis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11046

Long-Term Evolution of Close-in Sub-Neptunes and Outer Planetary Embryos: Atmospheric Mass Loss and Origin of Planets Inside and Outside the Radius Gap
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10245

Sulfur Enrichment in Close-in Exoplanet Atmospheres Induced by Pebble Drift across the Salt Line
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.05300

Can the Timing of the Origin of Life Be Inferred from Trends in the Growth of Organismal Complexity?
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/16/1/153

The RoPES project with HARPS and HARPS-N: II. A third planet in the multi-planet system HD 176986
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/01/aa57287-25/aa57287-25.html

The nature of ASASSN-24fw’s occultation: modelling the event as dimming by optically thick rings around a substellar companion
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/546/3/staf2251/8471205

The CO snow line favours strong clumping by the streaming instability in protoplanetary discs with porous grains
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa57914-25/aa57914-25.html

Coexistence of coagulation and streaming instabilities in protoplanetary disks
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa58040-25/aa58040-25.html

Dynamical evolution of massless particles in star clusters with NBODY6++GPU-MASSLESS: II. The long-term evolution of free-floating comets
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa57334-25/aa57334-25.html

Starlight-driven flared-staircase geometry in radiation hydrodynamic models of protoplanetary disks
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa56928-25/aa56928-25.html

ExoNAMD: Leveraging the spin–orbit angle to constrain the dynamics of multi-planet systems
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa57279-25/aa57279-25.html

Evaluation of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques for use on long duration spaceflight missions
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576526000937

The Relative Cold-trapping Likelihood of Water on Airless Rocky Bodies
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae3946

TSSC Comet-centered Data Products from TESS 3I/ATLAS Observations
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae43bd

Global magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the inner regions of protoplanetary discs. II. Vertical-net-flux regime
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11818

The Radius Cliff is a Waterfall: Explaining Sub-Neptune Exoplanets with Steam Worlds
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.11923

Oxygen left behind: Atmospheric Enrichment due to Fractionation in Sub-Neptunes using BOREAS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.12201

Zooming into the water snowline: high resolution water observations of the HL Tau disk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.16737

Efficient reduction of stellar contamination and noise in planetary transmission spectra using neural networks
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10330

Observational Signatures of Circumstellar Gas Tori Formed by Planetary Mass Loss from Close-In Exoplanets
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag293/8482758

Two Potential Exoplanets around A-type Stars Selected from 18 Planetary Candidates
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae3a88

Not Earth-like Yet Temperate? More Generic Climate Feedback Configurations Still Allow Temperate Climates in Habitable Zone Exo-Earth Candidates
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10369

February 12, 2026 updates

A Fast, Parallelized, GPU-accelerated Photochemical Model, XODIAC, with Built-in Equilibrium Chemistry and Multiple Chemical Networks for Exoplanetary Atmospheres
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae2d18

From Searching for Extraterrestrial Biosignatures to Exploring the Origins of Life: A Prebiotic Chemistry Perspective
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667325826000361

Medicinal Plants in the Space Exploration Era: Opportunities and Challenges for Mitigating Spaceflight-Induced Health Hazards
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/16/4/1860

Microbial biomining from asteroidal material onboard the international space station
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41526-026-00567-3

Modelling the Milky Way’s exoplanet population based on cosmological galaxy simulations
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/12/aa57051-25/aa57051-25.html

Data-driven beam diagnostics using betatron radiation
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6587/ae3eb3

Accelerating exoplanet climate modelling
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa55631-25/aa55631-25.html

Architectures of Planetary Systems. II. Trends with Host Star Mass and Metallicity
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae3aa6

Could Mathematics Be the Language of the Universe?: An Insight from Our Distant Relatives
https://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-abstract/59/1/80/134427/Could-Mathematics-Be-the-Language-of-the-Universe

Exploring stellar activity in a sample of active M dwarfs
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/12/aa54816-25/aa54816-25.html

Gas-depleted planet formation occurred in the four-planet system around the red dwarf LHS 1903
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adl2348

February 11, 2026 updates

Exploring student attitudes in astrobiology laboratory sessions within an astronomical observatory: A questionnaire-based study
https://zenodo.org/records/18453425

Refractive indices of photochemical haze analogs for Solar System and exoplanet applications: A cross-laboratory comparative study between the PAMPRE and COSmIC experimental setups
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/02/aa55916-25/aa55916-25.html

Searching for GEMS: The Occurrence of Giant Planets Orbiting M Dwarfs within 100 pc
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae2fbb

Hubble’s Multiyear Search for Exospheres in the TRAPPIST-1 System Reveals Frequent Microflares
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae3f2b

Detectability of Atmospheric Biosignatures in Earth Analogs with Varying Surface Boundary Conditions: Prospects for Characterization in the UV, Visible, Near-infrared, and Mid-infrared Regions
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae29e9

ExoClock Project. IV. A Homogeneous Catalog of 620 Updated Exoplanet Ephemerides
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/ae3238

What Is Space Bioethics?
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bioe.70082

Factors Affecting Exoplanet Habitability (from Handbook of Exoplanets)
https://link.springer.com/rwe/10.1007/978-3-319-30648-3_57-2

astromorph: Self-supervised machine learning pipeline for astronomical morphology analysis
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09223

Characterisation of starspot structure and differential rotation of Kepler-411
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09224

The compositions of the HR 8799 planets reflect accretion of both solids and metal-enriched gas
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09422

A Narrowband Technosignature Search Toward the Hycean Candidate K2-18b Using the VLA and MeerKAT
https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09553

Space AI: Leveraging Artificial Intelligence for Space to Improve Life on Earth
https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.22399v2