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 17, 2026 updates

Exploring the surface of HD 189733 via Doppler shadow analysis of planetary transits
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13463

Dust traps and gas kinematic signatures in a crescent structure of a planet-forming disk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13510

The JWST Early Release Science Program for Direct Observations of Exoplanetary Systems. VIII. Molecular Mapping Performance with JWST/MIRI MRS: VHS 1256 b as a case study
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13543

Mass Production of 2023 KMTNet Microlensing Planets. II: Two Planets and A Brown Dwarf
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13887

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://arxiv.org/abs/2603.14444

Constraining Small Planet Compositions for Future Missions
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.14552

A Panchromatic JWST Spectrum of a Giant Starspot on the Fully Convective M-dwarf TOI-3884
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.15414

March 16, 2026 updates

Confirmation of the hot super-Neptune TOI-672 b with NIRPS and HARPS and Insights into the Neptunian desert around M dwarfs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12345

Long-term monitoring of WASP-19 b: Signs of apsidal precession and molecular signatures
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12395

Bridging the Gap: Using Brown Dwarfs to Examine Silicate Clouds in Giant Exoplanet Atmospheres
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12479

Hot Jupiter – Cold Jupiter: A complex sibling relation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12568

Bolometric corrections of stellar oscillation mode amplitudes as observed by the PLATO mission. I. Planck-spectrum estimates
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.12750

exoALMA. XXI. The Morphology and Dynamics of Vertical Flows
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae360e

exoALMA XXII: A Two-dimensional Atlas of Deviations from Keplerian Disks
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13015

Impact of stellar spots on the high-resolution transmission spectra of a giant planet around a Sun-like star
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13075

exoALMA. XXIV. Formaldehyde Emission in Protoplanetary Disks of exoALMA Compared with Their Properties and Dynamical State
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13081

exoALMA XXIII. Estimating Disk and Planet Properties from Dust Morphologies with DBNets2.0
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13149

exoALMA XX: Tomographic Detection of Embedded Planets in Protoplanetary Disks
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13157

Connecting JWST Silicate Cloud Observations to Exoplanet Cloud Microphysics with Nimbus
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13167

Ortho-Para Chemistry of H2CO in the Protoplanetary Disk TW Hya
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.13172

Eccentric and cool: A high-spectral-resolution view of 51 Eri b with VLT/HiRISE
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa58862-26/aa58862-26.html

Visibility graph approach to characterize planetary transit signatures: A case study on OGLE IV data
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S138410762600031X

Incorporating an exopsychological biocentric contact-willingness factor into the Drake Equation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576526001918

Strong deflection gravitational lensing by non-exotic traversable wormholes in King and Dekel-Zhao dark matter halos under gravity
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S000349162600093X

Mining the Kepler Field: Atmospheric Parameters, Bolometric Corrections, and Luminosities
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae4fb6

Worlds Next Door. III. Indirect Evidence for Enhanced Atmospheric Metallicity and/or the Presence of Water Clouds in the Nearest Jupiter-analog epsilon Eri b
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4909

Possible Stratospheric Emission in the Warm Neptune GJ 436 b from High-resolution Spectroscopy
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae47fa

JWST Spectral Retrieval of Cold Directly Imaged Planet WD 0806 b and the First Measurement of Altitude-dependent Kzz in Exoplanet Atmospheres
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4747

Multibandpass Photometry for Exoplanet Atmosphere Reconnaissance (MPEAR) with the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). I. Differentiating Earth from Neptunes during Discovery
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae4597

sponchpop: Population synthesis to investigate volatile sulfur as a fingerprint of gas giant formation histories
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag499/8519293

Detection of 27 Candidate Circumbinary Planets Through Apsidal Precession of Eclipsing Binaries Observed by TESS
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/stag515/8524019

March 13, 2026 updates

Searching for Life-As-We-Don’t-Know-It: Mission-relevant Application of Assembly Theory for Exoplanet Life Detection
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.08780

The ocean worlds science case for the Pollux spectropolarimeter
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11112

Atmospheric Escape Rates from Mars – If it Orbited an Old M-Dwarf Star
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11561

Masses of Potentially Habitable Planets Characterized by the Habitable Worlds Observatory
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11146

Cold giant discoveries from a joint radial-velocity and astrometry framework
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11202

Islands of Electromagnetic Tranquility in Our Galactic core and Little Red Dots that Shelter Molecules and Prebiotic Chemistry
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17484

Stars in the neighborhood of Sagittarius A* follow primary centric framework
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11038-026-09582-6

Searching for Exotrojans in Pulsar Systems
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae4317

Carbonated Chondrites during Giant Impacts
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/PSJ/ae4488

Probing the photoabsorption features and electronic excited states of propylene oxide: an experimental and theoretical study
https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2026/cp/d6cp00031b

Bottom-up Formation of Phenol (C6H5OH) in Interstellar Analog Ices of Acetylene and Water Exposed to Ionizing Radiation
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae48fa

March 12, 2026 Updates

Lasting biosignatures for 165 million years in lichens detected by multiple spectroscopies and the implication for extreme environmental and exoplanetary life exploring
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10509-026-04558-4

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

Oxygenated False Positive Biosignatures in Mars-like Exoplanet Atmospheres
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.11017

Evaluating the spatial intra-pixel sensitivity variations and influence based on space observation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10355

Effects of stellar X-ray photoevaporation on planetesimal formation via the streaming instability
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa57793-25/aa57793-25.html

Image classification for optical resident space object surveys with machine learning
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576526001839

A test of the Dedalus software for exoplanet atmospheric dynamics
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10076

Detection of periodic transit timing variations in warm sub-Saturn HD 332231 b
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10497

Identifying and Measuring Satellite Streaks in DECam Images
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10790

At the stellar noise frontier: a transit survey of 121 TESS M3-M6 dwarfs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10247

A stellar prominence eruption associated with a white-light flare on an M dwarf observed simultaneously by LAMOST and TESS
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa57269-25/aa57269-25.html

TOI-4616 b: a benchmark Earth-sized planet transiting a nearby M4 dwarf
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10905

Gaia-GIC-1: An Evolving Catastrophic Planetesimal Collision Candidate
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10952

Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Observed from Mars by China’s Tianwen-1 Spacecraft
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.10350

March 11, 2026 updates

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

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

A broad perspective on Galactic life
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-026-02803-y

Eating planets makes you younger: The magnetic dynamo rejuvenation of GJ 504 by planetary engulfment
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa59144-26/aa59144-26.html

True masses using radial velocity data with HIPPARCOS and Gaia astrometry
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa56735-25/aa56735-25.html

Precomputed aerosol extinction, scattering, and asymmetry grids for scalable atmospheric retrievals
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa58469-25/aa58469-25.html

Giant Outer Transiting Exoplanet Mass (GOT’EM) survey: VII. TOI-6041: A multi-planet system including a warm Neptune exhibiting strong transit-timing variations
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2026/03/aa56700-25/aa56700-25.html

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

A second visit to Eps Ind Ab with JWST: new photometry confirms ammonia and suggests thick clouds in the exoplanet atmosphere of the closest super-Jupiter
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.08780

The Influence of Clouds and Deuterium-Burning on Brown Dwarf Habitable Zones
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09068

Worlds Next Door. IV. Mapping the Late Stages of Giant Planet Evolution with a Precise Dynamical Mass and Luminosity for ε Ind Ab
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.08787

Two Low Mass-Ratio Microlensing Planets and Two Types of Central-Resonant Degeneracy
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09045

Mass Production of 2023 KMTNet Microlensing Planets I: Low Mass Ratio
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09239

Atmospheric Collapse and Habitability on Tidally-Locked Exoplanets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09260

The Key to Unlocking Exoplanet Biosignatures: a UK-led IR Spectrograph for the Habitable Worlds Observatory Coronagraph
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09321

From planetesimals to planets with N-body simulations in the giant-planet formation region
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09351

Data reduction method for OPTICAM multiband time series of transiting exoplanets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.09922

Hunting for methanol in the water rich, planet forming disk around HL Tau
https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.04322