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.

August 15, 2025 updates

IRMA: New Era for Interstellar Travel
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2025-97839

Interstellar Objects in a Galactic Context
https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7695084f-1ba2-4942-9f02-71948d5b3c1a

Experimental Models on the Prebiotic Formation of Biopolymer Building Blocks
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1177/15311074251365950

On the Dynamics of Linear Plug Nozzle Flows Under Various Operating Conditions
https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/1.J064767

Planets Everywhere and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
https://academic.oup.com/book/45449/chapter-abstract/395556250?redirectedFrom=fulltext

KMT-2024-BLG-0404L: A triple microlensing system consisting of a star, a brown dwarf, and a planet
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa52760-24/aa52760-24.html

Using Doppler Imaging to model stellar activity and search for planets around Sun-like stars
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/staf1337/8234430

Accelerating exoplanet climate modelling: A machine learning approach to complement 3D GCM grid simulations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10827

Additional JWST/NIRSpec Transits of the Rocky M Dwarf Exoplanet GJ 1132 b Reveal a Featureless Spectrum
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10579

Strong NUV Refractory Absorption and Dissociated Water in the Hubble Transmission Spectrum of the Ultra Hot Jupiter KELT-20 b
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10092

PLATOSpec’s first results: planets WASP-35b and TOI-622b are on aligned orbits, and K2-237b is on a polar orbit
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10145

Cosmic cascades: How disk substructure regulates the flow of water to inner planetary systems
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10402

Inside-Out Planet Formation. VIII. Onset of Planet Formation and the Transition Disk Phase
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10755

The ALMA Survey of Gas Evolution of PROtoplanetary Disks (AGE-PRO): VIII. The impact of external photoevaporation on disk masses and radii in Upper Scorpius
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.10743

August 14, 2025 updates

Communicating astrobiology and the search for life elsewhere: Speculations and promises of a developing scientific field in newspapers, press releases and papers
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0328766

Cold Jupiters and small planets: Friends, foes, or indifferent? – A search for correlations with the largest exoplanet samples
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa52523-24/aa52523-24.html

The HR 8799 debris disk: Shaped by planetary migration and a possible fifth outermost planet
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa54802-25/aa54802-25.html

Searching for Helium Escape and a Low-density Atmosphere Around the 120 Myr Old Sub-Neptune HIP94235b Using CRIRES+
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ade1da

Radiative Flux from a High-resolution Atmospheric Dynamics Simulation of a Hot Jupiter for JWST and Ariel
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adef02

The Loeb Scale: Astronomical Classification of Interstellar Objects
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09167

Studying Exoplanets in the Radio from the Moon
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09222

Machine Learning for Exoplanet Detection: A Comparative Analysis Using Kepler Data
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09689

Primordial planet spin driven by boundary layer effects in a decretion disc
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09273

The watery atmosphere of HD~209458~b revealed by joint K- and L-band high-resolution spectroscopy
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09448

Linking planet formation to exoplanet characteristics: C/O as a diagnostic of planet formation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09587

The SPACE Program. I. The featureless spectrum of HD 86226 c challenges sub-Neptune atmosphere trends
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13439

August 13, 2025 updates

Three hot Jupiters transiting K-dwarfs with significant heavy element masses
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa53879-25/aa53879-25.html

Cold Jupiters and small planets: Friends, foes, or indifferent? – A search for correlations with the largest exoplanet samples
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa52523-24/aa52523-24.html

Volatile enrichment in low-mass planets as signatures of past planetary disruption
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa55923-25/aa55923-25.html

Hot Jupiter formation in dense stellar clusters: A Monte Carlo model applied to 47 Tucanae
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/staf1325/8232674

Strict limits on potential secondary atmospheres on the temperate rocky exo-Earth TRAPPIST-1 d
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08416

Warm, water-depleted rocky exoplanets with surface ionic liquids: A proposed class for planetary habitability
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08437

Searching for Planets Orbiting ε~Eridani with JWST/NIRCam
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08463

A 2821 Star Optical SETI Survey using ESO HARPS archival data
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08628

Simultaneous visible spectrophotometry of interstellar object 3I/ATLAS with Seimei/TriCCS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08829

August 12, 2025 updates

Phenomena-Based Engagement (PBE) as an Interstellar Communication Modality: A Thought Experiment
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/382930584_Phenomena-Based_Engagement_PBE_as_an_Interstellar_Communication_Modality_A_Thought_Experiment

Probing Exoplanetary Climates Through Temporal and Spatial Atmospheric Variations
https://www.proquest.com/openview/b2a6e7117804b95f1575bdd492c88282/

Warm, water-depleted rocky exoplanets with surface ionic liquids: A proposed class for planetary habitability
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2425520122

Adding Further Pieces to the Synchronization Puzzle: QBO, Bimodality, and Phase Jumps
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11207-025-02521-0

Volatile enrichment in low-mass planets as signatures of past planetary disruption
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa55923-25/aa55923-25.html

The Impact of External Radiation on the Inner Disk Chemistry of Planet Formation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06613

Quantifying thermal water dissociation in the dayside photosphere of WASP-121 b using NIRPS
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06626

Planets Around Solar Twins/Analogs (PASTA) II: chemical abundances, systematic offsets, and clues to planet formation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.06976

The impact of organic hazes and graphite on the observation of CO2-rich sub-Neptune atmospheres
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.07161

Do Rocky Planets around M Stars Have Atmospheres? A Statistical Approach to the Cosmic Shoreline
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08253

August 11, 2025 Updates

Rotational Dynamics Analysis of Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS: Evidence Against Artificial Origin Claims
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/394321430_Rotational_Dynamics_Analysis_of_Interstellar_Comet_3IATLAS_Evidence_Against_Artificial_Origin_Claims

The orbit of WASP-4 b is in decay
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/541/2/714/8169317

Osiris revisited: Confirming a solar metallicity and low C/O in HD 209458 b
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/08/aa55577-25/aa55577-25.html

Exact Charged Traversable Wormhole Solution
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269325005611

Expanding gravitational capture sets via planetary moon flybys in Sun-planet systems
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0094576525004916

An interstellar mission to test astrophysical black holes
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004225014038

Wormhole solutions in extended symmetric teleparallel gravity inspired by holographic dark energy
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212686425002365

MARFA: An effective line-by-line tool for calculating molecular absorption in planetary atmospheres
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0022407325002614

Can the Central Star Influence the Substructure Formation in a Protoplanetary Disk?
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1674-4527/ade9e8

Worlds Next Door: A Candidate Giant Planet Imaged in the Habitable Zone of α Centauri A. II. Binary Star Modeling, Planet and Exozodi Search, and Sensitivity Analysis
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf53e

Worlds Next Door: A Candidate Giant Planet Imaged in the Habitable Zone of α Centauri A. I. Observations, Orbital and Physical Properties, and Exozodi Upper Limits
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/adf53f

Leading & Trailing Spiral Arms in a Nearly Broken Protoplanetary Disc
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/staf1301/8228487

Scaling K2 VIII: Short-Period Sub-Neptune Occurrence Rates Peak Around Early-Type M Dwarfs
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05734

The tidal interaction of an orbiting giant planet with a star near the Kraft break: the excitation of r-modes and the retention of orbital and spin angular momenta misalignment
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05894

K2-18b Does Not Meet The Standards of Evidence For Life
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05961

Formation of organic hazes in CO2-rich sub-Neptune atmospheres within the graphite-stability regime
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05974

Impacts of Atmospheric Carbon Species and Stellar Type on Climates of Terrestrial Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.05975