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.

October 29, 2025 updates

An idealized general circulation model for the atmospheric circulation on the ice giants
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa54015-25/aa54015-25.html

Prediscovery Activity of New Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS: Rapid Brightening from 6 to 4 au
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ae147b

The Dynamical Environment within the Habitable Zone of the Gaia-4 and Gaia-5 Planetary Systems
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23792

On The Applicability of Ring-Moon Cycles to Exoplanets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24644

Sensitivity to Sub-Io-sized Exosatellite Transits in the MIRI LRS Lightcurve of the Nearest Substellar Worlds
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23709

Bistability, Oscillations, and Multistability on Hycean Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24224

A Deep Search for Exomoons Around WISE 0855 With JWST
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.24575

Magrathea v2: A planetary interior modeling platform in C++
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23733

October 28, 2025 updates

Conquering Space: The Challenge of Recreating Ecosystems
https://bis-space.com/shop/product/jbis-078-01-0024/

Discovery of multi-temperature coronal mass ejection signatures from a young solar analogue
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02691-8

Horizontal and vertical exoplanet thermal structure from a JWST spectroscopic eclipse map
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-025-02666-9

How to understand exoplanets — space scientists call on lab-based chemists to help
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-03478-7

Discovery of a Debris Disk Around TWA 20
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.20216

Investigating aerosols as a way to reconcile K2-18 b JWST MIRI and NIRISS/NIRSpec observations
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa56905-25/aa56905-25.html

Extracting starspot structures from exoplanet transit photometry
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa52779-24/aa52779-24.html

PLATOSpec’s first results: Planets WASP-35b and TOI-622b are on aligned orbits, and K2-237b is on a polar orbit
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa56115-25/aa56115-25.html

Planetary Albedo Is Limited by the Above-cloud Atmosphere: Implications for Sub-Neptune Climates
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae0192

In Search of Decay: An Analysis of Transit Times of Hot Jupiters in Main-sequence and Post-main-sequence Systems
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adfd60

Evolution of Stellar Activity and Habitable Zone. I. Ultraviolet Emission of Dwarfs in Open Clusters and Field Stars
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4365/ae08a9

A Diagram of Intermittent Habitability for Eccentric Exoplanets
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae1694

Experimental demonstration and quantitative analysis of X-ray-driven propulsion in graphene sponge
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969806X25008953

Venus as an Exoplanet: I. An Initial Exploration of the 3-D Energy Balance for a CO2-Rich Exoplanetary Atmosphere Around the M-Dwarf Star GJ 436
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2024JE008540

Impact of Subsurface Temperature Gradients on Emission Spectra of Airless Exoplanets: the Solid-state Greenhouse and Anti-Greenhouse
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.22932

SAMPLE — Stratospheric Altitude Microbiology Probe for Life Existence
https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11581

Metallicity regulates planet formation across all masses
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21863

Earth Analogs in Reflected Light: Insights from Early Spectral Characterization in Unconstrained Orbits
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21973

Fundamental effective temperature measurements for eclipsing binary stars – VI. Improved methodology and application to the circumbinary planet host star BEBOP-3
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23218

Energetics of star-planet magnetic interactions: Novel insights from 3D modelling
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23277

HST-COS Transit Spectroscopy of KELT-20b: First Detection of Excess Far-ultraviolet Absorption From an Ultra-hot Jupiter
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.23598

Propellantless space exploration
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21743

October 27, 2025 Updates

Untying Time: The H-Second and H-Meter as Universal Standards for Interstellar Applications
https://johnwelshconsulting.com/h-second-paper.pdf

Energy needed to propel a tiny spacecraft to Proxima Centauri
https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/ajp/article/93/11/874/3368439

Radiation Hydrodynamics of Self-gravitating Protoplanetary Disks: I. Direct Formation of Gas Giants via Disk Fragmentation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19915

The Extraterrestrial Contact Window
https://www.academia.edu/129000327/The_Extraterrestrial_Contact_Window

Space Travel to the Edge of the Universe in Just 44 Years
http://ahadi.de/space_travel.pdf

Experimental demonstration and quantitative analysis of X-ray-driven propulsion in graphene sponge
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969806X25008953

Insights of Charged Traversable Wormholes within the context of Matter-Geometry Coupled Gravity
https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/abs/10.1142/S0219887826500611

The Framework Of The Grand Unified Theory of Existence
https://www.academia.edu/144159347/The_Framework_Of_The_Grand_Unified_Theory_of_Existence

The Temporal Observability Filter Hypothesis (TOFH): A Physically-Constrained, Bayesian Framework for the Observational Invisibility of Technological Civilizations
https://www.academia.edu/143709470/The_Temporal_Observability_Filter_Hypothesis_TOFH_A_Physically_Constrained_Bayesian_Framework_for_the_Observational_Invisibility_of_Technological_Civilizations

Magnetic clumping of charged dust in the dense interstellar medium
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.20899

Irradiated Atmospheres IV: Effect of Mixing Heat Flux on Chemistry
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21543

Mechanisms of Superrotation in Slowly-Rotating and Tidally-Locked Planets
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21680

An Hα Transit of HD 189733b to Assess Stellar Activity Across the Transit Chord Close to JWST Observations
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.21703

Two warm Earth-sized exoplanets and an Earth-sized candidate in the M5V-M6V binary system TOI-2267
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa54419-25/aa54419-25.html

Wind Power as a Technosignature on M-dwarf Planets
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2515-5172/ae13a7

A Link between Rocky Planet Density and Host Star Chemistry
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae0e17

Modelling the effect of stellar metallicity on the XUV evolution of low-mass stars and its impact on exoplanet atmospheres/habitability
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/staf1753/8301214?searchresult=1

October 24, 2025 updates

Artificial Intelligence-Enhanced Detection of Biogenicity Using Laboratory Specimens of Biologically and Microbially Induced Sedimentary Structures in a Controlled Experiment
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40445727

Variation of the disk thickness across ice bands: A method to determine ice abundances in highly inclined protoplanetary disks
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.11359

Microstructure Controls Sublimation Timescales of Exposed Salt-Rich Ices on Icy Worlds
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2025JE009236

Insights into Planet Formation from the Ages, Masses, and Elemental Abundances of Host Stars
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.10092

Is cosmic dust porous?
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00159-025-00164-5

The solitude zone: A probabilistic window for singular lifeform existence
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576525006599

Discovery of a Nearby Habitable Zone Super-Earth Candidate Amenable to Direct Imaging
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-3881/ae0e20

TOI-7166 b: A Habitable Zone mini-Neptune planet around a nearby low-mass star
https://academic.oup.com/mnras/advance-article/doi/10.1093/mnras/staf1807/8294188

TOI-1743 b, TOI-5799 b, TOI-5799 c, and TOI-6223 b: TESS discovery and validation of four super-Earth to Neptune-sized planets
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa56293-25/aa56293-25.html

Probing the extent of WASP-52 b’s atmosphere – High-resolution observations and 3D modeling insights
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full_html/2025/10/aa55613-25/aa55613-25.html

In Search of Decay: An Analysis of Transit Times of Hot Jupiters in Main-sequence and Post-main-sequence Systems
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/adfd60

Possible Formation of Traversable Wormholes and Their Thermodynamic Analysis in F (Q, Lₘ, T) Gravity
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212686425003358

Experimental Demonstration and Quantitative Analysis of X-Ray-Driven Propulsion in Graphene Sponge
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0969806X25008953

A Comprehensive Review of Additive Manufacturing for Space Applications: Materials, Advances, Challenges, and Future Directions
https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adem.202501082

Addressing wavelength-correlated systematics in exoplanet transmission spectroscopy: a 2D Gaussian Process approach
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396848566_Addressing_wavelength-correlated_systematics_in_exoplanet_transmission_spectroscopy_a_2D_Gaussian_Process_approach

Interstellar visitors: Smoking and nonsmoking
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aec2085

Radiation Hydrodynamics of Self-gravitating Protoplanetary Disks: I. Direct Formation of Gas Giants via Disk Fragmentation
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19915

Unexpected Near-Resonant and Metastable States of Young Multi-Planet Systems
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.20185

Simulations of multiple dust ring formation in a subsolar-metallicity protoplanetary disk
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.18449

Early Planet Formation in Embedded Disks (eDisk). XX. Constraining the Chemical Tracers of Young Protostellar Sources
https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19158

October 23, 2025 updates

The Convexity Principle: Life as the Invariant Variable
https://zenodo.org/records/17392407

Characterizing Earth-like Exoplanets: Insights from Earthshine Observations
https://zenodo.org/records/17108736

Tracing Planetary Accretion in a 3 Gyr old Hydrogen-rich White Dwarf: The Extremely Polluted Atmosphere of LSPM J0207+3331
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ae0ace

Revised Orbital, Physical, Stability, and Habitability Parameters of the Binary System HD 25811 Using Gaia Observations
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1674-4527/ae0b1b

How to Successfully Colonize Space: Lessons from Island Archaeology
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094576525007349

The Interstellar Tunnel After the Solar System Leading to the Constellation of Orion
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/396772354_The_Interstellar_Tunnel_After_the_Solar_System_Leading_to_the_Constellation_of_Orion

Very High Precision Astrometry for Exoplanets and Dark Matter with the Habitable Worlds Observatory
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18920

Intruder Alert: Breaking Resonant Chains with Planetesimal Flybys
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18955

Eccentric discs as a gateway to giant planets outward migration
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18970

A Compact Multi-Planet System of Three Transiting Giant Planets Around TIC118798035
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19162

Exoplanetary radio emission predictions and detectability in the SKA era
https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.19776