29 August 2019
Have researchers found the first volcanically active exomoon?
..., has been comparing gas signatures from Io, specifically sodium and potassium, with a suite of five suitable candidate... that a exomoon was lurking unseen in the vicinity. “Sodium and potassium lines are quantum treasures to us astronomers because ...
25 September 2020
Salty water vapour provides clues to massive star formation
... a meal to give it that extra flavour, but for astronomers, sodium chloride, is turning out to have another more important use - a ...growing in a swirling cloud of heated water vapour and sodium chloride molecules – a compound more commonly known as ...
19 May 2016
Astronomers find a group of stars dying too early
... been observed in the globular cluster NGC 6752, albeit with stars that are sodium-rich/oxygen-poor in nature. "Although the phenomenon of sodium-rich stars failing to reach old age has been seen in our previous...
11 December 2019
Water abundance lower than expected on exoplanets
... abundances in the exoplanet atmospheres across the sample. Their results showed that six planets had an abundance of sodium (Na) and another six had an abundance of potassium (K), and that 14 of the 19 planets also contained water. However, the...
10 August 2020
Salty dwarf planet Ceres could be hiding an ocean
... patches turned out to be salt deposits primarily as sodium carbonate and their widespread nature prompted scientists to theorise...it has been detected beyond our planet. This hydrated sodium chloride mineral forms from salty water below the freezing ...
March 2017
Twinkle - a mission to unravel the story of planets in our galaxy
... it passes in front of the star. This was first demonstrated successfully in 2002, [4] with the detection of sodium trace element absorption features in Hubble Space Telescope observations at visible wavelengths. Since then, transmission spectroscopy...
