The world’s exoplanet missions continue to reveal a diversity of other worlds. First up: NASA’s TESS and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS discovered a solar system with 5 planets locked in a rhythmic dance that makes them all align at regular intervals. In other exoplanet news, we now know more about the TRAPPIST-1 star system, which has at least 3 planets that could harbor liquid water on their surfaces. New research reveals they are slightly less dense than Earth, which means they are made from a different ratio of materials than our own planet. Pictured: The TOI-178 planetary system discovered by CHEOPS. Image credit: ESA.
NASA’s MESSENGER Mercury mission, which ended in 2015, is still helping us understand how planets evolve. The smaller the world, the faster it cools, contracts, and becomes geologically inactive—at least, that’s the theory. A new paper using MESSENGER data shows Mercury hasn’t contracted as much as we thought, which could help scientists explain how smaller worlds hold on to their interior heat. The key may be thick surface regolith of heavily fractured crust—essentially, insulating planetary blankets.
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will leave asteroid Bennu for Earth on 10 May 2021. The probe, which successfully collected a sample from Bennu last year, will arrive back on Earth in 2023. Before OSIRIS-REx leaves, it may make one last Bennu flyby in April to see how the sample collection site changed after getting high-fived by the spacecraft.
Astronauts completed a spacewalk outside the International Space Station to upgrade the European Space Agency’s Columbus module. The upgrades included a new antenna that will enable high-speed data links between the station and the ground, enabling greater science return. Another spacewalk is planned for next week.
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