ExploreAstro at Caltech IPAC

This wobbly, energetic black hole is the first of its kind, and its discovery offers new insights into how galaxies evolve:

www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/astrono... 🔭 🧪 ⚛️

"It's like seeing 2-year-old children act like teenagers"

Astronomers have captured the most detailed look yet at faraway galaxies at the peak of their youth, an active time when the adolescent galaxies were hastily producing new stars.

Read more: www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/young-g... 🔭 🧪 ⚛️

NASA’s SPHEREx space telescope has completed its first infrared map of the entire sky!
This is the most comprehensive spectral view of the infrared sky, with 102 colors (or wavelengths) of infrared light from observations made between May and December 2025.
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We are an outreach account dedicated to sharing out-of-this-world astrophysics with our on-this-world audience, led by @caltechipac.bsky.social ! (who also posts to this feed)

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YouTube video by ExploreAstro Could a ‘false positive’ planet be hiding a cosmic dance partner? #Astronomy #Exoplanets

Could a ‘false positive’ planet be hiding a cosmic dance partner? 💃🪩

Scientists recently discovered two planets, KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c. Watch more about this planetary merry-go-round here: youtube.com/shorts/ed3_c...

Discovery of giant planet orbiting tiny star challenges theories on planet formation The University of Warwick and UCL astronomers, as part of a global collaboration including partners in Chile, USA and Europe, have discovered the smallest known star to host a transiting giant planet,...

This giant planet orbiting a tiny star is challenging our current theories 🧩🤔

Planet TOI-6894b is a low-density gas giant with a radius a bit larger than Saturn. The host star is the lowest mass star to have a transiting giant planet discovered to date.

Read more: ipac.caltech.edu/news/discove...

Let the science begin! 🥁
On May 1, NASA’s SPHEREx space observatory began regular science operations, which consist of taking about 3,600 images per day.
Read more here: spherex.caltech.edu/news/nasa-s-...

YouTube video by ExploreAstro Diving more into #BlackHoles ! #blackholeweek #astronomy #universe

Diving more into #BlackHoles!

This movie shows the approach to a black hole surrounded by an accretion disk. Ripples and waves in the disk are caused by turbulent instabilities in the orbiting material, which is hottest and brightest along the inner edge of the disk.

youtube.com/shorts/haZEy...

YouTube video by ExploreAstro How do physicists visualize #BlackHoles?

How do physicists visualize #BlackHoles?

This conceptual movie illustrates how light is warped by the gravity of a black hole. Learn more about this visualization here in the caption: youtube.com/shorts/8_srv...

YouTube video by ExploreAstro #BlackHoleWeek

What would it look like to fall into a #BlackHole? Check out this animation!

The light from background stars is warped by gravity, creating the effect of a lens. Light from directly behind the black hole forms an Einstein Ring that encircles the event horizon.

More: youtube.com/shorts/Q0JuD...

YouTube video by ExploreAstro #BlackHoleWeek

It’s #BlackHoleWeek!

This animation starts just outside the edge of the accretion disk of gas and dust surrounding a black hole. From higher angles, the material looks more like a circular disk as its light is not as strongly bent around the shadow of the black hole.

youtube.com/shorts/l8g_4...

YouTube video by ExploreAstro Explore Exoplanets Highlights

ICYMI we’ve released 18(!!) episodes of #ExploreExoplanets 🎙️🪐

Leave a comment on your favorite episode! What’s your favorite real or fictional planet? Do you have a question for our experts?

New episodes coming soon! youtu.be/rJtW9wWiqBo

Anyone hungry for a pizza pie on #PiDay? This galaxy’s warped shape reminds us of pizza dough being flung in the air by a chef! 🍕

Galaxy ESO 510-G13 lies in the southern constellation Hydra, some 150 million light-years from Earth. Read more about it on AstroPix: www.astropix.org/image/stsci/...

An image of galaxy NGC 341 taken in the optical by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This image can be found in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Datatabase (NED).

How many digits of Pi do you know? 3.14...how about galaxy NGC 314? Check it out on the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database for #PiDay2025! NED is like Google for the sky, especially for objects outside the Milky Way, and one of IPAC's many science data archives.
ned.ipac.caltech.edu/byname?objna...

YouTube video by NASA's Kennedy Space Center SPHEREx Observatory Separates From Rocket

VIDEO: SPHEREx deploys from the second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket 🛰️

youtu.be/79PkJmDsQI8?...

🚀 🛰 LIFTOFF! of the SpaceX Falcon 9 carrying SPHEREx and PUNCH!

What Hundreds of Millions of Galaxies Can Teach Us About the Big Bang NASA's SPHEREx mission will provide new clues about the explosive, inflationary phase of our universe.

NASA's SPHEREx mission will provide new clues about the explosive, inflationary phase of our universe.

Read here to learn what hundreds of millions of galaxies can teach us about the big bang here:

www.caltech.edu/about/news/w...

This image has two pictures of two space observatories: SPHEREx on the left and Lunar Trailblazer on the right. Between the images are logos for the missions and "Doube Launch Feature" in orange text. SPHEREx launches no earlier than Friday, February 28, 2025 and Lunar Trailblazer launches no earlier than Wednesday February 26, 2025.

🍿A Rocket Launch Double Feature!🍿

This is an exciting week for IPAC:
@lunartrailblazer.bsky.social & SPHEREx are NASA missions scheduled for launch! Here’s where you can watch the action and excitement leading up to liftoff—and beyond! 🚀🚀
www.ipac.caltech.edu/news/a-rocket-launch-double-feature

To the Moon! On Feb. 26, NASA science and tech are set to launch on Intuitive Machines' Nova-C lander, Athena. Watch live coverage of NASA's second lunar mission with Intuitive Machines on NASA+. go.nasa.gov/4bbk5wp

YouTube video by ExploreAstro #CountdownToLaunch: Meet Judy 🗓️

#CountdownToLaunch: Meet Judy 🗓️

Judy Adler is the @lunartrailblazer.bsky.social Operations Coordinator & Scheduler. Missions operations can be a complicated mix of scheduling, planning, and cooperation, and Judy is the one making it all run smoothly.

youtube.com/shorts/KPICD...

#CountdownToLaunch: Meet Daphne 💻

@lunartrailblazer.bsky.social is lucky to have many amazing interns working on the mission. Daphne Nea is a student at
Pasadena City College studying computer science, and she is helping to launch a satellite to the Moon!

Stay tuned for more LTB content!

#CountdownToLaunch: Meet Lunar Trailblazer 🌙

Dr. Bethany Ehlmann introduces us to the
@lunartrailblazer.bsky.social primary science goals.

Stay tuned for more LTB content as we #CountdownToLaunch with @caltechipac.bsky.social !

It’s #SuperBowlSunday!

Throwback to when @ucf.bsky.social highlighted NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope in their SpaceU uniforms. Who knew astronomy and football could go so well together?

ucfknights.exposure.co/mission-vi-i...

#CountdownToLaunch: Lunar Trailblazer up close 🔎

This animation shows the period reduction phase when @lunartrailblazer.bsky.social is slowing down and settling into its science orbit around the Moon.

Stay tuned for more LTB content as we #CountdownToLaunch with @caltechipac.bsky.social !

NASA's Lunar Trailblazer - NASA Selected by NASA’s Small Innovative Missions for Planetary Exploration (SIMPLEx) program in 2019, Lunar Trailblazer will map the distribution of the different forms of water that exist on the surface ...

Lunar Trailblazer is a small satellite (‘smallsat’) that will orbit the Moon to detect and map water on the lunar surface. For more information, visit nasa.gov/event/lunar-trailblazer.

#OTD in 2020, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission officially ended.

The spacecraft was put into safe mode after 16+ years of observing the universe in the infrared, laying the groundwork for missions like NASA's JWST.

Learn more about its #astro legacy: www.spitzer.caltech.edu/news/ssc2020...

Hello Bluesky! We're excited to talk with you all about the blue sky, infrared sky, ultraviolet sky, and much more! #astronomy