Journals Digest Is on Hiatus
Due to a staffing shortage, we’re taking a short break from the Journals Digest. Worry not — these daily one-sentence science summaries will return in a few months!
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Non-detection of He I in the Atmosphere of GJ 1214b with Keck/NIRSPEC, at a Time of Minimal Telluric Contamination
Jessica J. Spake et al 2022 ApJL 939 L11
New observations find no sign of helium in a much-studied exoplanet’s atmosphere; the presence of helium may have indicated that the planet’s atmosphere was being blown away.
A Population of Dipper Stars from the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Mission
Benjamin K. Capistrant et al 2022 ApJS 263 14
Researchers have observed and characterized the largest collection of “dipper” stars — those that dim by 10–50% — finding that these stars’ spectral signatures hint at the presence of surrounding disk material.
The Effect of Light Deflection by Solar System Objects on High-precision Square Kilometre Array Astrometry
Yingjie Li et al 2022 ApJ 938 58
Researchers calculated the ability of various solar system objects to gravitationally bend light from distant objects, which will be necessary to know before conducting high-precision astrometry.
Can the Violent Merger of White Dwarfs Explain the Slowest Declining Type Ia Supernova SN 2011aa?
Anirban Dutta et al 2022 ApJL 938 L22
Type Ia supernovae aren’t always the result of a white dwarf accreting material from a stellar companion, and the huge ejecta mass of a recent explosion suggests a merger of two white dwarfs instead.
Chemical Abundances of Eight Highly Extincted Milky Way Planetary Nebulae
Catherine Manea et al 2022 AJ 164 185
Spectra of eight planetary nebulae — the beautiful, short-lived nebulae formed when low- and intermediate-mass stars evolve off the main sequence — yield new chemical abundance measurements.