Uploads from Dr. Becky

Currently Playing: Have we FINALLY found a rocky exoplanet with an atmosphere?! | Night Sky News August 2026

AD | Get started with Brilliant’s tutor for free at https://brilliant.org/drbecky and save 20% off an annual subscription | Welcome back to Night Sky News for July 2026 with me, astrophysicist Dr Becky Smethurst! In this episode we’re chatting about the discovery of a rocky planet in the habitable zone around its star confirmed to have an atmosphere, what we can learn from those incredibly detailed images of the surface of the Sun released earlier this month, why the Spacex junk that crashed into the Moon wasn’t exciting, and of course all the prep for the imminent launch of the Roman Space Telescope, NASA’s next big flagship observatory. Timings for the lunar eclipse on the 28th August 2026: https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/lunar/2026-august-28 Papers mentioned: Cherubim et al. (2026) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.14326 Dittmann et al. (2017) - https://arxiv.org/pdf/1704.05556 Kurdize et al. (2026) - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10871-3 Previous videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EiTby2Lku8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tecOr0Q9edM 00:00 - Introduction 01:09 - I - Stargazing 05:00 - II - New images from the Inouye Solar Telescope 07:54 - III - Space X crash on the Moon 12:17 - IV - LHS 1140b Rocky exoplanet atmosphere discovery 19:05 - Bloopers Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7 IV Video edited by Martino Gasparrini: martino.freelance@gmail.com Video produced by Marina Hui & Dr Becky Smethurst --- 📚 My book, "A Brief History of Black Holes", out NOW in hardback, paperback, e-book and audiobook (which I narrated myself!): http://lnk.to/DrBecky --- 👕 My merch, including JWST designs, are available here (with worldwide shipping!): https://dr-becky.teemill.com/ --- 🎧 Royal Astronomical Society Podcast that I co-host: podfollow.com/supermassive --- 🔔 Don't forget to subscribe and click the little bell icon to be notified when I post a new video! --- 👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford. I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars. http://drbecky.uk.com