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The Hubble Space Telescope continues to reveal various stunning and intricate treasures that reside within the nearby, intense star-forming region known as the Great Nebula in Orion. One such jewel is the bow shock around the very young star, LL Ori, featured in this Hubble Heritage image.

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      Image: This image tells the story of redemption for one lonely star. The young star MP Mus (PDS 66) was thought to be all alone in the Universe, surrounded by nothing but a featureless band of gas and dust called a protoplanetary disc. In most cases, the material inside a protoplanetary disc condenses to form new planets around the star, leaving large gaps where the gas and dust used to be. These features are seen in almost every disc – but not in MP Mus’s.
      When astronomers first observed it with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), they saw a smooth, planet-free disc, shown here in the right image. The team, led by Álvaro Ribas, an astronomer at the University of Cambridge, UK, gave this star another chance and re-observed it with ALMA at longer wavelengths that peer even deeper into the protoplanetary disc than before. These new observations, shown in the left image, revealed a gap and a ring that had been obscured in previous observations, suggesting that MP Mus might have company after all.
      Meanwhile, another piece of the puzzle was being revealed in Germany as Miguel Vioque, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory, studied this same star with the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Gaia mission. Vioque noticed something suspicious – the star was wobbling. A bit of gravitational detective work, together with insights from the new disc structures revealed by ALMA, showed that this motion could be explained by the presence of a gas giant exoplanet. 
      Both teams presented their joint results in a new paper published in Nature Astronomy. In what they describe as “a beautiful merging of two groups approaching the same object from different angles”, they show that MP Mus isn’t so boring after all.
      [Image description: This is an observation from the ALMA telescope, showing two versions (side-by-side) of a protoplanetary disc. Both discs are bright, glowing yellow-orange objects with a diffused halo against a dark background. The right disc is more smooth and blurry looking. The left disc shows more detail, for example gaps and rings within it.]
      Source: ESO
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    • By NASA
      Artist’s concept of the star HIP 67522 with a flare erupting toward an orbiting planet, HIP 67522 b. A second planet, HIP 67522 c, is shown in the background. Janine Fohlmeister, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam The Discovery
      A giant planet some 400 light-years away, HIP 67522 b, orbits its parent star so tightly that it appears to cause frequent flares from the star’s surface, heating and inflating the planet’s atmosphere.
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      On planet Earth, “space weather” caused by solar flares might disrupt radio communications, or even damage satellites. But Earth’s atmosphere protects us from truly harmful effects, and we orbit the Sun at a respectable distance, out of reach of the flares themselves.
      Not so for planet HIP 67522 b. A gas giant in a young star system – just 17 million years old – the planet takes only seven days to complete one orbit around its star. A “year,” in other words, lasts barely as long as a week on Earth. That places the planet perilously close to the star. Worse, the star is of a type known to flare – especially in their youth.
      In this case, the proximity of the planet appears to result in fairly frequent flaring.
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      The star and the planet form a powerful but likely a destructive bond. In a manner not yet fully understood, the planet hooks into the star’s magnetic field, triggering flares on the star’s surface; the flares whiplash energy back to the planet. Combined with other high-energy radiation from the star, the flare-induced heating appears to have increased the already steep inflation of the planet’s atmosphere, giving HIP 67522 b a diameter comparable to our own planet Jupiter despite having just 5% of Jupiter’s mass.
      This might well mean that the planet won’t stay in the Jupiter size-range for long. One effect of being continually pummeled with intense radiation could be a loss of atmosphere over time. In another 100 million years, that could shrink the planet to the status of a “hot Neptune,” or, with a more radical loss of atmosphere, even a “sub-Neptune,” a planet type smaller than Neptune that is common in our galaxy but lacking in our solar system.
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      Four hundred light-years is much too far away to capture images of stellar flares striking orbiting planets. So how did a science team led by Netherlands astronomer Ekaterina Ilin discover this was happening? They used space-borne telescopes, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExoPlanets Telescope), to track flares on the star, and also to trace the path of the planet’s orbit.
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      A team of scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, led by Ekaterina Ilin of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, published their paper on the planet-star connection, “Close-in planet induces flares on its host star,” in the journal Nature on July 2, 2025.
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      Students from Tropico Middle School in Rosamond, California, build their own paper planes as part of a project during NASA Aero Fair on April 9, 2025.NASA/Genaro Vavuris A new generation of aerospace explorers will soon embark on a hands-on summer experience focusing on careers in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology (STEM). This month, NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, and the Flight Test Museum Foundation will launch the 2025 Junior Test Pilot School.
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      The Junior Test Pilot School combines authentic NASA-designed curriculum, immersive aerospace activities, and direct engagement with engineers, test pilots, and scientists to inspire future aerospace professionals in the Antelope Valley – home to one of the nation’s highest concentrations of STEM careers.
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      Daily lessons cover eight core modules: flight principles, stealth engineering, altitude effects, speed and g-force, payload impact, maneuverability, reconnaissance design, and jet engine systems.
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      The program is delivered in partnership with the City of Palmdale and is supported by industry sponsors, including Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. These partners not only provide funding and volunteers but also elevate career exposure by introducing students to diverse aerospace professionals within the region. 
      NASA Armstrong is a hub of aeronautical innovation and STEM workforce development in the Antelope Valley. Through programs like Aero Fair and partnerships like Junior Test Pilots School, Armstrong inspires and equips the next generation of engineers, pilots, and scientists. 
      The Flight Test Museum Foundation preserves the legacy and promotes the future of aerospace through education programs and historical preservation at the Blackbird Airpark and forthcoming Flight Test Museum at Edwards Air Force Base in Edwards, California.
      For more about NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, visit:
      https://www.nasa.gov/armstrong
      – end –
      Elena Aguirre
      Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
      (661) 276-7004
      elena.aguirre@nasa.gov
      Dede Dinius
      Armstrong Flight Research Center, Edwards, California
      (661) 276-5701
      darin.l.dinius@nasa.gov
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      Learn more about the Sombrero galaxy and what this new view can tell us.
      Image credit:  NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
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