A survey machine and a data trove: Dark Energy Survey's rich legacy

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On the night of Jan. 9, 2019, the V. M. Blanco 4-meter telescope at the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), high in the mountains of Chile, will close the camera's shutter on the final image from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) -- a survey that has mapped 5,000 square degrees of the heavens, almost one-quarter of the southern sky.
via Science Daily
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Nature's magnifying glass reveals unexpected intermediate mass exoplanets

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Astronomers have found a new exoplanet that could alter the standing theory of planet formation. With a mass that's between that of Neptune and Saturn, and its location beyond the 'snow line' of its host star, an alien world of this scale was supposed to be rare.
via Science Daily
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Space microbes aren't so alien after all

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A new study has found that -- despite its seemingly harsh conditions -- the ISS is not causing bacteria to mutate into dangerous, antibiotic-resistant superbugs. The bacteria are instead simply responding, and perhaps evolving, to survive in a stressful environment.
via Science Daily
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TESS discovers its third new planet, with longest orbit yet

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NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, TESS, has discovered a third small planet outside our solar system, scientists report.
via Science Daily
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