These 27 exoplanets might soon be seen directly by the first-ever private Space Telescope. Schmidt Sciences' Lazuli is set to do a lot when it launches in 2029. This could be a really good project! DR. ALFREDO CARPINETI Space & Physics Editor Alfredo has a PhD in Astrophysics and a Master's in Quantum Fields and Fundamental Forces from Imperial College London.View full profile Edited by Laura Simmons Most of the planets that have been discovered and observed so far have been seen indirectly. Seeing planets directly is a complicated affair, but the next generation of telescopes might change that. Among them, there's Lazuli, a new space telescope from Schmidt Sciences that will be the first-ever private space telescope. It will launch in 2029. The announced design, shared earlier this year, shows that Lazuli has a primary mirror that is larger than the Hubble Space Telescope. It will observe the sky in 23 colors, from optical to infrared, and will be equipped with a spectrograph to work out the chemical composition of celestial objects. One other exciting tool at its disposal will be the ExtraSolar Coronagraph instrument (ESC). This instrument blocks the sunlight of distant stars so that the telescope can capture the starlight reflected on the planets that orbit around it. This is easier said than done. Planets can be a billion times dimmer than their star - like trying to spot a firefly while looking directly into a search beam! The telescope will look for giant planets, and Logan Pearce from the University of Michigan and Ewan Douglas from the University of Arizona have compiled in a new preprint a list of "ideal" candidates. There are 27 planets on their list, which has been submitted to peer review. These objects are worlds whose properties have not been really probed directly before. Or not at this level of precision, like in the case of the Beta Pictoris system. The list is a proposal; it doesn't mean that Lazuli will actually look at these specific objects. The telescope will be able to study cool giant planets similar to the ones in the Solar System. Going beyond the current instruments. Due to the limitations of current telescopes in both time and approach, the hottest gas giants are the ones usually studied in detail. ESC could be the game-changer on that front. The telescope should be able to provide insights into these distant planets' atmospheres. Currently, IFLScience mostly study the atmospheres of hot Jupiters, gas giants that are very close to their stars. These are very different from the giant planets of the Solar System. Lazuli will work in concert with the three other instruments being developed by Schmidt Sciences, including two ground-based optical arrays, Argus and LFAST, and a radio observatory called the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA). The four will work together and independently. "Part of why we're calling this a system is because they will be interoperable," astronomer Arpita Roy, director of astrophysics and space at Schmidt Sciences, previously told IFLScience. "You find something with Argus, you can seamlessly follow it up with LFAST or Lazuli. There will be software and data centralized for the Schmidt observatories, so you go to one place, and you can get all of the data from the observatories and also hopefully, we think, connect to other datasets as well. So you can cross-analyze Rubin and Argus, for example." A milestone and a stepping stone. Several of the proposed objects will be visible to the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope, which will expand what IFLScience know of these objects. And this work will be crucial for future surveys trying to directly image an Earth-sized planet. The preprint is available on the arXiv. ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 2 days ago Add IFLScience as a Google preferred source to see more of its trusted coverage in Search

Ocean sulfur cycling symposium reunites global Researchers at Bigelow Laboratory. * 16 October 2026 * Edited By: Haley McQueen Researchers from around the world convened at Bigelow Laboratory from October 12-15 for the seventh DMS(P) Symposium, the first time the meeting had been held since 2014. Researchers from around the world gather outside Bigelow Laboratory for the seventh DMS(P) Symposium. (Image credit: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) The symposium brought together nearly 50 experts studying dimethylsulfoniopropionate, or DMSP, a sulfur-containing compound produced by phytoplankton that plays important roles in ocean ecosystems and the global climate system. "We are delighted to have brought the DMS(P) community together again," said Steve Archer, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory and lead of the organizing committee. "It's a wonderful mix of expertise and personalities from across the globe, and is always scientifically productive." Phytoplankton and other marine organisms synthesize DMSP, which can help them cope with environmental stress. In the ocean, DMSP and the compounds produced as it breaks down also serve as nutrients and chemical signals that shape interactions among microorganisms. Notably, DMSP is also the primary source of dimethyl sulfide, or DMS, a gas that can escape from the ocean into the atmosphere. Once there, DMS contributes to the formation of atmospheric particles that can form clouds and, ultimately, influence Earth's climate at large. "It is a fascinating and ever-evolving scientific story," Archer said. "But we know the production and transformation of this molecule plays a major role in shaping the environment we inhabit." The symposium examined these processes from the molecular scale to their global implications, including how phytoplankton and bacteria produce and transform DMSP, how these processes affect carbon and sulfur cycling, and how sulfur compounds move between the ocean and atmosphere. The meeting also provided an opportunity for scientists to connect observations of these processes with the models used to understand Earth's climate system. Archer co-chairs a Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR) working group focused on compiling measurements of the rates at which sulfur compounds are transformed to help incorporate these processes into Earth system models. Bigelow Laboratory has a longstanding connection with DMS(P) research. Maureen Keller, a former research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory, conducted foundational research to determine which marine algae produce DMSP and related compounds. "Maureen Keller conducted the first, and most complete, survey of phytoplankton species for their production of DMSP and DMS using cultures from Bigelow Laboratory," said Paty Matrai, a senior research scientist emerita involved in the event. "Those discoveries are still the basis of regional and global models to estimate how much DMS(P) is produced by marine phytoplankton as a function of their growth rate and environmental conditions, such as light, temperature and nutrients." The event included multi-day workshops and working groups on topics ranging from the atmospheric impacts of DMSP and DMS to the role of DMSP in bacterial behavior and communication. Researchers also examined how environmental change may alter DMSP production and transformation in the ocean. "It is an incredibly important moment to be studying the ways in which processes like ocean mixing, air-sea spray, microalgal growth, and wind speed will change in our warming world," Matrai said. "We need to know how much cooling - if any - will result from ocean DMS(P) cycling to clouds." The event honored the legacy of Ronald P. "Ron" Kiene, a University of South Alabama scientist who was a leading researcher in the field of marine sulfur cycling and DMSP. Kiene passed away in 2019. The seventh DMS(P) Symposium was hosted by Bigelow Laboratory in collaboration with the Ocean Carbon & Biogeochemistry (OCB) Program; Schmidt Sciences: Climate; the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR); and the Surface Ocean-Atmosphere Study (SOLAS).