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Stories about: exoplanets |
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Astronomers have realized since the beginning of the global financial crisis that a lot less money will enter their pockets for conducting scientific research. Some very important projects were abandoned, even though they held great promise, so, now, the community has to turn to innovation to keep funds coming in. It... |
20 November 2009
01:31 GMT |
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Our Sun is not by far the only star out there that is capable of hosting planetary systems around their surface. There are at least a couple of hundred stars out there that have exoplanets around them. At least 400 of them have been identified until now, and chances are that thousands more exist. But astronomers have... |
12 November 2009
02:40 GMT |
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Shortly after the planets inside our own solar system were formed, they began wobbling about, and roaming around, far from being caught in the well-defined orbits we see today. This chaotic motion is mainly responsible for the formation of the Moon, after Earth collided with a Mars-sized object that was circling the ... |
6 November 2009
14:51 GMT |
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In spite of the fact that our Sun allowed for, well, us to exist, astronomers have only recently come to the conclusion that Sun-like stars must be what we should be analyzing, when looking for alien life on other planets. One of the reasons why stars such as our own weren't considered the norm is the fact that ... |
5 November 2009
09:40 GMT |
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Scientists have tried for a long time to figure out how the elements necessary for life might appear on other planets. One of the preferred ways to do this was with the help of a computer model, which simulated the interactions that appeared between a number of chemical elements, and determined the probability of the... |
29 October 2009
21:51 GMT |
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The American space agency has recently announced the discovery of a second hot gas exoplanet that features organic molecules, the required components for the emergence of life. With the new find, astronomers will be one step closer to determining an accurate characterization of the planets that may, indeed, support l... |
21 October 2009
08:48 GMT |
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The High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) instrument is one of the most skilled in the world at finding exoplanets. This was evidenced by the fact that it recently helped identify no less than 32 new exoplanets, from the super-Earth (or Neptune-like) class. Thus far, the high-precision echelle spectro... |
19 October 2009
10:04 GMT |
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One of the basic things any kid knows about planets is that they spin around a star. What goes without saying is that a planet in fact spins around a single star. Apparently, this is not the case with a recently discovered celestial body, which has an orbit so elongated and tilted, that astronomers believe it's ... |
8 October 2009
03:29 GMT |
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The Kepler Space Telescope, launched earlier this year, is, arguably, one of the best telescopes in the world today, especially when it comes to detecting small exoplanets around other stars. Its mirrors are high-tech enough to observe periodical variations in a star's brightness, which may only be caused by a p... |
2 October 2009
02:56 GMT |
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According to a new computer simulation of the conditions on the remote exoplanet COROT-7b, it may be that its atmosphere has nothing in common with our own. While we may be accustomed to rain, clouds, winds, fog and snow, we would have a very hard time finding these phenomena on another planet. COROT-7b was discovere... |
1 October 2009
05:43 GMT |
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When new stars are born, not all material in their precursors gets ignited and consumed. The remains usually start spinning around it, and, over millions of years, new planets are formed. The debris-filled areas around the stars are known as a protoplanetary disk. Astronomers know how long it takes for planets to for... |
24 September 2009
02:44 GMT |
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Biologists and other scientists have been studying the origins of life as we know it for a very long time, and, for good or for worse, they have an idea about the chain of events that led to the development of the first organisms, and eventually to the emergence of the more complex species. But now, experts at an Aus... |
18 September 2009
09:01 GMT |
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The Drake Equation (DE) was compiled in the 1960s by now University of California in Santa Cruz (UCSC) Professor Emeritus of Astronomy and Astrophysics Dr. Frank Drake, in an attempt to quantify the number of worlds in the Milky Way that might sustain extraterrestrial civilizations. Even if its results are erroneous,... |
17 September 2009
06:09 GMT |
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Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) finally concluded the largest set of HARPIS measurements, and established the mass and density of the smallest and fastest orbiting exoplanet known, CoRoT-7b. The celestial body has a mass five times that of our own planet, and a radius about two times bigger, wh... |
16 September 2009
16:51 GMT |
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Some 700 light-years away from our solar system, researchers identified two exoplanets, orbiting their parent star, and influencing each other in the process. The star, dubbed HAT-P-13, is orbited by the planets HAT-P-13b and HAT-P-13c, each of which exerts a gravitational pull on the other. Now, scientists plan to u... |
14 September 2009
16:21 GMT |
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The final form of predicted ice has been successfully obtained in the laboratory. After years of research, scientists at the University of Oxford, in England, managed to create ice XV, a never-before-reached form of ice, with a special form of molecular layout. Thus far, 16 new types of the stuff have been discovered... |
14 September 2009
06:42 GMT |
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Understanding the delicately balanced “dance” of forces that make a solar system stick together in an orderly fashion has been a long-term goal in astronomy, but difficult to study. This is mostly because we are inside a solar system, therefore it is difficult for us to become outside observers. But a new... |
27 August 2009
01:42 GMT |
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In our own solar system, assessing the differences between planets and stars is a fairly easy procedure. We look at the Sun, and then at Jupiter or Saturn (the largest planets), and the difference is immediately obvious. But things are not as simple in the Universe. Astronomers have discovered over the years exoplane... |
17 August 2009
21:01 GMT |
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Just one day after astronomers reported in a scientific journal that they had discovered a planet orbiting backwards around its star, as in spinning opposite of the star's spin, another team published evidence of another such occurrence, in a different place altogether. The new exoplanet was found by Japanese ex... |
14 August 2009
11:01 GMT |
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For a few decades, those believing that the chances for life elsewhere in the Universe are small have made circulate a theory that backs up their claims, known as the anthropic argument. Essentially, it states that the period of time it takes life to evolve is longer than the period in a star's life when it can ... |
13 August 2009
21:01 GMT |
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Astronomers know that planets and stars form from collapsing clouds of cosmic gas, but the exact factors that trigger this formation have thus far remained elusive. Now, a combined study from two of NASA's Great Observatory is attempting to provide a possible answer to this puzzle. Readings from Chandra and Spit... |
13 August 2009
08:45 GMT |
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Usually, in all star systems thus far discovered that feature exoplanets, all planets, moons and other bodies revolve around the central star in an orbit that has the same orientation as the spin of the star. This was so far believed to be a basic rule of the way the Universe was set up, but this theory was thrown ou... |
12 August 2009
11:16 GMT |
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Astronomers and planetary scientists have for a long time known that various types of stars are very important in determining a planet or moon's chances of ever harboring life. The age of the star is also an immensely-important factor, mostly because young stars generate massive amounts of harmful radiations, wh... |
11 August 2009
09:16 GMT |
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The Kepler mission is one of the most ambitious ones NASA has, but not necessarily in terms of size and complexity, but as far as goals go. The powerful telescope, currently on an Earth-trailing orbit, more than 10,700,000 kilometers (about 6,600,00 miles) away from our planet, is set to discover new, Earth-like plan... |
22 June 2009
04:13 GMT |
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In an attempt to innovate the field of modern adaptive optics instruments, French researchers have managed to create the most advanced and sensitive astronomical camera to date, which holds the promise to be able to very accurately compensate for the “atmospheric turbulences” that annoy astronomers so muc... |
19 June 2009
18:21 GMT |
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In their search for life on other planets outside the solar system, astronomers may as well take into account another limiting factor. Even if they find something on an exoplanet that is within its star's habitable zone, they have to ensure that the planet is not tidally locked and that the right amount of volca... |
16 June 2009
03:00 GMT |
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In their search for life on other planets, researchers are always hindered by a single fact – they don't know what life in other planetary conditions than those of the Earth may look like. Different pressure and atmospheric surroundings may affect the development of even the most basic forms of life on exo... |
15 June 2009
03:47 GMT |
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Other than offering a very spectacular view, lunar eclipses are also useful for astronomy, as was proven in 2008. At that time, a group of experts investigating the surface of the satellite saw that, despite the fact that the Earth was completely obscuring the sunlight coming towards the Moon, its surface still shone... |
12 June 2009
06:59 GMT |
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The habitable zone around a star is regularly considered to be the area in which water could exist in liquid form. For example, the Earth is situated dead-square in the middle of the Sun's habitable zone, whereas Venus and Mars are just outside of it. While the former is too hot, the latter is too cold, so they... |
11 June 2009
19:01 GMT |
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For the first time, astronomers have identified a planetary disk rotating around a binary star system, which proves that massive planets, asteroid belts and Pluto-like objects can easily form around this type of systems, in very much the same way they do around single stars, such as our Sun. Discovered around the you... |
11 June 2009
16:01 GMT |
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With more than 300 exoplanets discovered thus far inside the Milky Way, this field of astronomical research is expanding at an exponential rate. Despite the fact that a single extra-solar planet has thus far been identified directly, experts know that the other hundreds exist because they can detect their influence o... |
9 June 2009
20:01 GMT |
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Astronomers have believed for a long time that only the more massive stars, from about the same mass of our Sun upwards, could host an exoplanet system. The main considerate for this was size, as the researchers inferred that only a star with a large mass could give birth to planets around it. However, a recent find,... |
29 May 2009
15:01 GMT |
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Located about 1,600 light-years away from the Earth, in the Constellation Monoceros, the exoplanet CoRoT-1b, first discovered about two and a half years ago, is the first one whose day and night cycles were observed in optical wavelengths, as it orbited its star. The body was first discovered by the French CoRoT (Con... |
28 May 2009
06:40 GMT |
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Almost two decades ago, telescopes around the world and in orbit began to send back the first pictures of extra-solar planets (exoplanets), located outside our solar system, and everyone was amazed to find that there actually were such objects in the Universe. Most people suspected that planets had to exist elsewhere... |
26 May 2009
09:47 GMT |
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Searching for life outside our planet is not a very easy task, especially on account of the distance between ourselves and the next possibly populated world, but also because there exists a great possibility that all other life forms detected there could have a significantly different inner structure and organization... |
19 May 2009
01:52 GMT |
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Designed specifically to peer into the heart of distant star systems inside the Milky Way, the Kepler Space Telescope (KST) has a huge task ahead of it, namely to find Earth-like planets that may be lurking in the deep recesses of space, or which are too small to be identified using existing telescopes. Launched on M... |
15 May 2009
04:14 GMT |
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Following the successful jettisoning of its dust cover a few weeks ago, NASA's Kepler Space Telescope has now begun its actual mission of searching for other Earth-like planets in our galaxy. The time that passed between the ejection of the cover and the beginning of the actual observations was used by mission c... |
14 May 2009
02:22 GMT |
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Despite the fact that over 300 exoplanets have thus far been discovered, identifying celestial bodies the size of the Earth orbiting stars billions of light-years away is no easy task. The method currently used to identify such planets is one that undoubtedly yields results, but it's also very time-consuming and... |
8 May 2009
05:50 GMT |
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Over the recent years, an increased number of concepts referring to the “handedness of life” have begun to appear, and in areas of research few would have thought possible. For instance, astronomers are now working with scientists on the creation of a new means of looking for life on other planets, throug... |
28 April 2009
20:01 GMT |
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Over the past two decades, astronomers have discovered more than 300 exoplanets, orbiting stars either nearby or very far away. Observation techniques have become so sensitive, that they can identify variations in a stars' glow from light-years away and determine if they have been caused by a planet, a moon, an ... |
28 April 2009
02:44 GMT |
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Researchers speaking at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science said yesterday that they had managed to discover another exoplanet in the now-famous Gliese system. Experts from around the world, gathered at the festivities housed by the University of Hertfordshire, in the United Kingdom, were astounded to le... |
22 April 2009
04:08 GMT |
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A recent scientific study of white dwarfs has revealed that the dead stars, which are smaller and burn less intensely than main sequence ones, were actually the center of gravity for a number of solar systems. The way researchers figured that out was by measuring the amount of pollutants in the dead stars, by using t... |
21 April 2009
16:31 GMT |
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NASA announced yesterday that the planet-hunting Kepler Space Telescope had finally taken its first snapshots of the sky portion it had been launched to analyze. The pictures reveal millions of stars in the observatory's field of view, and mission experts and controllers are optimistic that investigations could ... |
17 April 2009
15:01 GMT |
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The quest for life in other parts of the Universe has to start with finding the right star, experts say, referring to the fact that exoplanets need to have an “indulgent neighbor,” if they are to stand any chance of developing an atmosphere, and maybe even liquid water. That is to say, they have to be wit... |
10 April 2009
02:28 GMT |
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The planet-hunting Kepler telescope took another important step recently in its quest for discovering worlds similar to our own, when its protective dust cover was successfully jettisoned. The device covered the NASA-developed photometer, the observatory's main instrument, capable of detecting subtle variations ... |
9 April 2009
14:21 GMT |
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“Earthshine” is a relatively unknown phenomenon that astronomers have observed on the surface of the Moon. Simply put, it is our planet's reflection on the lunar surface, in that light bouncing off our “home” reaches and illuminates the surface of our natural satellite. The Clementine spa... |
8 April 2009
02:18 GMT |
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Late last night, NASA officials and engineers were on the edge. The new Kepler Telescope mission was about to blast off from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, in Florida, the coronation of several years of hard work. At 10:49 pm EST (0349 March 7 GMT), successful lift-off was confirmed. More than half an hour aft... |
7 March 2009
03:23 GMT |
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If the newest NASA launch succeeds, we could see the new Kepler Space Telescope up and running by the end of the week, mission officials have announced. After being pushed back by a day, due to concerns over the safety of the mission, the lift-off procedure has been scheduled for Friday, when the Delta II booster car... |
4 March 2009
02:29 GMT |
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The National Ignition Facility (NIF) now boasts a brand new laser facility, designed primarily to assist the military with fusion data related to various experimental information. The “mega-laser” is one of the most powerful on Earth, and only recently have scientists come to see that the device could... |
28 February 2009
04:53 GMT |
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On Thursday, mission commanders announced that NASA's Kepler Space Telescope mission was primed and ready for launch, on the 5th of March, 2009. It took a lot of effort to get here, but now the most recent tool of scouting the Universe for Earth-like, inhabitable planets is ready for deployment. According to the... |
20 February 2009
10:37 GMT |
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