In two new videos from NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft, bright flashes of light known as sun glints act as beacons signaling large bodies of water on Earth. These observations give scientists a way to pick out planets beyond our solar system (extrasolar planets) that are likely to have expanses of liquid, and so stand a better chance of having life. '
These sun glints are like sunshine glancing off the hood of a car. We can see them reflecting off a smooth surface when we are positioned in... Read Full Story
The first Earth-like planet spotted outside our solar system seems to be a volcanic wasteland.
The rocky planet CoRoT-7b was discovered circling a star some 480 light years from Earth. It is, however, a forbidding place and not likely to harbour life.
That's because it is so close to its star that temperatures might be above 2,200 Celsius on the surface lit by its star and as low as minus 210 Celsius on its dark side.
Now scientists led by University of Washington (UW) astronomer... Read Full Story
Ten percent of solar systems in the whole universe are like ours, says an astronomy study.
"Now we know our place in the universe," said Ohio State University (OSU) astronomer Scott Gaudi. "Solar systems like our own are not rare, but we're not in the majority, either."
The finding comes from a worldwide collaboration headquartered at Ohio State called the Microlensing Follow-Up Network (MicroFUN), which searches the sky for extrasolar planets.
MicroFUN astronomers use a method... Read Full Story
During the last two decades, astronomers have found hundreds of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. New research indicates they might have found even more except for one thing – gravitational forces have pulled a planet into its parent star, said astronomer Rory Barnes of the University of Washington Virtual Planet Laboratory.
The Virtual Planet Laboratory (VPL) is a team of scientists who are building computer simulated Earth-sized planets to look for habitable planets... Read Full Story
“In the quest for Earth-like planets, we have
now identified numerous systems which are excellent candidates to
harbour them. Where they persist at white dwarfs, any terrestrial
planets will likely not be habitable, but may have been sites where life developed during a previous epoch." Jay Farihi, of the University of Leicester
One of the great feats of the NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was to capture, for the first time, enough light from planets outside our solar system, known as... Read Full Story
An international team of scientists that includes an astronomer from Princeton University has made the first direct observation of a planet-like object orbiting a star similar to the sun. The finding marks the first discovery made with the world's newest planet-hunting instrument on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope and is the first fruit of a novel research collaboration announced by the University in January. The object, known as GJ 758 B, could be either a large planet or a "failed star... Read Full Story
“This is a crucial stepping stone to eventually characterizing prebiotic molecules on planets where life could exist” said team leader Mark Swain of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena.
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Orbiting around other stars are approximately 100 or more extrasolar planets, planets which orbit around a star rather than the sun. The existence of such planets is by direct astronomical observations, where it... Read Full Story
Launched on January 12, 2005, the Deep Impact space probe has become one of its successes. When it made history in 2005 by directing an impact from the spacecraft in to the comet Tempel 1 on July 4, things were good. The mission has recently been extended as well, being redirected for a flyby of comet Hartley on October 11, 2010.
However in the meantime, its largest of five telescopes will be directed at a cluster of stars nearby (relatively speaking of course in the hopes of detecting... Read Full Story
In the words of the Academy’s charter, enacted in 1780, the “end and design of the institution is…to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honour, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”
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Going on “as we speak”, with dates from May 19-23, 2008, the International Astronomical Union is located at the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in... Read Full Story
"It could happen almost any time now. We now have the technological
capability to identify Earth-like planets around the smallest stars."
David Latham - Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
To date, Planet hunters have spotted more than 300 planets beyond our solar
system, but the vast majority are hot, Jupiter-sized planets that would
dwarf the Earth and are almost certainly lifeless.
A few weeks ago, the first rocky planet was found outside solar system, but the surface... Read Full Story
