Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:12/5/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Kepler confirms its first planet in habitable zone of Sun-like star
Live Webcast from American Museum of Natural History Today: Beyond Planet Earth
The American Museum of Natural History in New York will soon be opening up a new exhibition called “Beyond Planet Earth: The Future of Space Exploration,” and they are live-streaming a special public program at 12 Noon EST (17:00 UT), that includes NASA astronauts Mike Massimino and John Grunsfeld, crew members on mission STS-125 to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, and is hosted by Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson and Curator Michael Shara.
The discussion will focus on themes from Beyond Planet Earth, the STS-125 mission, and the temporary laser art installation From The Distant Past. For more information see the AMNH website, and watch a teaser video of “Beyond Planet Earth” below.
(…)
Read the rest of Live Webcast from American Museum of Natural History Today: Beyond Planet Earth (0 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2011. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: Museums, webcasts
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Giant planet ejected from the solar system
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:11/11/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Was a Fifth Giant Planet Expelled from Our Solar System?
Artist’s impression of a fifth giant planet being ejected from the solar system.
Image credit: Southwest Research Institute
Earth’s place in the “Goldilocks” zone of our solar system may be the result of the expulsion of a fifth giant planet from our solar system during its first 600 million years, according to a recent journal publication.
“We have all sorts of clues about the early evolution of the solar system,” said author Dr. David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute. “They come from the analysis of the trans-Neptunian population of small bodies known as the Kuiper Belt, and from the lunar cratering record.”
Nesvorny and his team used the clues they had to build computer simulations of the early solar system and test their theories. What resulted was an early solar system model that has quite a different configuration than today, and a jumbling of planets that may have given Earth the “preferred” spot for life to evolve.
(…)
Read the rest of Was a Fifth Giant Planet Expelled from Our Solar System? (459 words)
© Ray Sanders for Universe Today, 2011. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: giant planets, solar system formation
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
“Baby” Planet Caught in the Act of Forming
The left image shows the transitional disk around the star LkCa 15. All of the light at this wavelength is emitted by cold dust in the disk. The hole in the centre indicates an inner gap with a radius of around 55 times the distance from the Earth to the Sun. The right image is an expanded view of the central part of the cleared region, illustrating a composite of two reconstructed images (blue: 2.1 micrometres, from November 2010; red: 3.7 micrometres) for LkCa 15. The location of the central star is also marked. Image: Kraus & Ireland 2011.
Astronomers have taken a step closer to finding out how planetary systems form with the discovery of the ‘youngest’ planet ever found. LkCa 15 b is so young, it is still in the act of forming. This is the first direct image of a planet in the process of forming, and data indicates the planet is still being pieced together by gas and dust falling into its clutches from a cooler envelope that surrounds it.
The hot protoplanet orbits a star which possesses a mass comparable to our Sun, and is the youngest planetary system ever to be identified, with LkCa 15 aged at 2 million years, “We really have the age of the star and not the planet,” said Michael Ireland, a lecturer in astrophotonics at the Australian Astronomical Observatory. “The age of the star was determined by a great many people studying the gravitational contraction of both LkCa 15 and all of the other stars in the Taurus star forming region, which formed at nearly the same time.”
(…)
Read the rest of “Baby” Planet Caught in the Act of Forming (599 words)
© Gemma Lavender for Universe Today, 2011. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: Extrasolar Planets, Keck Observatory
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Youngest planet seen as it’s forming
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:10/21/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
What’s That Very Bright Star – Is it the Planet Jupiter?
Jupiter Credit: John Talbot
Have you seen a very bright star rising in the East every night the past few months? If you’re a night owl, you may have noticed it moves across they sky from the East into the West, shining brightly throughout the night. However this object is not a star! It’s the planet Jupiter and it is the brightest object in the night sky at the moment, apart from the Moon.
At the end of October Jupiter will be at opposition. This means the mighty planet (the largest in our solar system) will be directly opposite the sun as seen from Earth and it will also be at its closest point to Earth in the two planets’ orbits around the Sun. This makes Jupiter or any other object at opposition appear brighter and larger. The opposition of Jupiter occurs on October 29, 2011.
(…)
Read the rest of What’s That Very Bright Star – Is it the Planet Jupiter? (457 words)
© Adrian West for Universe Today, 2011. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: galilean moons, Jupiter, moons
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Have you ever dreamed of flying high above the Earth?
If you stay up long enough, you can watch both suns set.Tatooine-like planet discovered
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:9/15/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Star blasts planet with X-rays
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:9/14/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
A planet made of diamond
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:8/25/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Astronomers find ice and possibly methane on Snow White, a distant dwarf planet
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:8/23/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Why is this planet so dark?Worlds Apart: Planet and Moon Align
Here’s a cool animation showing Mars’ little moon Phobos passing in front of distant Jupiter from the viewpoint of ESA’s Mars Express orbiter:
The conjunction event occurred on June 1.
(…)
Read the rest of Worlds Apart: Planet and Moon Align (227 words)
© Jason Major for Universe Today, 2011. |
Permalink |
One comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: esa, Jupiter, Mars, Mars Express, Phobos, Solar System
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats
Thunderstorms almost spoiled this view of the spectacular June 15
Rocky, Low-Mass Planet Discovered by Microlensing
A low-mass, rocky planet orbits a distant sun
In planet hunting today, there seems to be one burning question that nearly every new article published touches on: Where did these planets come from?
As astronomers discovered the first extrasolar planets, it quickly became obvious that the formation theories that we’d built on our own solar system were only part of the story. They didn’t predict the vast number of hot Jupiters astronomers found nearly everywhere. Astronomers went back to the drawing board to put more details into the theory, breaking formation down into quick, single collapses and more gradual accretion of gas disks, and worrying about the effects of migration. It’s likely all these effects take place to some extent, but ferreting out just how much is now the big challenge for astronomers. Hampering their efforts is the biased sample from the gravitational-wobble technique which preferentially discovered high mass, tightly orbiting planets. The addition of Kepler to planet hunter’s arsenal has removed some of this bias, readily finding planets to far lower masses, but still prefers planets in short orbits where they are more likely to transit. However, the addition of another technique, gravitational microlensing, promises to find planets down to 10 Earth masses, much further out from their parent stars. Using this technique, a team of astronomers has just announced the detection of a rocky planet just in this range.
(…)
Read the rest of Rocky, Low-Mass Planet Discovered by Microlensing (452 words)
© jvois for Universe Today, 2011. |
Permalink |
One comment |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: Extrasolar Planets
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Astronomy Without A Telescope – Planet Spotting
The current search area of the Kepler mission, monitoring 145,000 stars for signs of exoplanets – with a particular interest in those that may be in a star’s ‘habitable zone’. Credit: Lomberg/NASA.
The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia counted 548 confirmed extrasolar planets at 6 May 2011, while the NASA Star and Exoplanet Database (updated weekly) was today reporting 535. These are confirmed findings and the counts will significantly increase as more candidate exoplanets are assessed. For example, there were the 1,235 candidates announced by the Kepler mission in February, including 54 that may be in a habitable zone.
So what techniques are brought to bear to come up with these findings? (…)
Read the rest of Astronomy Without A Telescope – Planet Spotting (895 words)
© Steve Nerlich for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: exoplanet detection, Extrasolar Planets Encyclopedia
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Mars Express sees deep fractures on the Red Planet
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:5/6/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
On April 12th, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut
What would a sunrise look like on another world?Clyde Tombaugh’s Ten Special Commandments for Planet Hunters
The Ten Special Commandments for a Would-Be Planet Hunter, according to Clyde Tombaugh. Scan courtesy of Toney Burkhart.
Back in 1989, amateur astronomer Toney Burkhart found out that Clyde Tombaugh was going to be giving a talk in San Francisco, just a short distance from Burkhart’s home. Trouble was, he found out only about 10 minutes before the presentation was going to start, so he rushed over and arrived just in time to hear Tombaugh’s talk, where he told amusing stories of how he found Pluto, and what he went through with night after night in a cold observatory taking photographs and comparing the glass plates, looking for a planet in the outer solar system.
(…)
Read the rest of Clyde Tombaugh’s Ten Special Commandments for Planet Hunters (591 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Astronomy, Clyde Tombaugh, planets, Pluto
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Mars Express captures impact scars on the Red Planet
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:3/7/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
New observations of the giant planet orbiting Beta Pictoris
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:3/4/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Planet formation in action
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:2/24/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Direct images of disks unravel mystery of planet formation
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:2/18/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
About that Giant Planet Possibly Hiding in the Outer Solar System…
Siding Spring Comet found by the WISE spacecraft. credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
An old story got new legs this week as word went viral of a possible new 9th planet in our solar system – a gas giant bigger than Jupiter – which could be hiding somewhere in the Oort Cloud, just waiting to be found.
An article this week in The Independent suggested the new planet, called Tyche, had already been found among data from the WISE mission. This prompted the WISE team to post a rebuttal on their Facebook page: “Not true. A pair of scientists published a paper stating that if such a big planet exists in the far reaches of the Solar System, then WISE should have seen it. That is true. But, analysis over the next couple of years will be needed to determine if WISE has actually detected such a world or not.”
To make sense of this all, Universe Today sought out a scientist who has looked at the outer solar system as much as anyone, if not more: Mike Brown, of Eris, Haumea and Makemake fame – to get his take on Tyche.
“Yes,” said Brown, “this is all getting pretty funny these days!”
(…)
Read the rest of About that Giant Planet Possibly Hiding in the Outer Solar System… (490 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2011. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Comets, mike brown, Oort cloud, Tyche
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
New instrument will help confirm Kepler’s planet finds
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:2/14/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
NASA finds Earth-sized planet candidates in habitable zone
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:2/3/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Has a new planet been discovered? NASA’s Kepler mission discovers its first rocky planet
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:1/10/2011
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Hot atmosphere of Venus might cool interior of Earth’s sister planet
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:9/21/2010
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Red Moon, Red Planet
Red Moon, Red Mars. Top – Dec 21, 2010 Lunar Eclipse photos of the Red Moon taken near Princeton, NJ on an exquisitely clear night with a 250 mm lens and 1 sec exposure. Credit: Ken Kremer. Bottom Left: Red Mars from the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA. Right: Red Mars through a telescope in 2010 from The Plantation in Florida (not to scale). Credit: Ernie Rossi
In this season of Christmas tidings, many of us were blessed to witness the eerie Red Moon of the total lunar eclipse a few nights ago on Dec. 21. Here in “bonechilling” New Jersey, it was miraculously crystal clear the entire night from the beginning around 1:30 a.m. EST to the end – about three and one half hours later at around 5 a.m.
UPDATE: Check out more readers “Red Moon, Red Planet” astropix contributions below !
The eclipse occurred as the moon passed through the Earth’s inner dark shadow, or umbra and changed dramatically to varying shades of red, orange and brown.(…)
Read the rest of Red Moon, Red Planet (467 words)
© Ken Kremer for Universe Today, 2010. |
Permalink |
2 comments |
Add to
del.icio.us
Post tags: lunar eclipse, Mars, Mars Rovers, Moon, NASA
Feed enhanced by Better Feed from Ozh
Become a Planet Hunter!
What a busy week in astronomy! With last week's Geminid meteor shower, tonight's total lunar eclipse, and the winter solstice tomorrow, it's easy to overlook another event that may not be as big, but could be just as much fun. On December 16, Planet Hunters (www.planethunters.org) launched, allowing anyone to search for planets beyond our solar system from the comfort of their own living room — or wherever they keep a computer.
The Kepler mission has sought out exoplanets for more than a year, and now you can help astronomers sift through its copious data on the citizen science website Planet Hunters. Illustration by NASA/Kepler mission/Wendy StenzelThe citizen science project comes from the Zooniverse community, the same folks behind Galaxy Zoo (www.galaxyzoo.org), which allows anyone with an Internet connection and some free time to contribute astronomical research by classifying galaxy shapes. Its success has spurred more than 20 published papers with non-scientist co-authors, and has shown that humans still have an edge over computers in picking out patterns and understanding information.
Planet Hunters will also enlist the aid of non-scientists — this time in sorting through data from NASA's Kepler mission, which has searched for planets orbiting other stars (called exoplanets) since its launch in March 2009. The orbiting telescope has collected tons of data as it has specifically looked for stars with periodic dimming, potentially caused by a planet crossing in front of it. There's too much information for any one scientist to analyze, and computer programs are helpful but still not foolproof. That's where Planet Hunters comes in; users log on to the site and answer simple questions about a target star's brightness over time. If the star seems to have a pattern of repetitive dimming, it’s flagged as the possible home of an exoplanet.
So whether you're getting tired of the cold air hampering your observing or you just enjoy the thought of “discovering” exoplanets for yourself, give Planet Hunters a shot and see what you think. It might just prove a nice relaxing respite from these busy times.
Spitzer Space Telescope reveals first carbon-rich planet
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:12/9/2010
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine
Planet from another galaxy discovered
Astronomy Magazine News Article – Released:11/19/2010
Astronomy.com News – Presented by Astronomy Magazine