Tag Archives: habitable zone

Search for Life Suggests Solar Systems More Habitable than Ours

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Sciencecayman unterborn, Chile, dataset, dynamic, earth, european southern observatory, Galaxy, geologically active, habitable, habitable zone, heat source, jennifer johnson, microbial form, Milky Way, ohio state university, planet, plate tectonics, potassium, radioactive decay, radioactive element, san francisco, search for life, solar systems, solar twin, subsurface heat, terrestrial planet, thorium, uranium, wendy panero

SAN FRANCISCO — Scattered around the Milky Way are stars that resemble our own sun—but a new study is finding that any planets orbiting those stars may very well be hotter and more dynamic than Earth.

That’s because the interiors of any terrestrial planets in these systems are likely warmer than Earth—up to 25 percent warmer, which would make them more geologically active and more likely to retain enough liquid water to support life, at least in its microbial form.

The preliminary finding comes from geologists and astronomers at Ohio State University who have teamed up to search for alien life in a new way. (more…)

Can Life Emerge on Planets Around Cooling Stars?

By Guest PostNovember 20, 2012Scienceastronomers, astrophysics, brown dwarf, earth, Germany, habitable zone, heating phenomenon, ingredients, leibniz institute, life, liquid, nuclear burning, phase, planets, potsdam, rene heller, rory barnes, runaway greenhouse, sun, support, university, venus, Washington

Astronomers find planets in strange places and wonder if they might support life. One such place would be in orbit around a white or brown dwarf. While neither is a star like the sun, both glow and so could be orbited by planets with the right ingredients for life.

No terrestrial, or Earth-like planets have yet been confirmed orbiting white or brown dwarfs, but there is no reason to assume they don’t exist. However, new research by Rory Barnes of the University of Washington and René Heller of Germany’s Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam hints that planets orbiting white or brown dwarfs will prove poor candidates for life. (more…)

NASA, Texas Astronomers Find First Multi-Planet System Around a Binary Star

By Guest PostSeptember 3, 2012Scienceaustin, bill cochran, binary star, caroline caldwell, faint star, giant magellan telescope, habitable zone, harlan j smith, het, hobby eberly telescope, jerome orosz, kepler 47, kepler mission, largest telescope, m dwarf star, mcdonald observatory, michael endl, multi planet, NASA, one system, planet, primary star, san diego, secondary star, solar system, space telescope, state university, stellar eclipse, sun, tatooine, telescope, texas, transit, university, west texas, william welsh, world

FORT DAVIS, Texas — NASA’s Kepler mission has found the first multi-planet solar system orbiting a binary star, characterized in large part by University of Texas at Austin astronomers using two telescopes at the university’s McDonald Observatory in West Texas. The finding, which proves that whole planetary systems can form in a disk around a binary star, is published in today’s issue of the journal Science.

“It’s Tatooine, right?” said McDonald Observatory astronomer Michael Endl. “But this was not shown in Star Wars,” he said, referring to the periodic changes in the amount of daylight falling on a planet with two suns. Measurements of the star’s orbits showed that daylight on the planets would vary by a large margin over the 7.4-Earth-day period as the two stars completed their mutual orbits, each moving closer to, then farther from, the planets (which are themselves moving). (more…)

First Habitable-Zone super-Earth Discovered in Orbit Around a Sun-like Star

By Guest PostMarch 12, 2012Sciencealan boss, ames research center, constellation, cygnus, discovery, doppler technique, exoplanet, g5 star, Galaxy, gas giant planets, habitable zone, kepler mission, lyra, NASA, photometric data, radial velocity, space telescope, star, sun, super earth, william borucki

Washington, D.C. — NASA’s Kepler Mission has discovered the first super-Earth orbiting in the habitable zone of a star similar to the Sun. A team of researchers, including Carnegie’s Alan Boss, has discovered what could be a large, rocky planet with a surface temperature of about 72 degrees Fahrenheit, comparable to a comfortable spring day on Earth. This landmark finding will be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

The discovery team, led by William Borucki of the NASA Ames Research Center, used photometric data from the NASA Kepler space telescope, which monitors the brightness of 155,000 stars. Earth-size planets whose orbital planes are aligned such that they periodically pass in front of their stars result in tiny dimmings of their host star’s light–dimmings that can only be measured by a highly specialized space telescope like Kepler. (more…)

NASA Discovers First Earth-Size Planets Beyond Our Solar System

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2011Scienceastrophysical phenomena, blender, computer program, constellation lyra, cygnus, earth size planets, exoplanets, francois fressin, g type, Galaxy, habitable zone, harvard smithsonian center, jack lissauer, kepler 20e, kepler 20f, kepler mission, kepler science team, kepler space telescope, light years, liquid water, NASA, natalie batalha, neptune, planet mercury, planet system, planets like earth, san jose state university, solar system, spitzer space telescope, sun, venus

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun.

The discovery marks the next important milestone in the ultimate search for planets like Earth. The new planets are thought to be rocky. Kepler-20e is slightly smaller than Venus, measuring 0.87 times the radius of Earth. Kepler-20f is slightly larger than Earth, measuring 1.03 times its radius. Both planets reside in a five-planet system called Kepler-20, approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. (more…)

NASA’s Kepler Confirms Its First Planet in Habitable Zone

By Guest PostDecember 6, 2011Scienceames, constellations, cygnus, douglas hudgins, g type, ground based telescopes, habitable zone, jupiter, kepler, kepler 22b, liquid water, lyra, mars, milestone, NASA, natalie batalha, orbital periods, planet, spitzer space telescope, super earth size, universe, university of colorado in boulder, venus, william borucki

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the “habitable zone,” the region around a star where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 new planet candidates, nearly doubling its previously known count. Ten of these candidates are near-Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of their host star. Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets.

The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-22b, is the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a star similar to our sun. The planet is about 2.4 times the radius of Earth. Scientists don’t yet know if Kepler-22b has a predominantly rocky, gaseous or liquid composition, but its discovery is a step closer to finding Earth-like planets. (more…)

Lifting Space Exploration to New Heights

By Guest PostOctober 23, 2011Sciencealien planets, atmosphere, chris walker, craig kulesa, evolution and architecture of planetary systems, exoplanetary circumstellar environments and disk explorer, explorer, george rieke, glenn schneider, glow of the sky at sundown, habitable zone, high altitude balloon, laird close, large magellanic cloud, michael lesser, milky way galaxy, NASA, olivier guyon, philip hinz, research balloon, roger angel, signposts, space telescope, steward observatory, stratospheric thz observatory, university of arizona, zodiacal light

*A new space telescope designed to peer into the inner reaches of far-away solar systems and a balloon riding the jet stream 120,000 feet above ground are two UA research proposals selected by NASA for further evaluation as potential future science missions.*

A research balloon circling the Earth in the outer fringes of the atmosphere and a space telescope peering through the dust swirls of far-away solar systems in search of alien planets are among the winning proposals selected by NASA for further study as part of NASA’s Explorer Mission program.

Both project proposals, called EXCEDE and GUSSTO, are led by astronomers at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory and are among 11 selected by NASA for evaluation as potential future science missions. (more…)

NASA’s Kepler Discovery Confirms First Planet Orbiting Two Stars

By Guest PostSeptember 16, 2011Sciencebinary system, double sunset, Galaxy, gravitational pull, gravitational tug on stars, habitable zone, john knoll, kepler 16b, kepler mission, kepler space telescope, laurance doyle, NASA, planet orbiting two stars, san francisco, saturn, star wars, tatooine, visual effects, william borucki

PASADENA, Calif. — The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA’s Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet — a planet orbiting two stars — 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars’ Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it. (more…)