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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…)

Earth-Size Planet Candidates Found in Habitable Zone

By Guest PostFebruary 3, 2011Scienceames research center, charles bolden, constellations, cygnus, earth size planet, extraterrestrial planets, Galaxy, habitable zone, jack lissauer, kepler, kepler 11, kepler 11b, kepler mission, liquid water, lyra, moffett field, NASA, science fiction, space telescope, star, william borucki

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun.

Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual planets. Kepler also found six confirmed planets orbiting a sun-like star, Kepler-11. This is the largest group of transiting planets orbiting a single star yet discovered outside our solar system. (more…)

Citizen Scientists Join Search for Earth-like Planets

By Guest PostDecember 19, 2010Scienceastronomers, citizen science project, constellation, cygnus, debra fischer, dimming of light, earth, earth like planets, exoplanets, galaxy zoo, galaxy zoo project, global network, globe, human computing power, jupiter, kepler mission, kevin schawinski, large gas giants, meg schwamb, NASA, planet candidates, planet hunters, solar system, space telescope, sun, web users, yale astronomer, zooniverse

Web users around the globe will be able to help professional astronomers in their search for Earth-like planets thanks to a new online citizen science project called Planet Hunters that launched Dec. 16. at www.planethunters.org.

Planet Hunters, which is the latest in the Zooniverse citizen science project collection, will ask users to help analyze data taken by NASA’s Kepler mission. The space telescope has been searching for planets beyond our own solar system—called exoplanets—since its launch in March 2009. (more…)

Tag Archives: space telescope

Lifting Space Exploration to New Heights

Earth-Size Planet Candidates Found in Habitable Zone

Citizen Scientists Join Search for Earth-like Planets