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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…)

Spitzer Sees Crystal ‘Rain’ in Outer Clouds of Infant Star

By Guest PostMay 30, 2011Scienceastronomers, bill danchi, charles poteet, clouds of gas, comets, constellation orion, crystals, deep impact missions, embryonic star, forsterite crystals, green mineral, herschel space observatory, hops 68, NASA, ohio, olivine, protostar, rain, solar system, spitzer space telescope, star, stardust, tom megeath, university of toledo, young stars

PASADENA, Calif. –– Tiny crystals of a green mineral called olivine are falling down like rain on a burgeoning star, according to observations from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope.

This is the first time such crystals have been observed in the dusty clouds of gas that collapse around forming stars. Astronomers are still debating how the crystals got there, but the most likely culprits are jets of gas blasting away from the embryonic star. (more…)

Free-Floating Planets May be More Common Than Stars

By Guest PostMay 19, 2011Scienceastronomers, dark of space, david bennett, earth, gaseous bodies, giant wingless, gravitational microlensing events, jupiter, mario perez, microlensing observations in astrophysics, milky way galaxy, moa, NASA, new zealand, nuclear fuel, ogle, optical gravitational lensing experiment, orphan planets, star, star forming clusters, takahiro sumi, telescope in chile, turbulent solar systems

PASADENA, Calif. — Astronomers, including a NASA-funded team member, have discovered a new class of Jupiter-sized planets floating alone in the dark of space, away from the light of a star. The team believes these lone worlds were probably ejected from developing planetary systems.

The discovery is based on a joint Japan-New Zealand survey that scanned the center of the Milky Way galaxy during 2006 and 2007, revealing evidence for up to 10 free-floating planets roughly the mass of Jupiter. The isolated orbs, also known as orphan planets, are difficult to spot, and had gone undetected until now. The newfound planets are located at an average approximate distance of 10,000 to 20,000 light-years from Earth. (more…)

Anti-Helium Discovered in the Heart of STAR

By Guest PostApril 26, 2011Scienceaccelerator technology, alpha magnetic spectrometer, ams, anti heavy hydrogen, anti hypertriton, antialpha, antideuteron, antielectron, antihelium 4, antinucleons, antiparticles, antiproton, baryon, baryon number, berkeley lab, carl anderson, CERN, collisions of energetic gold nuclei, ernest rutherford, experiment, hans georg ritter, heaviest antiparticle, nu xu, nucleus, nucleus of antihelium 4, nucleus of antihydrogen, particle, positron, relativistic heavy ion collider, rhic, star, star experiment

*Berkeley Lab nuclear scientists join with their international colleagues in the latest record-breaking discovery at RHIC*

Eighteen examples of the heaviest antiparticle ever found, the nucleus of antihelium-4, have been made in the STAR experiment at RHIC, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory.

“The STAR experiment is uniquely capable of finding antihelium‑4,” says the STAR experiment’s spokesperson, Nu Xu, of the Nuclear Science Division (NSD) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab). “STAR already holds the record for massive antiparticles, last year having identified the anti-hypertriton, which contains three constituent antiparticles. With four antinucleons, antihelium-4 is produced at a rate a thousand times lower yet. To identify the 18 examples required sifting through the debris of a billion gold-gold collisions.” (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…)

Spanish Woman Claims She Owns the Sun

By PravdaNovember 27, 2010Culture, Generalangeles duran, barcelona news, dpanish lady, el mundo, galicia, owner of sun, planet, solar system, spanish daily, spanish government, spectral type g2, star

The Sun. Image credit: NASA

Angeles Duran, 49-year-old Spanish lady has claimed to be the owner of Sun. Woman from Spain’s soggy region of Galicia said that she registered the star at a local notary public as being her property after learning about the American man, who registered moon and most planets in our solar system as his property.

Here is an international agreement, which states that no country may claim ownership of a planet or star, but it says nothing about individuals, she added.

“There was no snag, I backed my claim legally, I am not stupid, I know the law. I did it but anyone else could have done it, it simply occurred to me first,” she told the online edition of Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo. (more…)

The Twilight Saga: Book on Twilight

By Guest PostJune 29, 20101 commentMediabella swan, bitten by twilight, eclipse, elizabeth behm-morawitz, harry potter, hollywood, jennifer stevens aubrey, melissa click, star, summit entertainment, twilight franchise, twilight saga, twilight universe, university of missouri, vampire franchise, wars

As fans eagerly await The Twilight Saga: Eclipse set for release on June 30, University of Missouri communication experts have published a scholarly book on Twilight, Bitten by Twilight: Youth Culture, Media, & the Vampire Franchise, that analyzes the Twilight franchise and finds it to be unique for a variety of factors.

(more…)

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