planet

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Kepler Begins Search for Other 'Earths'

Spacecraft will spend next 3 years searching for planet in 'Goldilocks zone'

(Newser) - NASA's planet-hunting spacecraft Kepler was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral last night, Space.com reports. Kepler, the widest-field telescope ever sent into space, will spend the next three years scanning the sky for a planet in the "Goldilocks zone" where conditions are just right for liquid water to exist...

Pluto Is Still a Planet, Illinois Senate Declares

(Newser) - Having helped install a hometown boy in the White House and ousted its colorful governor, Illinois is next out to save Pluto, the Guardian reports. The state senate blasted the International Astronomical Union’s 2006 decision to demote the erstwhile ninth planet to a “dwarf planet,” and voted...

Alien Life 'Inevitable': Astronomer

Countless Earth-like planets likely in universe

(Newser) - Scientists now believe there could be as many habitable planets in the cosmos as there are stars, and that makes life’s existence elsewhere “inevitable” over billions of years, says one. “It is sort of like running an experiment in your refrigerator—turn it off and something will...

If Another Earth Is Out There, Kepler Will Find it

NASA telescope designed to look for life-sustaining planets

(Newser) - If there's truly no place like home, then NASA's new Kepler mission will help scientists prove it. The space telescope, set to launch March 5, will scan the skies for planets with the approximate size and temperature range of Earth. Matches could be candidates for extraterrestrial life; if Kepler finds...

Nearby Solar System Looks Familiar

(Newser) - A nearby solar system looks a lot like ours, complete with newly identified asteroid belts, gas giants, and a similarly sized sun, Space.com reports. The star at the center of the system is visible without magnification, and scientists say they can infer the presence of planets in a zone...

Trick Telescopy Aids in Search for Alien Life

Precision mirrors could show stargazers planets far, far away

(Newser) - Telescope technology currently in the works will use light measurements to search for planets beyond our solar system whose orbit around a star means they could support life, Wired reports. The system, called nulling interferometry, uses tiny mirrors that move at atomic levels to combine the power of several telescopes,...

Dwarf Planet Gets a Name
 Dwarf Planet Gets a Name 
Jul 22, 2008 10:17 AM CDT

Dwarf Planet Gets a Name

Smaller than Pluto, Makemake is covered in frozen methane

(Newser) - The neighborhood of the solar system beyond Neptune has a new resident—or rather, an old resident with a new name. The dwarf planet originally dubbed Easterbunny will now be known as Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh), reports USA Today.

Thinking 'Bots May Probe Planets for Us

Gizmos could direct airships over Titan, Europa by 2017

(Newser) - WALL-E they aren't, but future space robots may decide how and where we explore other planets, Space.com reports. Using what expert Wolfgang Fink calls “tier-scalable reconnaissance,” orbiting spacecrafts could choose where to deploy airships that drop rovers on planet surfaces. NASA and Europe may test the software...

Mercury Is Shrinking
 Mercury Is Shrinking   
Jul 3, 2008 6:35 PM CDT

Mercury Is Shrinking

Messenger spacecraft reveals planets core still molten

(Newser) - The planet Mercury is shrinking, the LA Times reports. Data from NASA’s Mercury Messenger spacecraft reveal that the planet’s diameter has shrunk by a mile over its history, probably because its core is cooling. Messenger flew in for a close-up in January, and scientists are now piecing together...

New Planets Yield Hopes of Life Beyond

Rocky, Earth-like orbs appear to be out there; might we indeed have company?

(Newser) - The discovery, announced last week, that rocky, Earth-sized planets appear to be circling sun-sized stars in our own galaxy should thrill the closet Star Trek geek in all of us, Natalie Angier writes in the New York Times. "If planets abound, scientists suspect that life abounds, too, at least...

Scientists Find Planets Out of This World

Discoveries of, info about new heavenly bodies pour into NASA

(Newser) - Humans took centuries to discover the other planets in the solar system, but in the 13 years since the first additional planet was identified, planetary scientists have found 277 more worlds orbiting other suns. And those extrasolar planets are just the confirmed ones—many more are suspected, and excitement among...

Saturn Moon Rings Detected
Saturn Moon Rings Detected
Mar 7, 2008 4:20 AM CST

Saturn Moon Rings Detected

Rhea could be be the first known moon with rings

(Newser) - Saturn’s second-largest moon, Rhea, could be the first known moon with rings. The spacecraft Cassini detected apparent evidence of rings when it spotted debris around Rhea as it flew by in 2005, reports space.com. The set of rings has not been directly seen, but scientists inferred that the...

New Solar System Sparks Hope for Other Life

Maybe we're not alone, say astronomers

(Newser) - Excited astronomers say that the discovery of a solar system with strong similarities to our own raises the chances of other life out there. The system has two gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn orbiting at a similar distance from the alien sun 5,000 light years away, and...

Spectacular Show Awaits Sky Gazers
Spectacular Show Awaits Sky Gazers
Jan 26, 2008 2:58 PM CST

Spectacular Show Awaits Sky Gazers

Venus and Jupiter to converge, and the moon drops in, too

(Newser) - Sky gazers have an exceptional show awaiting them over the next couple of weeks, Space.com reports, and the most striking celestial sights will be in the early morning. Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will converge, forming a spectacular "double planet" low in the dawn light, and...

Probe Zips Over Mercury Today
Probe Zips Over Mercury Today
Jan 14, 2008 4:33 AM CST

Probe Zips Over Mercury Today

Messenger will take 1,200 pictures from 124 miles up

(Newser) - NASA's Messenger spacecraft this afternoon will whiz past Mercury at 141,000 mph and snap an estimated 1,200 detailed photos of the planet's surface from a mere 124 miles up. It will be the first of three passes before the craft starts orbiting the planet closest to the sun...

Planet Found Orbiting Star
Planet Found Orbiting Star
Nov 6, 2007 10:28 PM CST

Planet Found Orbiting Star

Gas giant is 45 times the size of Earth

(Newser) - Astronomers have found a planet that’s at least 45 times the size of Earth orbiting a star 41 light years away, Space.com reports. The giant ball of gas is the fifth planet discovered around the star 55 Cancri. And while it's not a "twin of our solar...

Astronomers Watch as New Earth-Like Planet Forms

424 light-years away, materials clump together around young star

(Newser) - A massive belt of dust swirling around a young star 424 light-years away could be evidence of a second Earth in the making, Space.com reports. Astronomers observing the area through a NASA space telescope say many of the conditions for forming an Earth-sized planet are present, including moderate temperatures...

When the Sun Dies, Earth Might Not
When the Sun Dies, Earth Might Not
Sep 13, 2007 3:32 AM CDT

When the Sun Dies, Earth Might Not

Just-discovered planet survived; so there's hope for the old globe

(Newser) - When the Sun begins to kick out in some 5 billion years, it might not take Earth with it, reports the New York Times. Scientists are more optimistic since discovering a planet that survived a similar situation. A lack of hydrogen fuel is expected to cause the Sun to expand...

25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries
25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries
Aug 21, 2007 1:10 PM CDT

25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries

From the unfathomably small to the mind-blowingly huge, the most significant breakthroughs

(Newser) - The invention of the wheel was pretty good. Fire, even better. But what has science done for us lately? USA Today lists the top 25 scientific discoveries; here are the top 10:
  1. Accelerating universe
  2. Human genome
  3. Climate accord

Largest Planet Ever Discovered
Largest Planet Ever Discovered
Aug 7, 2007 1:53 PM CDT

Largest Planet Ever Discovered

Huge, lightweight discovery puzzles scientists

(Newser) - Forget Jupiter. Scientists have discovered the largest planet out there—a "puffy" space mass almost twice the size of our solar system's gas giant. But the find is posing more questions than answers, Space.com reports: TrES-4’s mass is large but its density is about the same as...

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