Space and astronomy news
[/caption] WASP-12b, discovered in 2008, is a real outlier among the 400 or so exoplanets discovered to date. Not that it’s particularly massive (it’s a gas giant, not unlike Jupiter), nor that its homesun (host star) is particularly unusual (it’s rather similar to our own Sun), but it orbits very close to its homesun, and …
Continue reading “Ripped to Shreds, Exoplanet Suffers Painful Death”
[/caption]Almost everyone the world over recognizes the letters X and O to represent a kiss and a hug, but this time the XO stands for Extrasolar Planet XO-3b. If you’d like an extra special “kiss and hug” for Valentine’s Day, then why not visit with Baraket Observatory on Februrary 13th as they present their live, …
Matryoshka dolls are a popular novelty for tourists going to Russia to bring home for their children. These dolls, which are hollow wooden bowling pin-shaped representations of a Russian woman (or babushka), are nested inside of each other, each doll smaller than the one that encases it. In a perfect model of planetary matryoshka dolls, …
[/caption] Astronomers have obtained the first direct spectrum – a “chemical fingerprint” – of a planet orbiting a distant, Sun-like star, providing direct data about the composition of the planet’s atmosphere. An international team of researchers studied the planetary system around HR 8799 a bright, young star with 1.5 times the mass of our Sun, …
Continue reading “First Direct Spectrum of an Exoplanet Orbiting a Sun-like Star”
Here comes the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held during January 3-7, 2010 in Washington, DC. With over 2,500 registrants, the AAS has billed this as “the largest meeting in astronomy history.” The AAS 215 will undoubtedly produce some amazing new astronomical announcements, press releases and briefings, and we at Universe Today will …
Continue reading “Get Ready for “Largest Meeting in Astronomy History””
[/caption] For those know their solar system history, the discovery of Neptune is an especially exciting story. Before it was detected observationally, its gravitational effects on another planet (Uranus) were discovered. From this, astronomers were able to predict the position of the yet unobserved planet and in 1846 they discovered the predicted planet observationally from …
Continue reading “New Observations of TrES-2b May Reveal New Exoplanet”
This artist’s conception shows the newly discovered super-Earth GJ 1214b, which orbits a red dwarf star 40 light-years from our Earth. Credit: Credit: David A. Aguilar, CfA More exoplanets this week! Today astronomers announced the discovery of so called super-Earth around a nearby, low-mass star, GJ1214. The newly discovered planet has a mass about six …
Continue reading “Astronomers Find Super-Earth With An Atmosphere”
[/caption] Fanciful science fiction and space art frequently depict the lovely visage of a twin sunset where a pair of binary stars dips below the horizon (think Star Wars). While it has been established that planets could exist in such a system by orbiting in resonances, that only holds true for fully formed planets. Can …
The handle of the Big Dipper just got stronger! Astronomers have found an additional star located in the Dipper’s gripper that is invisible to the unaided eye. Alcor, one of the stars that makes the bend in the Big Dipper’s handle has a smaller red dwarf companion orbiting it. Now known as “Alcor B,” the …
This artist’s concept shows the smallest star known to host a planet. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech In May 2009, astronomers were jubilant: finally, an extra solar planet had been found by using the method of astrometry. That’s great, except, they may not have found a planet after all. Researchers from JPL reported they found a Jupiter-like …