Space and astronomy news
[/caption] Binary star systems can have planets – although these are generally assumed to be circumbinary (where the orbit encircles both stars). As well as the fictional examples of Tatooine and Gallifrey, there are real examples of PSR B1620-26 b and HW Virginis b and c – thought to be cool gas giants with several …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Forbidden Planets”
[/caption] While supernovae are the most dramatic death of stars, 95% of stars will end their lives in a far more quiet fashion, first swelling up to a red giant (perhaps a few times for good measure) before slowly releasing their outer layers into a planetary nebula and fading away as a white dwarf. This …
Continue reading “Planets and their Remnants around White Dwarfs”
[/caption] With the success of the Kepler mission, the viability of looking for planets via transits has reached maturity. However, Kepler is not the first intensive study. Previously, other observatories have employed transit searches. To increase the chances of discovery, studies often concentrated on large clusters in which thousands of stars could be observed simultaneously. …
Continue reading “Does Tidal Evolution Cause Stars to Eat Planets?”
[/caption] The CoRoT (Convection, Rotation and Transits) spacecraft has been busy, and using this exoplanet-finding-machine astronomers recently found six new extrasolar planets, which contain an odd assortment of new worlds. They include shrunken-Saturns to bloated hot Jupiters, as well a rare brown dwarf with 60 times the mass of Jupiter. “Each of these planets is …
Continue reading “Weird Collection of Worlds in the Latest Cache of CoRoT Expoplanets”
[/caption] Not all exoplanets are created equal, and new discoveries about the orbits of newly found extra solar planets could challenge the current theories of planet formation. The discoveries also suggest that systems with exoplanets of the type known as hot Jupiters are unlikely to contain Earth-like planets. “This is a real bomb we are …
[/caption] More details are emerging on the extrasolar planet that was discovered by the CoRoT satellite back in February. New information about this planet make it first in many respects: It is the smallest known exoplanet, it is the closest exoplanet yet to its host star, which also makes it the fastest; it orbits its …
Continue reading “Smallest Expoplanet Yet Has Rocky Surface”
Astronomers have divided the eight planets of our solar system into the inner planets and the outer planets. The 4 inner planets are the closest to the Sun, and the outer planets are the other four – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The outer planets are also called the Jovian planets or gas giants. Like …
Continue reading “What are The Outer Planets of the Solar System?”
It may be a while yet before astronomers agree on a standard model for planet formation around stars. Until recently, after all, Earthlings lacked reliable techniques for glimpsing much beyond our own solar system. Based on our own backyard, one prevailing theory is that rocky planets like Mercury, Earth and Mars form slowly, close to …
Continue reading “Stars Strip Atmospheres of Close-forming Planets”
[/caption] Our Sun is a star. It’s a vast ball made up of 74% hydrogen and 24% helium, with trace amounts of other elements. It has so much mass that the temperatures and pressures at its core are hot enough to ignite fusion. At the core of the Sun (and other stars), atoms of hydrogen …
[/caption] Jupiter has a rocky core that is more than twice as large as previously thought, according to computer calculations by a geophysicist who simulated conditions inside the planet on the scale of individual hydrogen and helium atoms. “Our simulations show there is a big rocky object in the center surrounded by an ice layer …