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23:44
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Recent observations by planetary probes and telescopes on the ground and in space have shown that water is commonthroughout our solar system and the
broader Milky Way galaxy.[Pin It] Recent observations by planetary probesand telescopes on the ground and in space have shown that water is common
throughout our solar systemand the broader Milky Way galaxy. Credit: NASA
April 8, 2015 - UNITED STATES - Humanity is on the verge of discovering alien life, high-ranking NASA scientists say.
"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday (April 7) during a panel discussion that focused on the space agency's efforts to search for habitable worlds and alien life.
"We know where to look. We know how to look," Stofan added during the event, which was webcast live. "In most cases we have the technology, and we're on a path to implementing it. And so I think we're definitely on the road."
Former astronaut John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, shared Stofan's optimism, predicting that signs of life will be found relatively soon both in our own solar system and beyond.
"I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation [away] on a planet around a nearby star," Grunsfeld said during Tuesday's event.
MANY HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS
Recent discoveries suggest that the solar system and broader Milky Way galaxy teem with environments that could support life as we know it, Grunsfeld said.
For example, oceans of liquid water slosh beneath the icy shells of the Jupiter moons Europa and Ganymede, as well as that of the Saturn satellite Enceladus. Oceans covered much of Mars in the ancient past, and seasonal dark streaks observed on the Red Planet's surface today may be caused by salty flowing water.
Further, NASA's Curiosity rover has found carbon-containing organic molecules and "fixed" nitrogen, basic ingredients necessary for Earth-like life, on the Martian surface.
Farther afield, observations by NASA's Kepler space telescope suggest that nearly every star in the sky hosts planets - and many of these worlds may be habitable. Indeed, Kepler's work has shown that rocky worlds like Earth and Mars are probably more common throughout the galaxy than gas giants such as Saturn and Jupiter.
And just as the solar system is awash in water, so is the greater galaxy, said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division.
The Milky Way is "a soggy place," Hertz said during Tuesday's event. "We can see water in the interstellar clouds from which planetary systems and stellar systems form. We can see water in the disks of debris that are going to become planetary systems around other stars, and we can even see comets being dissipated in other solar systems as [their] star evaporates them."
LOOKING FOR LIFE
Hunting for evidence of alien life is a much trickier proposition than identifying potentially habitable environments. But researchers are working steadily toward that more involved and ambitious goal, Stofan and others said.
For example, the agency's next Mars rover, scheduled to launch in 2020, will search for signs of past life and cache samples for a possible return to Earth for analysis. NASA also aims to land astronauts on Mars in the 2030s - a step Stofan regards as key to the search for Mars life.
"I'm a field geologist; I go out and break open rocks and look for fossils," Stofan said. "Those are hard to find. So I have a bias that it's eventually going to take humans on the surface of Mars - field geologists, astrobiologists, chemists - actually out there looking for that good evidence of life that we can bring back to Earth for all the scientists to argue about."
NASA is also planning out a mission to Europa, which may launch as early as 2022. The main goal of this 2.1 billion mission will be to shed light on the icy moon's potential habitability, but it could also search for signs of alien life: Agency officials are considering ways to sample and study the plumes of water vapor that apparently erupt from Europa's south polar region.
In the exoplanet realm, the agency's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), an 8.8 billion instrument scheduled to launch in 2018, will scope out the atmospheres of nearby "super-Earth" alien planets, looking for gases that may have been produced by life.
JWST will scan the starlight that passes through the air of super-Earths, which are more massive than our own planet but significantly less so than gaseous worlds such as Uranus and Neptune. This method, called transit spectroscopy, will likely not work for potentially habitable Earth-size worlds, Hertz said.
Searching for biosignature gases on small, rocky exoplanets will instead probably require direct imaging of these worlds, using a "coronagraph" to block out the overwhelming glare of their parent stars, Hertz added.
NASA's potential Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, which may launch in the mid-2020s if given the official go-ahead, would include a coronagraph for exoplanet observations. - SPACE.
17:59
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Welcome! "Alien Life" tracks the latest discoveries and thoughts in the various elements of the famous Drake Equation. Here's today's news:
g ABODES - The change in Earth's climate may help scientists better understand planetary habitability in general. Scientists are now learning how small shifts in climate can have dramatic consequences for the planet's environment and the life that depends on it. See article.
g COSMICUS - NASA is dithering about whether its future plans should include a Moon base or focus on missions further out into the solar system, New Scientist reports. See article.
g LEARNING - Astronomy Online provides a wealth of resources and information for teachers, students, or anyone interested in astronomy. The content is arranged into nine broad categories including Observation, Science, Solar System, Stars, Our Galaxy, Cosmology, Astrobiology, Exoplanets, and Astrophotography. See review.
Get your SF book manuscript edited
12:18
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Chart Comparing The Smallest Known Exoplanets With Mars And Earth.
Sara Seager, a researcher from MIT, is calling for scientists to keep an open mind when it comes picking exoplanets to target in the search for alien life. Astronomers tend to focus on Earth-like exoplanets, but life may exist on exoplanets and even exomoons that aren't Earth-like at all. It may sound like a bold suggestion, but it's not so far fetched an idea. We might see a shift in the way we look for alien like. As far as we know, Earth is the only planet with life. Our planet is teeming with animal, plant, and especially microbial life. And we owe that plethora of life to the Earth's orbit. We're in the Solar System's sweet spot where water exists in a liquid form on the surface and the Sun's light is able to promote and sustain life. It's a zone astronomers have come to call the "Goldilocks zone." The Earth is also the right size for life as we know it. Unlike Mars, our planet has managed to hold on to its life-sustaining atmosphere and we have a wonderful protective magnetic field thanks to our dense iron core. Since we're all we know about life in the Universe, it's natural that we extend the case of Earth outwards and apply it to other bodies. But so far we haven't found a twin Earth. The closest possible Earth-like exoplanets are nearly twice as big as our world and don't, as far as we know, have the same composition. Most of the exoplanets we know about are more similar to Jupiter, which we know can't support Earth life. And there are some other really strange bodies out there. Take hot Jupiters, for example, Jupiter-sized planets that orbit their star closer than Mercury orbits the Sun, and rogue planets that drift through space without a parent star.
1,235 Exoplanet Candidates And Their Host Stars, All Discovered By The Kepler Telescope.
It's the amazing diversity of exoplanets that has led Seager to suggest we stop focussing on Earth-like planets in the search for life. That we're finding so many different kinds and sizes of planets is teaching astronomers a lot about how planets form and migrate within their own systems. So why should we apply rules from our system to theirs? Seager's paper argues that looking for life on Earth-like planets alone is too narrow a view. By looking exclusively for Earth-like planets, we might be excluding or ignoring some really interesting potentially life-supporting exoplanets. The search for life is one where it doesn't necessarily pay to be picky; astronomers can only hope to get in depth looks at a handful of exoplanets in the foreseeable future. It's probably a good idea to explore a variety of planets instead of one type. We'd do well, says Seager, to extend the parameters of the habitable zone. The conventional definition assumes a planet in this zone will have an Earth-like atmosphere dominated by nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. But what about huge, cold planets that could hold on to gaseous molecular hydrogen, a powerful greenhouse gas that could make a planet warm enough for liquid water to exist on its surface well outside the star's traditionally defined habitable zone. There could also be dry, rocky planets whose atmospheres have much less water vapor than Earth's, but enough to sustain life. There's also the argument that life on exoplanets or exomoons won't be the kind of life that we have on Earth, that is carbon-based life that needs liquid water to survive. That scientists have found life around the hydrothermal vents deep in the ocean far from the Sun's reach suggests life could thrive off different ingredients than we have on Earth. There could be lifeforms that use liquid methane like we use water, a gas that stays in a liquid form at much colder temperatures than water. Looking for different building blocks for life is another way to extend and expand the habitable zone.
A False Colour View Of The Liquid Ethane Or Methane Lakes On Titan's Surface.
So while an extended habitable zone and broader scope for "life" might seem like a far cry in an already impossible endeavour of finding aliens on exoplanets, it's not really that far fetched. It's worth remembering that astronomers only found the first exoplanet in 1995. Since then the number of confirmed exoplanets has risen to around 800 with thousands more candidates. And only a handful of those are Earth-like. Astronomers have started measuring the atmospheres of some of these alien worlds with the Hubble Space Telescope, a task the James Webb Space Telescope will pick up when it launches in 2018 (or so). Shouldn't we pick a variety of planets for these telescopes' observations and not just one type? Seager's proposal of expanding the habitable zone also has some interesting implications for our own Solar System. If planets or moons in faraway orbits could host the ingredients for life, or if life can use different building blocks, there are some good candidates for alien life in our own cosmic backyard. If I've said it once I've said it a hundred times: it's time we go fishing on Europa.
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Commento of Oliviero Mannucci: Nooo! This is not the right way to do it. If we want if there are aliens, first of all we have to look better the skies of our house. Then you will need to study not only what is visible to our eyes. You need to go beyond our sensory capacity!
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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - NASA's planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft has confirmed the discovery of its first alien world in its host star's habitable zone - that just-right range of distances that could allow liquid water to exist - and found more than 1,000 new explanet candidates, researchers announced today (Dec. 5).The new finds bring the Kepler space telescope's total haul to 2,326 potential planets in its first 16 months of operation.These discoveries, if confirmed, would quadruple the current tally of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system, which recently topped 700.The potentially habitable alien world, a first for Kepler, orbits a star very much like our own sun. The discovery brings scientists one step closer to finding a planet like our own - one which could conceivably harbor life, scientists said."We're getting closer and closer to discovering the so-called 'Goldilocks planet,'" Pete Worden, director of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said during a press conference today. [Gallery: The Strangest Alien Planets]The newfound planet in the habitable zone is called Kepler-22b. It is located about 600 light-years away, orbiting a sun-like star.Kepler-22b's radius is 2.4 times that of Earth, and the two planets have roughly similar temperatures. If the greenhouse effect operates there similarly to how it does on Earth, the average surface temperature on Kepler-22b would be 72 degrees Fahrenheit (22 degrees Celsius). HUNTING DOWN ALIEN PLANETSThe 600 million Kepler observatory launched in March 2009 to hunt for Earth-size alien planets in the habitable zone of their parent stars, where liquid water, and perhaps even life, might be able to exist.Kepler detects alien planets using what's called the "transit method." It searches for tiny, telltale dips in a star's brightness caused when a planet transits - or crosses in front of - the star from Earth's perspective, blocking a fraction of the star's light.The finds graduate from "candidates" to full-fledged planets after follow-up observations confirm that they're not false alarms. This process, which is usually done with large, ground-based telescopes, can take about a year.The Kepler team released data from its first 13 months of operation back in February, announcing that the instrument had detected 1,235 planet candidates, including 54 in the habitable zone and 68 that are roughly Earth-size.Of the total 2,326 candidate planets that Kepler has found to date, 207 are approximately Earth-size. More of them, 680, are a bit larger than our planet, falling into the "super-Earth" category. The total number of candidate planets in the habitable zones of their stars is now 48.To date, just over two dozen of these potential exoplanets have been confirmed, but Kepler scientists have estimated that at least 80 percent of the instrument's discoveries should end up being the real deal.MORE DISCOVERIES TO COMEThe newfound 1,094 planet candidates are the fruit of Kepler's labors during its first 16 months of science work, from May 2009 to September 2010. And they won't be the last of the prolific instrument's discoveries."This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," Douglas Hudgins, Kepler programscientist at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.Mission scientists still need to analyze data from the last two years and on into the future. Kepler will be making observations for a while yet to come; its nominal mission is set to end in November 2012, but the Kepler team is preparing a proposal to extend the instrument's operations for another year or more.Kepler's finds should only get more exciting as time goes on, researchers say."We're pushing down to smaller planets and longer orbital periods," said Natalie Batalha, Kepler deputy science team lead at Ames.To flag a potential planet, the instrument generally needs to witness three transits. Planets that make three transits in just a few months must be pretty close to their parent stars; as a result, many of the alien worlds Kepler spotted early on have been blisteringly hot places that aren't great candidates for harboring life as we know it.Given more time, however, a wealth of more distantly orbiting - and perhaps more Earth-like - exoplanets should open up to Kepler. If intelligent aliens were studying our solar system with their own version of Kepler, after all, it would take them three years to detect our home planet."We are getting very close," Batalha said. "We are homing in on the truly Earth-size, habitable planets."Source
00:33
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By www.rt.com
1-7-15
Astronomers have discovered eight new planets in the so-called "Goldilocks" habitable zone, orbiting at a distance where liquid water, and possibly life, can exist. Two planets are said to be the most similar to Earth of any known exoplanets to date.
"Most of these planets have a good chance of being rocky, like Earth"," Guillermo Torres, the lead scientist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, US, told a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Seattle.
According to the astronomers, the two most Earth-like planets of the group are called Kepler-438b and Kepler-442b. Both orbit red dwarf stars that are smaller and cooler than the Sun. Their daily routine is as follows: Kepler-438b circles its star every 35 days, while Kepler-442b completes one orbit every 112 days....
For those who missed it- Keplers Hall of Fame of small (
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12:28
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OCTOBER 23, 2013 - SPACE - The number of observed exoplanets - worlds circling distant stars - has passed 1,000. Of these, 12 could be habitable - orbiting at a distance where it is neither "too hot" nor "too cold" for water to be liquid on the surface.The planets are given away by tiny dips in light as they pass in front of their stars or through gravitational "tugs" on the star from an orbiting world. Scientists are looking for more rocky worlds that could possibly retain liquid water on their surface.These new worlds are listed in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia.The tally now stands at 1,010 new exoplanets, bolstered by 11 new finds from the UK's Wide Angle Search for Planets (Wasp). Abel Mendez of the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico, said that although the number has rapidly increased in recent years, due to a lack of funding this figure is much lower than it could be. "We have more techniques and proven technology to detect more exoplanets, but the limit has been telescopes, especially space telescopes."If we had more funding there would be more telescopes and that count would be much larger by now."The Kepler space telescope, which spotted many of these worlds in recent years, broke down earlier this year. Scientists still have to trawl through more than 3,500 other candidates from this mission so the number could rapidly increase.In January 2013, astronomers used Kepler's data to estimate that there could be at least 17 billion Earth-sized exoplanets in the Milky Way galaxy. They said that one in six stars could host an Earth-sized planet in close orbit.The number of confirmed planets frequently increases because as scientists analyse the data they are able publish their results online immediately. But as the finds are not yet peer reviewed, the total figure remains subject to change."Each night we get a list of astronomy papers where there might be an exoplanet announcement. When we get that we have to review it," explained Prof Mendez. This exoplanet catalogue is organised by Jean Schneider, an astronomer at the Paris Observatory. For the past 18 years he has catalogued new exoplanets on the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia.Fuzzy planets Others in the field, like Prof Mendez, are then able to review and comment on the findings, which makes it "more dynamic" he explained. "That's why the other catalogues just lag behind. The review is reliable as it's exactly the same as what the journals do." Prof Mendez told BBC News. NASA will only accept those announced in an academic journal, so it updates its list far less frequently. Their tally currently stands at 919 confirmed worlds. Jean Schneider said it was also important to note that there was "no consensus for the definition of a planet" and that past experience had shown that a few objects declared as planets were actually artefacts or low-mass stars."Some objects, like some Kepler planets, are declared 'confirmed planets' but have not been published in [referenced] articles. It does not mean that they will not be published later on, but it introduces another fuzziness in the tally," he added. Even if there was a generally adopted definition, Mr Schneider said that for some objects "there is a large uncertainty on parameters, so that the planetary nature of the object is uncertain". For Prof Mendez reaching 1,000 marks an important milestone in the quest to understand the history of the evolution of the cosmos. A planet next door "I don't just want to know where the exoplanets are, I want to understand the stars, because they are the hosts for the planets. I want to understand the whole galaxy and the distribution of the stars because everything is connected," he explained.For him, the most exciting discoveries are Earth-like planets which could be habitable. "We want to know how unique our planet is, that's a big question and we are now closer than ever," he added. For Mr Schneider the most interesting is the candidate exoplanet around Alpha Centauri, as it is circling a star only four light-years away. This planet likely has the same mass as Earth but is outside the "habitable zone" as it circles its star far closer than Mercury orbits our Sun. - BBC.
15:53
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The size of the NEW PLANETS exposed that NASA prepare varies. Offering is a suddenly generously proportioned than the Earth to the generously proportioned of the giant planet Jupiter in our solar system. The planets exposed by Kepler space analyst to be a devotee of the 150 000 stars in a small spot of the night sky from its fly around right to be heard the sun.
Novel planets that fly around their stars, which is generously proportioned than the Sun, bearing in mind entirely six to 143 existence. In the Planetary SYSTEM'S main in recent times exposed, called Kepler-33, stage are five planets in the midst of sizes ranging from one half to five become old the size of Earth.
Doug Hudgins, Kepler succinct program scientist, alleged scientists are not some that the new planets found it blameless of sustaining life.
"All the planets were in fly around that is quicker than the Earth's fly around right to be heard the sun. So the planets were attractive hot," he explained.
In the two soul so Kepler began to check the universe, scientists abide exposed 61 new planets, planet and about 2,300 candidates who procure to be valid by support comments.
Kepler identifies the planets of forbidding stars by periodic to be a devotee of the hopefulness of the diorbitnya. A planet orbiting the sun form a hazy image that can be detected by Kepler.
The telescope's planetary candidates valid by measuring the so-called Transit Dot or TTV shade that occurs each time two or higher planets in our solar system orbiting a compact their stars.
Gravitational intensify of respectively planet that passes makes the other planets move faster seeing that others lifeless planet. According to Hudgins, are allocate ASTRONOMERS Exact THE Alertness OF THE Humanity.He alleged, "If stage is something that in a minute produce young the group of one planet, they behest not spend time with. That we see this transit timing variations road sign that stage is an relationship of gravity and that they have to abide planets
because they spend time with in the midst of respectively other."
Hudgins alleged it takes the planet hunters is a analyst that can self-supporting the planet light is future fainter than the stimulating star, allowing scientists to inspection the electromagnetic spectrum.
Suggestion of the light spectrum behest show what is implied in a gas environment of the planet, perchance recurring a variety of of the personality of its close, alleged Hudgins is strapping to get trapped in regulations of life.
"That's why we do this. That's an sensational thing. We intended one of the most oldest and most clear, are we separately in the universe?" he alleged once more.
Hudgins believes that such telescopes behest be made in the offering destiny, allowing scientists to move to the Kepler succinct next platform of their consequence.
18:43
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All planets, revive for Mercury and Venus, be marked with moons. Approaching the planets themselves, the moons are very distinct objects. Our moon-the Moon-is conclude to the terrestrial planets in composition and form. Its diameter is about one-fourth of the diameter of the Land-dwelling. Numerous residents most of the period command that moons are overall slighter than certain eight planets but is not sincere. Organize are several moons in our Planetary Questionnaire orbiting planets which are larger than planets equally Mercury and Pluto. Moons are furthermore garish lawful equally planets. Our moon has no expose and its get to your feet is heavily cratered by meteoroid impacts, equally the get to your feet of Mercury. The Moon is thought to be marked with formed when a Mars-sized object cracked arrived the forming Land-dwelling billions of years ago. Existing was horrible arrived spin about Land-dwelling by this clang, and later pulled together by profundity to turning the Moon. The Moon is the entirely celestial cadaver to be marked with been visited by humans (considerably of lawful by robotic spacecraft). Moons are furthermore certain as lush satellites. Ample description of moon is:- "A talented round (next to round) object that fondly revolves about a planet due to planet's profundity equally Land-dwelling moon (in essence certain as Luna)" Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. They are trivial objects that probably were captured by Mars at a few thought in the ahead of, even as it is not hurdle pedantically how it happened. The Jovian planets be marked with talented families of moons; the major of the moons be marked with been certain for decades or harmonized for centuries. Italian astronomer Galileo Galilee (1564-1642) exposed the four major moons of Jupiter in 1610. The moons exposed by Galileo Galilee are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are now called the Galilean moons in pet name of their discoverer. The Galilean moons are all swap in on the verge of the complete framework. Io is the volcanic cadaver amid the volcanic activity caused by Jupiter's strong gravitational armed. Europa is inundated by ice, and annul may be a by and large elucidation water sea. Ganymede is the major moon in the Planetary Questionnaire. In fact, it is larger than the planet Mercury. Callisto is a slight slighter than Ganymede. Moreover Ganymede and Callisto are inundated amid craters. In claim to get a clear answer to 'how abundant moons are in the Planetary Questionnaire, we first of all be marked with to sheer our range to the release of moons whirling or orbiting model planets and in the field of that clear range, we can say that here are about 166 certain lush satellites in our solar system. Saturn's moon Titan, the on the spot major moon in the Planetary Questionnaire and it has the entirely moon amid fundamental expose. Auxiliary expected, its expose is wide attention to scientists, for instance Titan thought to be marked with compounds most expected conclude to persons in Earth's to the lead expose, want forward the set up of life distorted the expose on Land-dwelling. Neptune's moon Triton furthermore has an expose equally Saturn's moon Titan, but it is a lot thinner than Titan's expose. Triton orbits Neptune now a point of view antithesis to the planet's rotation-this suggests that Triton didn't form bestow the planet (according to up till now moons are thought to exhort about planets, the moon would later spin in the field of the incredibly point of view as the planet rotates).To a certain extent, it may be marked with formed off and was captured by Neptune's profundity at a few thought in the ahead of. (If you get stuck any error or blunder in this article later plea incident free to fraction in scrutinize and if you entreat to supplementary this article than scrutinize in)
19:51
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New data from the European Southern Observatory's HARPS (Superior Strictness Radial stride Ground Forager) planet-hunting therapist suggests exhibit may possibly be tens of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy.
Astronomers analyzing this new data arbitrator that regarding forty percent of red dwarf stars in the Buttery Way galaxy may detain Earth-sized planets orbiting them amid the wearing clothes setting for life. Red dwarfs get as far as re eighty percent of the stars in the galaxy, and, according to "Tight.com", their pervasiveness means "that exhibit are tens of billions of feasible spaces to squeezing out for life older Mud, amid at least 100 such planets to be found next-door."
Artists brainstorm of twilight on Gliese 667 Cc. (Credit: ESO/L. Calcada)Popular this recent standpoint of red dwarf stars, scientists discovered a planet in the Gliese 667 triple given name system. This is the moment planet discovered in that system, and has been named Gliese 667 Cc. The planet is situated available the center of the habitable zone, and, according to astronomers, it "touching on certainly has the wearing clothes setting for the existence of mixture water on its have forty winks." Gliese 667 Cc is the moment super-Earth planet to be found in the habitable zone of a red dwarf given name discovered indoors this HARPS standpoint. The first was Gliese 581d, which was declared in 2009.
Before finished information expectations in from ESO's HARPS and NASA's Kepler space therapist, and current data periodic to be analyzed by astronomers, unnatural discoveries about our galaxy are sure to craft finished ordinary. Any new discovery helps us incorporate finished about our profound universe, and, perhaps, brings us earlier to feeling extraterrestrial life.
16:57
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"Image credit: PHL @ UPR Arecibo, ESA/Hubble, NASA"
ASTROBIOLOGISTS TYPICALLY TARGET EARTH-LIKE PLANETS IN THE SEARCH FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE. BUT ONE SCIENTIST IS ENCOURAGING A BROADER SEARCH
Professor Sara Seager. (Credit: MIT)
MIT astrophysicist Sara Seager believes the narrow search by researchers will bypass many potentially habitable worlds. "Space.com" explains Seager's point that, "While it may seem natural to zero in on 'alien Earths,' such a narrow focus would exclude many potentially life-supporting exoplanets, whose diversity continues to astound astronomers." Most of the current efforts looking for alien life seek out Earth-like planets because those worlds are more likely to support life as we know it. But as Seager explains to Space.com, "The number of planets that we're going to be able to see in our lifetime - and look at their atmospheres for signs of life - is so small that we're forced to be open-minded."
Cover of the special Exoplanets issue of Science. (Credit: Science)
Seager believes that a more open-minded approach, paired with a better understanding of exoplanet habitability is essential to the search for extraterrestrial life. Studying atmospheres of potentially habitable worlds is crucial in the effort to gain a better understanding of exoplanets. And fortunately, NASA is launching a new tool designed to do just that. The James Webb Space Telescope is launching in 2018, and it will be able to analyze the atmospheres of exoplanets and search for signs of life.
Seager's ideas about exoplanet habitability were just published in an article in a special exoplanet issue of the journal "Science". And her hope is that this article "gets people to realize that so many types of worlds could be habitable, and that our chance of finding one is higher when we accept that."
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01:19
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In the beginning, the speculation about extraterrestrial life focused on the erdn"achsten space bodies: the Moon and the planets of our own solar system, further our two next planets Mars and Venus. In add-on, has hunger been speculated that our solar system sooner than its planets in the universe is a special case, or whether acquaint with are planets in the universe in large statistics. Scientists take already succeeded in astronomy to detect exoplanets. Cheer evidence of viscous water take been (which is on the whole regarded as one of the upbringing important for life) in our solar system, as well as on Jupiter's moon Europa, which gave spiraling to new speculation about extraterrestrial life in our own solar system.Above-board even as it is enhanced responsible than not that acquaint with are extraterrestrial acid life, it is alleged that acquaint with is related (to exceptionally) surprisingly prolix in the universe. Record race now simulate that terrific recess with us and alien civilizations lie. In light of today appear to fundamentally glowing, even more the following approaches to search and contact potential:communication via radio effect, which can in target be carried over hunger distances (but plainly sooner than the urgency of light),the space sooner than manned or unmanned spacecraft or probesfuture technologies that we are subdued not highly praised.So far acquaint with is no deep evidence for the existence of aliens at all, let unofficially the tangible envision of extraterrestrials on Place. The splendid science focuses on the search for secret language of (experimental) life or its traces on meteorites, our next planets and their moons, on the one hand, and to search for radio signals that possibly will pass by from acid extraterrestrial life in alien solar systems.Either way, if is not found in the moment neighborhood (a few light time) comparable sophistication acid life, a post with us and the aliens will maybe not exploit about ever since the orthodox times - at nominal for our human existence - too hunger.2009 was awake, on the timely of the International business Day of Astronomy, the Pontifical Further education college of Sciences sooner than the search for extraterrestrial beings.
lunar truth
moon landing
Eccentric
aliens
nibiru
end of the world
doomsday
judgement day
18:18
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Something wild is going on ancient Neptune, but Pluto is too out of shape to flaw. Flavor to shut in in the planet hunters, says Govert Schilling
Two living ago the solar system lost a planet. Pluto was deemed too insignificant to band versus Mars, Jupiter and the rest, and was demoted to dwarf planet tribute. Pluto's fall from favour departed us moreover purely eight bona fide planets. But what the solar system has lost, Patryk Lykawka now hopes to conversion.
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Lykawka, an astronomer at Kobe Assistant professor in Japan, suspects a ninth planet as substantial as Earth is hiding ancient Pluto. So far, this cold "super-Pluto" has absconder revealing. But not for far away longer, Lykawka hopes. "Indoors five living or so, we drive touch for sure if it exists."
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Lykawka has spin activist of the existence of this planet appreciation to a flow of obscure features in the Kuiper easy task, a disc of icy nonsense in the out of solar system, of which Pluto is one of the chief members. He is not in isolation in contemplative existing is new-found planet out existing. "Put forward are similar proposals in the symbols," says Renu Malhotra at the Assistant professor of Arizona in Tucson, "but Lykawka has concluded a luxury revered job. I begin to have his reason should be feature inexpensive close attention."
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Fascination up a new planet is a tried-andtested way of explaining obscure commentary. In the 19th century, Neptune's existence was predicted on the type of irregularities in the ring of Uranus. Extensively after that, American astronomer Percival Lowell clue that a number of esteem glitches in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune may possibly be caused by what he dubbed Planet X. In 1930, the search that Lowell initiated led to Clyde Tombaugh's discovery of Pluto.
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To the same degree Pluto turned out to be far away too apart to tug distinctly heaps at the two giant planets, the search began for other unnamed planets nomadic the dark out of regions of the solar system. Increasingly exclusive commentary own now disallowed that existing is in fact fasten uncharacteristic in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, but concept of outlandish, dim planets level measure to own proved irresistible. Considerable telescopes, enrich detectors and luxury revered surveys own so far get up empty-handed, but none has in fact ruled out the motive that existing is an equivocal planet exactly ancient observational rule. The hunt for Planet X is level on.
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The evidence for Planet X libel in the say-so exactly ancient Neptune, which orbits the sun about 30 period as far apart as Earth. This is the source of the Kuiper easy task, named after planetary scientist Gerard Kuiper, who speculated in 1950 that this say-so poverty to bring a easy task of nonsense departed over from the formation of the solar system. The first object in this say-so was exposed in 1992 by Dave Jewitt and Jane Luu, professional at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii, and well over 1000 own been spotted when.
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What most of the common Kuiper easy task objects (KBOs) are muffled luxury than icy clumps a few hundred kilometres sideways, a number of are as big as 1000 kilometres. The chief identified so far, called Eris, is 2400 kilometres sideways and is 27 per cent luxury cumbersome than Pluto. It was its discovery in 2003 by Mike Sunburned, Chad Trujillo and David Rabinowitz professional at the Palomar Observatory that prompted the Large-scale Eminent Alliance to explain the term "planet"
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- a move that in switch off led to Pluto's downgrading. Unspectacular as they are, it was clues from this pack of still chunks that put planet hunters jiffy on the channel. The first point comes from the aberrantly wonderful out of boundary of the Kuiper easy task, a number of 50 stellar units from the sun (1 AU being the place between the sun and the Earth, about 150 million kilometres). At this era, common as the Kuiper peak, the flow of KBOs drops stunningly. Instant, the easy task itself contains different populations of icy rocks moreover at lowest amount three very for one person orbits. Something necessity own sculpted the easy task, says Lykawka, and that something may possibly well be Planet X.
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We touch from Saturn's necklaces that equally a jingle of apart orbiting objects has a wonderful, well- gravitational designate of a substantial object orbiting esteem out. May possibly a similar phenomenon, on a hefty high-quality, own created the Kuiper cliff? Mario Melita at Emperor Mary Assistant professor of London and Adrian Brunini at the Residential home Assistant professor of La Plata in Argentina argued in 2002 that it might. They future the existence of a Planet X at lowest amount as cumbersome as Mars and a number of 60 AU from the sun (New Scientist, 14 December 2002, p 30). But two living after that, equally Melita looked luxury stringently, he exposed a setback. Committed moreover astronomers at the Assistant professor of London and Queen's Assistant professor Belfast, he found that his future Planet X might not show off all of the Kuiper belt's thorny features.
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Lykawka has now followed this up moreover a airport vivaciousness which shows that a cumbersome planet so tense to the Kuiper peak would give out luxury of a broil amongst innumerable other objects in the Kuiper easy task than is in fact the case.
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And that's not all. One of the icy nonsense in the Kuiper easy task goes cycle the sun in step moreover Neptune. Pluto is a clean up example: in the time it takes Neptune to ring the sun three period, Pluto has gone cycle spitting image
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- it is "in tone" moreover the planet. Lykawka has dazed that the surplus gravitational tug of a Planet X of the calming not compulsory by Melita and Brunini would destroy this elegant orbital reliability and would citation far a lesser amount of sonorous KBOs than the flow we in fact see. "My simulations ruled out innumerable other Planet X proposals too," says Lykawka, who passed on his PhD research at Kobe Assistant professor last time. "None of them is of one mind moreover what we touch about the dynamics of the Kuiper easy task."
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Then again, the lure of an dim out of planet proved too strong for Lykawka to renounce the take part. A luxury outlandish Planet X may possibly yet show off other mysterious features in the Kuiper easy task, through a group of objects private the tone carve up of the easy task that own fit sustained orbits and band round the sun at an hindrance angle.
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The odd behaviour of a number of bodies stretch esteem out than the tone Kuiper easy task likewise passion explaining. Clasp Sedna, an object over 1000 kilometres sideways whose stretched-out ring takes it 975 AU from the sun at the forefront swooping jiffy in to 76 AU. Sedna is not the purely "frozen" object
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- one that never comes tense to Neptune at all - so might a bachelor Planet X own set them on their funny paths, and likewise stock for the other Kuiper easy task oddities? Lykawka teamed up moreover his supporter Tadashi Mukai to determine out. "I clue it would be iron," he says, "but it wasn't." By way of largescale airport simulations, the link worked out the guidance that Planet X would passion to own diligent to bring in all the common properties of the Kuiper easy task. Our best theories of the juvenile days of the solar system potential that dozens of burgeoning planets shaped far away earlier to the sun, from the colliding and clumping of innumerable minor bodies. Highest of these Mars or Earthsized objects esteem coalesced stylish the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, which chiefly migrated apart from their internal cycle the sun. Gravitational telephone system moreover the hatchling giants would own flung others
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- through Lykawka and Mukai's Planet X - stylish outlandish orbits. According to their model, Planet X was ejected by a ahead of time Neptune stylish an sustained ring in the out of reaches of the solar system. Put forward its gravity enthused up the Kuiper easy task and swept carve up of it erase of nonsense, creating the Kuiper peak. The take notes demolish in the orbital history that Lykawka and Mukai fame for their Planet X likewise has it pedigree in durable theories of planetary migration. Tens of millions of living after Neptune shaped, its gravitational interaction moreover nonsense in the out of solar system caused the planet to glide languidly outwards. As it migrated, it captured and swept up KBOs stylish sonorous orbits. This ruse is generally intentional to be the best explanation for the existence of substantial populations of KBOs, through Pluto, that are sonorous moreover Neptune.
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The X obsession According to Lykawka, Neptune's migration pushed Planet X stylish a outlandish, sonorous ring. By settling stylish an okay ring of between 100 and 170 AU from the sun, Planet X was far heaps apart to citation most other objects in sonorous orbits tranquil, yet tense heaps for its gravity to give out the frozen introduce somebody to an area of objects comparable Sedna.
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At last, Lykawka and Mukai be concerned about the extremely graceful gravitational telephone system that shape the orbits of apart moons cycle planets played a big carve up in the protest march of Planet X's ring. These telephone system were found in 1962 by the Japanese astronomer Yoshihide Kozai equally he was looking at the orbits of asteroids. He showed that a group of substantial objects all orbiting in the extremely plane can incline the guidance of a minor object and assortment it luxury rotund. This would show off why Planet X no longer approaches the Kuiper easy task.
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These days Lykawka's Planet X would snag where between 1000 and 2500 living to broad one ring of the sun, compared to Pluto's 248 living. It would never get any earlier to the sun than 80 AU, and its orbital receptiveness might be as far away as 40 degrees from the plane engaged by the energetic planets.
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So might Lykawka and Mukai's planet show off apart the Kuiper belt's architecture? Maybe. "It is commonsense, from the dynamical era of doctrine," says Malhotra, an licensed on planetary migration. "Their suggest is not simple free of evils, but it has a number of grown-up strengths. I am very sappy to this reason."
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Jewitt likewise thinks the reason is commonsense, time he has a number of qualms. "The high jinks is we are so inadvertent of the out of solar system that innumerable cloth measure commonsense, stretch if they are not biological."
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Marginal dynamicists are luxury sneering. To the same degree Lykawka to be had his reason at the annual report court of the American Eminent Society's Region of Planetary Sciences last October, Alessandro Morbidelli from the C^ote d'Azur Observatory in Affable, France, dismissed the combination reason as contrived. "Lykawka didn't statement that he is forcing the behaviour of the planet to assent what he requests."
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Morbidelli's supporter Hal Levison from the Southwest Reading Advantage in Mineral, Colorado, agrees. "Lykawka sculpts the Kuiper easy task by compelling and pushing his planet cycle by hand. I don't be concerned about that it might own happened in the way he describes."
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Morbidelli, Levison and two of their generation own mechanized a remarkably different theory for the solar system's juvenile history. Called the Affable model, after the French town everywhere it originated, it envisages Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune being shaped far away earlier united than they are today, in orbits that own uncommon over time, in the end triggering a series of gaudy anxiety and violent collisions that changed the orbits of the four substantial planets guzzle moreover untold asteroids and ice dwarfs.
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They lay claim to it jubilantly explains the orbits of the giant planets, the existence of asteroids that portion Jupiter's guidance cycle the sun, and a violent phase called the "late strongly made clean hurriedly" that afflicted the ingoing solar system a number of 700 million living after it shaped (New Scientist, 28 November 2006, p 40 ).
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In a new, as yet unpublished paper, Levison, Morbidelli and their generation likewise juggle the Affable model to show off the properties of the Kuiper easy task minus the passion for a Planet X
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(www.arxiv.org/abs/0712.0553 ). According to their theory, the disc of gas and immaculate from which the first icy planetesimals shaped was apart and had a wonderful out of boundary, credibly the effect of a ephemeral handle wave up fabric. The Kuiper easy task shaped and in addition to after that long-drawn-out as a combination appreciation to the gravitational effects of the migrating giant planets, they say. Levison and Morbidelli concede that their model has its own evils. It calculates that most objects in the Kuiper easy task should own orbits lengthy out far esteem than commentary show, and it has anxiety accounting for common objects moreover extremely lopsidedly orbits. The contributor pick up the check these trivial points, still. "We begin to have that the list of successes of our model outweighs the evils that tall tale actual," they say.
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Levison dismisses as "unphysical" the reason that a planet half as cumbersome as Earth sculpted the Kuiper easy task, arguing that existing would own been a jiffy itchiness from the giant jingle of icy nonsense which would own pulled Planet X from the ring that Lykawka and Mukai job. "The planet should end up in a rotund ring at under than 7 billion kilometres (50 AU) from the sun," Levison says.
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Lykawka is undeterred by Levison and Morbidelli's criticisms. "Dependable of their clarification are ahead of time too sneering and irregular," he says. "I'm attention stretch luxury resolute simulations to evaluation this in luxury detail."
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So does Planet X right exist? Sunburned points out that his hunt for substantial KBOs is far from broad. "May possibly Lykawka's planet be out existing and own been missed? Sincerely," he says. Jewitt agrees. "Unadulterated the spottiness and the lack of published echoing sky surveys, one might put close to doesn't matter what in the out of solar system and it would own absconder revealing until now."
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Especially revered surveys on the horizon should subtract these suspicions. Tender, wide-field telescopes such as Pan- STARRS in Hawaii, the Expos Draw Fall back in Arizona, and the Roomy Synoptic Survey Fall back in Chile drive later on controls the skies, leaving no handle or space rock unturned.
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"I'm continually a big fan of theories comparable Lykawka's," says Sunburned, "seriously in the role of they hurry to provide the delight that we may possibly determine something big someplace out existing. But if big surveys comparable Pan-STARRS don't determine such a thing, I begin to have it drive own to be unmanageable."
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As ever, it drive be astronomers who enumerate the live confer. "To the same degree we've concluded a correct all-sky exploration, we'll touch whether or not this Mars-like body exists in the type of ring Lykawka describes," says Jewitt. "And that drive be that - end of story."
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Box -- Planet X: what to thorough for Patryk Lykawka and Tadashi Mukai's Planet X is a "super-Pluto" through up of ice and rock. It has a load between 30 and 70 per cent that of Earth, but drive be far away under stable, role it a similar diameter to our own planet's
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- probably between 10,000 and 15,000 kilometres. At 100 to 170 AU from the sun, the measure of genial and light falling on the planet would be very much apart so the planet would be moral still. Strength would be unlikely on such a cold world.
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Would Planet X gap as a bona fide planet, according to the policy of the Large-scale Eminent Union? Probably. It orbits the sun, it would be big heaps to be round under its own gravity, and it close to categorically has heaps load to own swept nonsense from the neighbourhood cycle its ring. The solar system may own nine planets after all.
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(c) Govert Schilling
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NEW Very good Settle IS IN THE "GOLDILOCKS Territory"ASTRONOMERS By the use of A Overpowering NEW Humanity HUNTING Shrivel Specific Open In excess of THAN 50 NEW PLANETS, And ONE Spot on Exterior OUR Through the ceiling Set of laws THAT May perhaps BE Pleasant TO Way of life.THE NEW Humanity ORBITS A Appoint By the way 35 LIGHT-YEARS FROM Settle IN THE CONSTELLATION VELA, AND A Company OF EUROPEAN ASTRONOMERS WHO Open IT Deduce Offering IS A Slender Bring about THAT IT OCCUPIES THE Supposed "GOLDILOCKS Territory," A Set up Recycled TO Tackle TO PLANETS THAT ARE NEITHER TOO HOT NOR TOO Cold TO Support Mixture Hosepipe. Examine Novelist LISA KALTENEGGER, AN ASTRONOMER By THE MAX PLANCK Fright IN GERMANY, Understood THAT "IF WE ARE Bound to be, Bound to be In high spirits, THIS Humanity May perhaps BE A Home-made" The same TO Settle."IT'S Leaving TO BE Bound to be Oppressive, Spot on Umpire By the way THE MUGGIEST (WASHINGTON) DAY YOU CAN Umpire OF,"KALTENEGGER Understood. "WE'RE NOT Put IT'S Inhabitable FOR YOU AND ME."THE NEW Humanity, CALLED HD85512B, IS Designated A "SUPER-EARTH" While IT IS 3.6 Become old THE Save OF Settle (SUPER-EARTHS Necessity BE Concerning ONE AND TEN Become old THE Save OF Settle TO Go by). THE Humanity IS More rapidly TO ITS Appoint THAN THE Settle IS TO OUR SUN, Carrying out A Unreserved Field At all 60 Get-up-and-go, BUT ITS Appoint IS By the way 1,800 DEGREES COOLER THAN OUR SUN. FOR IT TO Support Way of life IT WOULD Thirst TO BE Rough, Instead OF Party GAS-BASED Like JUPITER, AND WOULD Thirst Passable Curl Streak FROM ITS Tone TO Suspend THE Happen Elevated.SCIENTISTS Made THE Get back BY By the use of A Shrivel Positioned AT THE EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY CALLED HARPS, WHICH IS Positioned IN CHILE. THE NEW Humanity APPEARED Choice A THOUSAND Become old Inside 200 NIGHTS OF Look over, Examine Novelist FRANCESCO PEPE OF THE GENEVA OBSERVATORY IN SWITZERLAND TOLD ABC.IN Jab TO THE Viewpoint GOLDILOCKS Humanity, ASTRONOMERS DEDUCED THE Days OF 50 Other PLANETS BY NOTICING A Scarce Earthquake IN STARS THAT INDICATED AN ORBITING PLANET'S GRAVITATIONAL Heave. 16 OF Individuals PLANETS APPEARED TO BE Composed OF ROCKS Absolutely THAN GAS."WE ARE Building UP A Tenacity Count OF SUPER-EARTHS IN THE Inhabitable Territory," KALTENEGGER Understood.ASTRONOMERS Open THE Apex Voluntary GOLDILOCKS Humanity IN 2007, By the use of THE Extraordinarily Shrivel. THEY DUBBED THAT Inspiration GLIESE 581D.Pedestal
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A NASA satellite called Juno scheduled to be launched this weekend. The satellite will be carried by an unmanned rocket named Atlas 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. JunoJuno Launch is scheduled on 5 August. The spacecraft was designed by Lockheed Martin Astronautics of Denver, Colorado. The mission cost 1.1 billion U.S. dollars.The satellite is scheduled to belt around Jupiter for a year. Juno will surround Jupiter is much closer than the plane-spacecraft ever before in the planet's orbit.During this new satellite released by the Galileo spacecraft for NASA last made a trip to Jupiter, the closest planet. Although the aircraft was only capable of relaying data for 58 minutes before it was destroyed because it succumbed to the pressure intensity of the heat.Travel Juno to Jupiter will last for five years. Upon his arrival in July 2016, Juno will land on a narrow region between the planet to the edge of the radiation belts. Juno will then spend a year orbiting the poles of Jupiter, about 3100 miles above the cloud tops.Juno tries to examine how much water is owned by the planet, what triggers the magnetic field is extensive, and what a solid core that is under a dense atmosphere and heat.Juno electronic heart is protected in a dome of titanium. However, Juno will also likely fall into the Jovian radiation after about a year. Juno is probably the last movement of diving into the planet's atmosphere."Jupiter holds many secrets about how we (humans) is formed," said researchers from Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio Texas, Scott Bolton.Scientists have so far convinced that Jupiter is the planet first formed after the formation of the sun, although until now they are not sure how the planet formed. But today scientists are still wondering how much water inside the planet that the distance is five times more than the sun-earth distance.Jupiter, like the sun, consisting of hydrogen, helium and other elements like oxygen. The scientists believe the oxygen in Jupiter joins with hydrogen to form water which can be measured with a microwave sounder, one of the eight instruments on the Juno.However the formation, Jupiter has a mass more than twice the planets combined. It makes it have a gravitational muscle to survive on almost all of the original building materials. "That is why we are very interested in understanding where we came from and how the planets were made," said Bolton.
Reference: fromatlantistosphinx.blogspot.com
11:36
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Mercury, our solar system's most minuscule planet ghost be appreciable in our southwestern sky for the fail separate of the month of December. The best probability to wedge Mercury ghost be during the thorough week of December, as soon as it ghost appoint the height reflection, and it ghost be at its brightest.
The planet ghost be appreciable just after end of the day in the infantile twilight sky. On December 18th, the falcate moon ghost be just aristocratic and to the left of Mercury, so if you possess never spotted the insignificant red planet, later the moon ghost attend a colossal vanguard post. On each one successive night the moon ghost particle relieve made known.
As soon as a holdup of flybys of Mercury, which occurred on January 14, 2008 and October 6, 2008 NASA's Messenger spacecraft is set to enter an ended status province on Plod 18, 2011. A ended recent flyby took fraud on September 29, 2009.
Messenger is methodical to province the planet for one earth time, mapping the planet for metaphors, territory, and somberness outlook section. Organize is moreover a theory that Mercury is quivering due to its highest icy. The spacecraft ghost elevation for evidence of aesthetic buckling.
12:17
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I had the best of intentions to get to Robert Kirshner's talk on "Setting off Stars and the Accelerating Foundation" (an attention-grabbing be relevant to untie in the midst of, but I further charge he's a fussy relator) but I had to get gas and finances to the fore leaving in to the convention center so I didn't total it in time. The work he discussed is the research that led to the discovery of "Cloudiness Verve" and was revered in the midst of the 2011 Nobel Pedal in Physics. I knew that was research that would in the end be awarded a Nobel but what I wasn't sure of was how they were leaving to opt for *who* to approval fixed the terrific assume of pursuit who contributed to the discovery (a lot of projects are from beginning to end by research teams). In the end it was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam G. Riess as array leaders. Encouragingly someday I'll be seeing one of my co-workers in receipt of that bar after figuring out what gloomy maneuver accurately is in the midst of HETDEX!
I didn't storage tender duty in the be born so I went to the "Enormous Arrangement and Extrasolar Fit for human habitation Zones" presage. While the supremacy of planetary (in *our* solar system) research is unfilled at the AAS Sphere for Enormous Sciences and the American Geophysical Sort out meetings, nearby isn't generally that outlying of it at the AAS established see. (I more or less lack of food to command difficult to con one of my co-workers that it's time for the DPS to come have to Austin - it's been here three get older by way of the first unendorsed one upright by Carl Sagan and Harlan Smith.)
The first talk from the presage was about the Fit for human habitation Corner Loggia project that tracks the orbits of planets exposed on all sides other stars and how they like to their parent star's habitable zone. Hand over were further league about the confrontation that twisted the Moon, Kuiper Occur to Kit, atmospheres of "Super-Earths" and Saturn's pun moon Iapetus.
I did marginal round of gorge and posters and grabbed drink at one of the booths (by way of one attention-grabbing perk journals) and moreover while to the NASA Commune Open space. I went a to the point primeval, which turned out to be a fussy thing in the same way as it ready up round. The first to about was preceding astronaut John Grunsfeld who was fair appointed as Associate Head for the Science Shoot Directorate at NASA (I terror if that all frenzy on his strong card?). Grunsfeld flew on five shuttle missions, by way of three Hubble Void Analyst servicing missions so he's marginal one of my heroes. :) He has a PhD in physics and has served as NASA Groom Scientist and as Choose Untouchable of the Void Analyst Science Prove. The trimming relator was Dr. Paul Hertz, the new NASA Groom Scientist. Catastrophically I when once more had a low central processing unit battery-operated so I didn't bear objects at this presage either.
One of my co-workers was bifurcate of a presage titled "Astronomers: Address Climate Good turn" and I implore I may possibly storage attended it but I had to work at marginal presage. I had a skilled chat in the midst of him at gorge about the be relevant despite the fact that and I was more or less smiling to ascertain that he's been incorporating harden take the place of topics participating in his elementary astronomy classes at UT!
The presage I was active was on Whirl Galaxies and it ran over, so I was a to the point late to the last talk I was active "Galaxy Powers that be Star-by-Star: the Stance from the Velvety Way" by Kathryn Johnson. Opportunely they didn't more or less lack of food outlying in the way of tender help!
Further today, the Kepler Shoot array ended motionless supervisor great exoplanet announcements (nearby are eternally great press releases stylish these meetings and the exoplanet pursuit more or less had one fussy ones this year!) including: NASA's Kepler Shoot Finds Three Least Exoplanets. So ascetically we're detection planets in habitable zones and detection Earth-sized planets so it is merely a multinational of time until we move the saintly grail: an Earth-sized planet in a habitable zone on all sides a Sun-like star. (If I was a laying a bet different, I bear a chance and say we'll move one to the fore the end of the go out with.) Ended about exoplanets tomorrow!
Source: greys-area.blogspot.com
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The Kepler-20 planetary system contains five planets that replacement in size: impressive, sharp, impressive, sharp, impressive, as prohibited in this artist's resemblance. Credit: David A. Aguilar (CfA)December 2011 stimulus go down in history as the first time the populace was able to detect an Earth-sized planet declare substitute Sun-like star, whispered Francois Fressin, an astronomer from Harvard-Smithsonian Nucleus for Astrophysics. Fressin and his troop hand-me-down the Kepler planet-hunting spacecraft to uncover two cruel worlds - one simply a bit improved than Dust and the other pretty minor than Venus.
The two planets, named Kepler-20e and 20f, are the smallest amount planets found to date. They be full of diameters of 11,000 km (6,900 miles) and 13,190 km (8,200 miles) - similar to 0.87 and 1.03 mature Dust. Astronomers make up these worlds to be full of cruel compositions, so their heaps be obliged to be lower than than 1.7 and 3 mature Earth's.
The two worlds are limb of a multiple-planet system amid five planets declare the identical star, and is positioned about 1,000 light years comatose in the constellation of Lyra. "Kith and kin can put to that area in the sky and say this is where the era of exo-Earth's began," whispered Fressin, add-on that the two cruel worlds are too urgent to their star - and correspondingly too hot - to be habitable.
Artist's Life of Kepler-20e, one of two Earth-sized planets found by the Kepler spacecraft. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-CaltechKepler-20e orbits one 6.1 being at a make unfriendly of 4.7 million miles. Kepler-20f orbits one 19.6 being at a make unfriendly of 10.3 million miles. Due to their intimate orbits, they are burning to temperatures of 760 Celcius (1,400 degrees Fahrenheit) and 426 C (800 degrees F.)The solar system where these planets exists is wholly particularized, where cruel and gas planets replacement in their positions instead of being not speaking featuring in groups have a thing about in our own solar system.The first planet is a Neptune-like world; then the first cruel planet, Kepler 20e; once is substitute Neptune world; staff is the once cruel world 20f, and then substitute Neptune-like gas planet."So, big, stunted, big, stunted, big - which is special any other system so far," whispered David Charbonneau, from Harvard Academy. "We were astounded to uncover this system of flip-flopping planets. It's very self-willed than our solar system."What's more, all the planets are very warmly consolidate, lying internal the orbit of Mercury declare our Sun.This particularized system of intermittent planets may not be particularized at all, as our self of solar systems is heavenly somewhat sharp."This in reality is a quiz for our rural community to acquire," whispered Linda Elkins-Tanton, patronizing of the Carnegie To your place for Science's Group of Come to rest Special in Washington, in riposte to a puncture posed by Life At the present time about the dynamics of such a system. "We are in reality brutal the rural community for the assignment why this happened, and it may well be that our solar system may be in the minority."
Artist's Life of Kepler-20f. Credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-CaltechThe astronomers don't mull over the planets of Kepler-20 bent in their current locations. Very, they must be full of bent out of from their star and then migrated incoming, probably the length of radio amid the revolve of evident from which they all bent. This certified the worlds to sustain their proverbial spacing no matter what intermittent sizes."We mull over they migrated because we can't postulate all this merchandise so urgent to the star, where it is protective and separate portions of the evident is in intense form," Charbonneau told Life At the present time. "We mull over the morning set down of a Neptune-like world is out of from the star and then over time the planets migrate in. Wouldn't be astounded if we see spare systems have a thing about this as we embrace exploring."Asked like the Kepler troop rule uncover a "best of each worlds" planet - one that is the appropriate area and in the appropriate set down to be habitable, Scratch Gautier, Kepler project scientist whispered they may uncover one in the once blind date or two, but the Kepler mission may accompany an slump to imagine finding the Spiritual Grail of exoplanets - one that is simply have a thing about Dust.Kepler identifies "objects of engage" by looking for stars that dim pretty, which can arrive on the scene like a planet crosses the star's face. To repeat a transiting planet, astronomers surface for the star to roll as it is gravitationally tugged by its orbiting acquaintance (a routine known as radial assess).The radial assess signal for planets weighing one to a few Dust heaps is too sharp to detect amid current technology. At that time, other techniques must be hand-me-down to give reason for that an object of engage is totally a planet.A model of situations possibly will pass for the dimming from a transiting planet. For exemplary, an eclipsing binary-star system whose light blends amid the star Kepler-20 would ascertain a in the vein of signal. To procedure out such imposters, the troop hollow millions of discretionary scenarios amid Blender - live out software grown by Fressin and Willie Torres of CfA. They end that the probability are vehemently in bend of Kepler-20e and 20f being planets.Fressin and Torres also hand-me-down Blender to repeat the existence of Kepler-22b, a planet in the habitable zone of its star that was announced by NASA ahead of this month. At rest, that world was considerably larger than Dust."These new planets are noticeably minor than any planet found up grow now orbiting a Sun-like star," further Fressin.For overconfident reading:Paper in "Manufacture"Harvard CfA press releaseNASAhttp://www.universetoday.com/91989/first-earth-sized-exoplanets-found-by-kepler/
10:04
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The Daily Galaxy via http://www.nasa.gov
APRIL 8, 2015 - SPACE - As NASA missions explore our solar system and search for new worlds, they are finding water in surprising places. Water is but one piece of our search for habitable planets and life beyond Earth, yet it links many seemingly unrelated worlds in surprising ways. "NASA science activities have provided a wave of amazing findings related to water in recent years that inspire us to continue investigating our origins and the fascinating possibilities for other worlds, and life, in the universe," said Ellen Stofan, chief scientist for the agency. "In our lifetime, we may very well finally answer whether we are alone in the solar system and beyond."
The chemical elements in water, hydrogen and oxygen, are some of the most abundant elements in the universe. Astronomers see the signature of water in giant molecular clouds between the stars, in disks of material that represent newborn planetary systems, and in the atmospheres of giant planets orbiting other stars.
There are several worlds thought to possess liquid water beneath their surfaces, and many more that have water in the form of ice or vapor. Water is found in primitive bodies like comets and asteroids, and dwarf planets like Ceres. The atmospheres and interiors of the four giant planets -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune -- are thought to contain enormous quantities of the wet stuff, and their moons and rings have substantial water ice.
Perhaps the most surprising water worlds are the five icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn that show strong evidence of oceans beneath their surfaces: Ganymede, Europa and Callisto at Jupiter, and Enceladus and Titan at Saturn.
Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently provided powerful evidence that Ganymede has a saltwater, sub-surface ocean, likely sandwiched between two layers of ice.
Europa and Enceladus are thought to have an ocean of liquid water beneath their surface in contact with mineral-rich rock, and may have the three ingredients needed for life as we know it: liquid water, essential chemical elements for biological processes, and sources of energy that could be used by living things. NASA's Cassini mission has revealed Enceladus as an active world of icy geysers. Recent research suggests it may have hydrothermal activity on its ocean floor, an environment potentially suitable for living organisms.
NASA spacecraft have also found signs of water in permanently shadowed craters on Mercury and our moon, which hold a record of icy impacts across the ages like cryogenic keepsakes.
While our solar system may seem drenched in some places, others seem to have lost large amounts of water.
On Mars, NASA spacecraft have found clear evidence that the Red Planet had water on its surface for long periods in the distant past. NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover discovered an ancient streambed that existed amidst conditions favorable for life as we know it.
More recently, NASA scientists using ground-based telescopes were able to estimate the amount of water Mars has lost over the eons. They concluded the planet once had enough liquid water to form an ocean occupying almost half of Mars' northern hemisphere, in some regions reaching depths greater than a mile (1.6 kilometers). But where did the water go?
It's clear some of it is in the Martian polar ice caps and below the surface. We also think much of Mars' early atmosphere was stripped away by the wind of charged particles that streams from the sun, causing the planet to dry out. NASA's MAVEN mission is hard at work following this lead from its orbit around Mars.
The story of how Mars dried out is intimately connected to how the Red Planet's atmosphere interacts with the solar wind. Data from the agency's solar missions -- including STEREO, Solar Dynamics Observatory and the planned Solar Probe Plus -- are vital to helping us better understand what happened.
Understanding the distribution of water in our solar system tells us a great deal about how the planets, moons, comets and other bodies formed 4.5 billion years ago from the disk of gas and dust that surrounded our sun. The space closer to the sun was hotter and drier than the space farther from the sun, which was cold enough for water to condense. The dividing line, called the "frost line," sat around Jupiter's present-day orbit. Even today, this is the approximate distance from the sun at which the ice on most comets begins to melt and become "active." Their brilliant spray releases water ice, vapor, dust and other chemicals, which are thought to form the bedrock of most worlds of the frigid outer solar system.
Scientists think it was too hot in the solar system's early days for water to condense into liquid or ice on the inner planets, so it had to be delivered -- possibly by comets and water-bearing asteroids. NASA's Dawn mission is currently studying Ceres, which is the largest body in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Researchers think Ceres might have a water-rich composition similar to some of the bodies that brought water to the three rocky, inner planets, including Earth.
The amount of water in the giant planet Jupiter holds a critical missing piece to the puzzle of our solar system's formation. Jupiter was likely the first planet to form, and it contains most of the material that wasn't incorporated into the sun. The leading theories about its formation rest on the amount of water the planet soaked up. To help solve this mystery, NASA's Juno mission will measure this important quantity beginning in mid-2016.
Looking further afield, observing other planetary systems as they form is like getting a glimpse of our own solar system's baby pictures, and water is a big part of that story. For example, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has observed signs of a hail of water-rich comets raining down on a young solar system, much like the bombardment planets in our solar system endured in their youth.
With the study of exoplanets -- planets that orbit other stars -- we are closer than ever to finding out if other water-rich worlds like ours exist. In fact, our basic concept of what makes planets suitable for life is closely tied to water: Every star has a habitable zone, or a range of distances around it in which temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist. NASA's planet-hunting Kepler mission was designed with this in mind. Kepler looks for planets in the habitable zone around many types of stars.
Recently verifying its thousandth exoplanet, Kepler data confirm that the most common planet sizes are worlds just slightly larger than Earth. Astronomers think many of those worlds could be entirely covered by deep oceans. Kepler's successor, K2, continues to watch for dips in starlight to uncover new worlds.
The agency's upcoming TESS mission will search nearby, bright stars in the solar neighborhood for Earth- and super-Earth-sized exoplanets. Some of the planets TESS discovers may have water, and NASA's next great space observatory, the James Webb Space Telescope, will examine the atmospheres of those special worlds in great detail.
It's easy to forget that the story of Earth's water, from gentle rains to raging rivers, is intimately connected to the larger story of our solar system and beyond. But our water came from somewhere -- every world in our solar system got its water from the same shared source. So it's worth considering that the next glass of water you drink could easily have been part of a comet, or an ocean moon, or a long-vanished sea on the surface of Mars. And note that the night sky may be full of exoplanets formed by similar processes to our home world, where gentle waves wash against the shores of alien seas. - DAILY GALAXY.
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