http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Exeter, UK, research has added to a growing evidence that several giant planets have orbits so tilted that their orbits can be perpendicular or even backwards relative to their parent star`s rotation. http://www.physorg.com/news180724809.html Space & Earth Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:20:34 EST news180724809 Astronomers have found that the extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b has a retrograde or highly tilted orbit. Studying such planets is important in understanding the diversity of planetary systems and assessing current models of how planets migrate. The findings could help astrobiologists in the search for habitable planets beyond our solar system. http://www.physorg.com/news177783167.html Space & Earth Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:30:19 EST news177783167 (PhysOrg.com) -- Of the roughly 350 known exoplanets (i.e., extrasolar planets), the one orbiting the star HD149026 is unique. http://www.physorg.com/news173697614.html Space & Earth Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:20:01 EST news173697614 The best way to observe objects in solar systems is simply to look -- but distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere drown out much of the spectacle of space. To address this problem, Berkeley astronomer James Graham and colleagues are designing an adaptive optics system that can spot new planets. http://www.physorg.com/news173427935.html Space & Earth Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:26:11 EST news173427935 (PhysOrg.com) -- Since the early 1990s astronomers have discovered more than 300 planets orbiting stars other than our sun, nearly all of them gas giants like Jupiter. Powerful space telescopes, such as the one that is central to NASA's recently launched Kepler Mission, will make it easier to spot much smaller rocky extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, more similar to Earth. http://www.physorg.com/news162541543.html Space & Earth Tue, 26 May 2009 07:26:30 EST news162541543 During the last two decades, astronomers have found hundreds of planets orbiting stars outside our solar system. New research indicates they might have found even more except for one thing - some planets have fallen into their stars and simply no longer exist. http://www.physorg.com/news160071489.html Space & Earth Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:18:57 EST news160071489 (PhysOrg.com) -- Does a twin Earth exist somewhere in our galaxy? Astronomers are getting closer and closer to finding an Earth-sized planet in an Earth-like orbit. NASA's Kepler spacecraft just launched to find such worlds. Once the search succeeds, the next questions driving research will be: Is that planet habitable? Does it have an Earth-like atmosphere? Answering those questions will not be easy. http://www.physorg.com/news156776825.html Space & Earth Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:07:45 EST news156776825 When NASA's Kepler telescope rocketed into the night sky last week, two Berkeley astronomers watching its fading contrail were hoping that the telescope will reveal Earth's - and humanity's - place in the universe. http://www.physorg.com/news156101002.html Space & Earth Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:24:13 EST news156101002 (PhysOrg.com) -- When NASA's Kepler telescope rockets into the night sky on Friday, March 6, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, two University of California, Berkeley, astronomers - key members of the Kepler team - will be watching its fading contrail, hoping that the telescope will reveal Earth's and humanity's place in the universe. http://www.physorg.com/news155401559.html Space & Earth Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:07:52 EST news155401559 To mark UNESCO's International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), six leading astronomers from the UK, the US, Europe and Asia write in March's Physics World about the biggest challenges and opportunities facing international astronomers over the next couple of decades. http://www.physorg.com/news155188813.html Space & Earth Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:00:38 EST news155188813 Future telescopes, with mirrors half the size of a football field, will need special components to deal with the light they collect. Astronomers are turning to photonic devices that guide and manipulate light inside specially-designed materials. The greatest potential, which is described in the latest issue of Optics Express, the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal, may lie in a laser-based technique that carves out micron-sized light pathways in three dimensions. http://www.physorg.com/news153073531.html Physics Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:26:02 EST news153073531 (PhysOrg.com) -- Brown dwarfs, objects that are less massive than stars but larger than planets, just got more elusive, based on a study of 233 nearby multiple-star systems by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble found only two brown dwarfs as companions to normal stars. This means the so-called "brown dwarf desert" (the absence of brown dwarfs around solar-type stars) extends to the smallest stars in the universe. http://www.physorg.com/news150388037.html Space & Earth Mon, 05 Jan 2009 14:27:17 EST news150388037 (PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Deep Impact spacecraft has created a video of the moon transiting (passing in front of) Earth as seen from the spacecraft's point of view 31 million miles away. Scientists are using the video to develop techniques to study alien worlds. http://www.physorg.com/news135605643.html Space & Earth Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:14:03 EST news135605643