News tagged with dwarf planet
A star with spiral arms
For more than four hundred years, astronomers have used telescopes to study the great variety of stars in our galaxy. Millions of distant suns have been catalogued. There are dwarf stars, giant stars, dead ...
Nov 01, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (11) |
17
|
Faraway Eris is Pluto's twin: Dwarf planet sized up accurately as it blocks light of faint star
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers have measured the diameter of the dwarf planet Eris by catching it as it passed in front of a faint star. This was seen by telescopes in Chile, including the TRAPPIST telescope ...
Oct 26, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (15) |
9
|
Astronomers find extreme weather on an alien world
(PhysOrg.com) -- A University of Toronto-led team of astronomers has observed extreme brightness changes on a nearby brown dwarf that may indicate a storm grander than any seen yet on a planet. Because old ...
Sep 12, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (10) |
3
|
Dwarf planet mysteries beckon to New Horizons
(PhysOrg.com) -- At this very moment one of the fastest spacecraft ever launched -- NASA's New Horizons -- is hurtling through the void at nearly one million miles per day. Launched in 2006, it has been in ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Sep 05, 2011 |
5 / 5 (22) |
11
|
Astronomers find ice and possibly methane on Snow White, a distant dwarf planet
Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have discovered that the dwarf planet 2007 OR10—nicknamed Snow White—is an icy world, with about half its surface covered in water ...
Aug 22, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
10
|
Do planets rob their stars of metals?
t has been known for several years that stars hosting planets are generally more rich in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, known in astronomy as “metals”. These heavy elements help to form ...
Aug 02, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
49
|
Hubble discovers another moon around Pluto
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope discovered a fourth moon orbiting the icy dwarf planet Pluto. The tiny, new satellite, temporarily designated P4, was uncovered in a Hubble survey ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jul 20, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (15) |
16
|
Astronomers find evidence for a strange new planetary system
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers, including Dr Gavin Ramsay of the Armagh Observatory, has found evidence that suggests the existence of an extraordinary planetary system. Two giant planets appear to ...
Jun 21, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (13) |
13
|
Dwarf planet Haumea shines with crystalline ice
The fifth dwarf planet of the Solar System, Haumea, and at least one of its two satellites, are covered in crystalline water-ice due to the tidal forces between them and the heat of radiogenic elements. This ...
May 12, 2011 |
4.6 / 5 (13) |
12
|
Transiting super-Earth detected around naked eye star
One of the first known stars to host an extrasolar planet, was that of 55 Cancri. The first planet in this system was reported in 1997 and today the system is known to host at least five planets, the inner ...
May 02, 2011 |
4.5 / 5 (4) |
2
Super cold brown dwarf or is it a planet?
(PhysOrg.com) -- In a month that has already announced the discovery of a brown dwarf 75 light-years from Earth, NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope has found what could prove to be an even cooler, ...
Mar 23, 2011 |
5 / 5 (7) |
6
|
Habitable planets and white dwarfs
(PhysOrg.com) -- The search for habitable planets similar to Earth has routinely focused around active nuclear burning stars. However, in a recently published paper by Eric Agol from the University of Washington, ...
Mar 22, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (21) |
21
|
Birth of a baby planet
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of Sydney astronomer, Professor Peter Tuthill, is one of an international team of astronomers who have announced a major step forward in the quest to find planets in orbit around ...
Mar 02, 2011 |
5 / 5 (9) |
4
|
Six new planets discovered
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team, including Oxford University scientists, has discovered six diverse new planets, from 'shrunken-Saturns' to 'bloated hot Jupiters', as well a rare brown dwarf with 60 ...
Jun 14, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (30) |
3
|
Picking Planets from Potatoes
New research indicates that there may be many more dwarf planets similar to Pluto in our solar system than previously thought. Studying these distant objects can help astrobiologists understand the basic properties ...
Apr 26, 2010 |
5 / 5 (10) |
3
|
