News tagged with planet transits

An exoplanet orbiting a double star

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Kepler satellite, which has now reported the detection of 1781 candidate exoplanets (a planet around a star other than the sun), has also discovered that at least one of them orbits a ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Oct 03, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Star blasts planet with X-rays

A nearby star is pummeling a companion planet with a barrage of X-rays a hundred thousand times more intense than the Earth receives from the Sun.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 13, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (5) | comments 9 | with audio podcast

Kepler spacecraft discovers 'invisible world'

Usually, running five minutes late is a bad thing since you might lose your dinner reservation or miss out on tickets to the latest show. But when a planet runs five minutes late, astronomers get excited because ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 08, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (32) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Kepler's astounding haul of multiple-planet systems

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Kepler spacecraft is proving itself to be a prolific planet hunter. Within just the first four months of data, astronomers have found evidence for more than 1,200 planetary candidates. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created May 24, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (12) | comments 36 | with audio podcast

Exoplanetary systems

(PhysOrg.com) -- There are now about fifty stars known with more than one orbiting planet - they are the exoplanetary equivalents of the solar system. These stellar families are critical to astronomers piecing ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 07, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (10) | comments 56

The Kepler Mission

(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the first planet around another star (an "extrasolar planet") was discovered by SAO astronomers and others in 1989, over 450 extrasolar planets have been found. Their study now comprises a whole new ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 26, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 1

Detecting Life-Friendly Moons

The search for life-friendly real estate around distant stars doesn't have to be limited to planets. New research shows that habitable exomoons can be detected with a new method using current technology.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Oct 26, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 3

Kepler and the Search for Life in Our Galaxy

(PhysOrg.com) -- There are so many stars in our galaxy that even if planets with complex life (animals and plants) are rare - say one for every billion stars - there could still be dozens here in the Milky ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 15, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Finding Twin Earths: Harder Than We Thought

(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 ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 20, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (16) | comments 1

Transit Search Finds Super-Neptune

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have discovered a planet somewhat larger and more massive than Neptune orbiting a star 120 light-years from Earth. While Neptune ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 20, 2009 | popularity 4.1 / 5 (9) | comments 8