News tagged with rocky planets


Superior Super Earths

Superior Super Earths

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Nov 30, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (55) | comments 15

Super Earths are named for their size, but these planets - which range from about 2 to 10 Earth masses - could be superior to the Earth when it comes to sustaining life. They could also provide an answer to ...





Search results for rocky planets


'Extreme' genes shed light on origins of photosynthesis

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 11, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- While most school children understand that green plants photosynthesize, absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, few people consider the profound global-scale effects that photosynthesis has had on Earth. ...


The COROT satellite

Astronomers discover 'tilted planets'

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (15) | comments 3

(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 ...


Avatar's moon Pandora could be real

Avatar's moon Pandora could be real

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (27) | comments 10

In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable - and inhabited - alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. ...


Keck Telescopes Take Deeper Look at Planetary Nurseries

Keck Telescopes Take Deeper Look at Planetary Nurseries

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 23, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (7) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory have peered far into a young planetary system, giving an unprecedented view of dust and gas that might eventually form planets similar to Jupiter, ...


New planet discoveries suggest low-mass planets are common around nearby stars

New planet discoveries suggest low-mass planets are common around nearby stars (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 14, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (19) | comments 14

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of ...


How water forms where Earth-like planets are born

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (10) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a study that helps to explain the origins of water on Earth, University of Michigan astronomers have found that water vapor can form spontaneously in habitable zones of solar systems, and that it develops ...


Brown dwarf pair mystifies astronomers

Brown dwarf pair mystifies astronomers

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 21, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two brown dwarf-sized objects orbiting a giant old star show that planets may assemble around stars more quickly and efficiently than anyone thought possible, according to an international ...


Team using Subaru Telescope makes major discovery

Team using Subaru Telescope makes major discovery

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 2

An international team of scientists that includes an astronomer from Princeton University has made the first direct observation of a planet-like object orbiting a star similar to the sun.


Newly discovered star one of hottest in Galaxy

Newly discovered star one of hottest in Galaxy (w/ Video)

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 02, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (21) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics have discovered one of the hottest stars in the Galaxy with a surface temperature of around 200,000 degrees ...


First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System

First Direct Imaging of a Young Binary System

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 15, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (17) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of astronomers from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, and other universities have captured the first direct image of a young ...



List of search results for rocky planets