Space
- Why Don't We Know If There Are More Planets Around Alpha Centauri?
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Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to Earth other than our own sun. So one would think if it had planets, we would know by now, right? Wrong, apparently. Astronomers just announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet in Alpha Centauri, althoug ...
Article - Robert Cooper - Oct 24 2012 - 6:55pm
- Why Is There More Light In The Universe Than There Should Be? A New Hypothesis
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When is a theory not a theory? When no one can even agree on what the theory is and competing ones are disproved once a year. Astronomers disagree about why they see more light in the universe than should be seen; that is, why the infrared light they obse ...
Article - News Staff - Oct 25 2012 - 7:23am
- Fomalhaut B Status As Planet Both Challenged And Reaffirmed
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Does the nearby star Fomalhaut host a massive exoplanet? It depends on who you ask. A new paper says that the planet, named Fomalhaut b, is a rare and possibly unique object that is completely shrouded by dust. Wasn't it already a planet? ...
Article - News Staff - Oct 25 2012 - 7:45pm
- Giant Asteroid Vesta Gives Itself A Makeover
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The giant asteroid Vesta is constantly stirring its outermost layer, according to data from NASA's Dawn mission that show that a form of weathering that occurs on the moon and other airless bodies we've visited in the inner solar system does not ...
Article - News Staff - Oct 31 2012 - 4:55pm
- Asteroid Belts: Why Complex Life Is Unique In The Universe (So Far)
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Solar systems with life-bearing planets are, so far, unique. There is only one. But they would be rare anyway, if they are dependent on the presence of asteroid belts of just the right mass, according to two US astronomers. Rebecca Martin, a NASA Sagan F ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 1 2012 - 4:58pm
- Solar System Gets A Revised Birth Certificate
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We're not that special, says new research led by the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. About 4.567 billion years ago, our solar system's planets spawned from an expansive dis ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 4 2012 - 4:30am
- CFBDSIR2149-0403- Planet Gone Rogue
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Astronomers have identified a body that is very probably a planet wandering through space- without a parent star. This is the closest such object to oue Solar System, a distance of about 100 light-years and its comparative proximity and the absence of a ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2012 - 9:56am
- W44: Stellar Life And Death In The Constellation Of Aquila
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A new image of supernova remnant W44, which combines far-infrared and X-ray data from ESA’s Herschel and XMM-Newton space observatories, shows the aftershock of a stellar explosion rippling through space. W44 is about 10,000 light-years away, in the dense ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2012 - 6:30am
- Zombie Star: Sol, This May Be Your Future
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The planetary nebula Abell 30 is located 5,500 light-years from Earth and it has given astronomers a lookl at a dying Sun-like star that came briefly back to life after giving up the stellar ghost, mimicking the possible fate our own Solar System faces in ...
Article - News Staff - Nov 15 2012 - 5:02pm
- A Sudden Burgeoning Into Space? From Astronomy To SETI And The Commercialization Of Space...
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The Exoplanet next door: Astronomers have discovered the lowest-mass planet yet orbiting a Sun-like star. But the even-more exciting news is that it orbits α Centauri B, a member of the stellar system that is our Solar System’s nearest neighbour. Althou ...
Article - David Brin - Nov 20 2012 - 3:21pm