Tag Archives: exoplanets
A revolutionary exoplanet
In 1992, Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail became the first astronomers to publicly announce that they had discovered the first planets outside the Solar System, orbiting the dense core of a dead star about 2,300 lightyears away. This event is considered to … Continue reading
Posted in Scicomm
Tagged 51 Pegasi b, brown dwarf, CRIRES, Didier Queloz, Doppler spectroscopy, ELODIE spectrograph, exoplanets, Grand Tack Model, hot Jupiters, Ignas Snellen, James Peebles, main sequence stars, Michel Mayor, NASA Kepler telescope, Nice Model, Nobel Prize for physics, orbital velocity, pegasean planets, Physics Nobel Prize, planetary migration, Proxima Centauri, radial velocity, roaster planets, Very Large Telescope, Wolf 1061
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How Venus could harbor life: supercritical carbon dioxide
A new study published in the online journal Life says a hotter, pressurized form of carbon dioxide could harbor life in a similar way water does on Earth. This is an interesting find, theoretical though it is, because it might obviate the need … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, cell membranes, Dirk Schulze-Makuch, enzymes, exoplanets, molecular memory, supercritical carbon dioxide
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ALMA telescope catches live planet-forming action for the first time
The ALMA telescope in Chile has, for the first time, observed a star system that might be in the early stages of planet formation. The picture has astronomers drooling over it because the study of the origins of planets has until now been … Continue reading
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Tagged exoplanets, HK Tauri, HL Tauri, orbital resonance, planet formation, proto-planetary disc
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For planets, one thing leads to another
One of the biggest benefits of being a journalist is that you become aware of interesting things from various fields. As a science journalist, the ambit is narrowed but the interestingness, not at all. And one of the most interesting … Continue reading
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Tagged exoplanets, Keplerian disk, Kuiper Belt, log-log plot, planet formation, Solar System
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New category: Exoplanets
Of late, telescopes like Kepler, Spitzer and ALMA are revealing new things about exoplanets as much as they’re exposing how clueless we are about their origins. Unlike in the search for life, where our only precedents are terrestrial, the search … Continue reading
Kepler data reveals a frost giant
I’ve been most fascinated lately by studies of planet formation. Every small detail is like that one letter in the crossword you need to fill all the other boxes in, every discovery a cornerstone that holds together a unique piece of the universe. For example, using just the find that the exoplanet Beta Pictoris b has a very short day of eight hours, astronomers could speculate on how it was formed, what its density could be, and how heavy it could get over time. And it isn’t surprising if a similar tale awaits telling by Kepler 421b. Continue reading
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Tagged astrometry, astrophysics, exoplanets, frost line, gas giants, Kepler 421b, NASA Kepler mission, planetary transit, Uranus
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What life on Earth tells us about life ‘elsewhere’
In 1950, the physicist Enrico Fermi asked a question not many could forget for a long time: “Where is everybody?” He was referring to the notion that, given the age and size of the universe, advanced civilizations ought to have arisen in … Continue reading
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Tagged astrobiology, Carl Sagan, Enceladus, Enrico Fermi, exoplanets, extrasolar systems, hydrocarbons, life, Saturn, starstuff, Titan
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Rocky exoplanets only get so big before they get gassy
By the time the NASA Kepler mission failed in 2013, it had gathered evidence that there were at least 962 exoplanets in 76 stellar systems, not to mention the final word is awaited on 2,900 more. In the four years it … Continue reading
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Tagged Astronomy, density, empirical relationship, exobiology, exoplanets, mass, NASA Kepler mission, planet formation, Solar System
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The secrets of how planets form
Astronomers who were measuring the length of one day on an exoplanet for the first time were in for a surprise: it was shorter than any planet’s in the Solar System. Beta Pictoris b, orbiting the star Beta Pictoris, has … Continue reading
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Tagged astrophysics, Beta Pictoris b, centrifugal force, curve plotting, escape velocity, exoplanets, gravitation, Kuiper Belt, monomial, neutron stars, non-linearity, planet formation, Solar System, spin-mass correlation, strong nuclear force
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