Ok, technically it’s not a new moon as it’s probably several billion years old but we didn’t know about it before, so it’s new to us! A team of researchers has just announced the discovery of a 150- to 250-mile-wide moon orbiting a dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt named 2007 OR10. This distant, icy…
Tag: Kepler
Did Ancient Supernovas Change Earth’s Climate?
Supernovas are some of the most powerful and energetic events in the entire Universe. When a dying star explodes you wouldn’t want to be anywhere nearby—fresh elements are nice and all, but the energy and radiation from a supernova would roast any planets within tens if not hundreds of light-years in all directions. Luckily for us…
“Alien Megastructure” May Actually Be Scraps of an Ingested Planet
For the past couple of years the astronomy world has been abuzz with news of the strange and randomly-occurring dimming of the star KIC 8462852—aka Tabby’s Star—located 1,276 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus and recently observed by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft. Hypotheses about the cause range from conservative (a transiting cloud of comets) to quite speculative (an “alien megastructure” constructed around the…
Breaking News: Kepler Team Spots First Earth-Sized Exoplanets
The video above sums up the big astro-news of the day: NASA’s Kepler mission has confirmed the existence of not one but TWO Earth-sized planets orbiting a Sun-like star 1,000 light-years away. This is a big deal!
Kepler Finds a Real-Life Tatooine
Can’t see the video below? Click here. Kepler, NASA’s exoplanet hunter extraordinaire, has confirmed the existence of the first planet orbiting two suns, not unlike Luke’s homeworld Tatooine from the Star Wars films! Unlike Tatooine, however, the planet –named Kepler-16b – is a cold Saturn-sized gas giant unlikely to harbor life. Still, it showcases the…
Kepler’s Discovery: New Worlds for the Finding
Can’t see the video below? Click here. Today NASA held a press conference at 1pm EST to present the discovery of over 1,200 exoplanet candidates by the Kepler telescope, an orbiting space observatory that’s been watching a section of the sky near the constellation Cygnus for the past year and a half. (The spacecraft launched…
News Post: Kepler on its Way
The Delta II rocket carrying the Kepler spacecraft lifted off tonight at 10:49 PM EST from Cape Canaveral. Everything has so far been going as planned. At the time of this writing (10:52 PM CST) the solid fuel has been used up and the rocket will soon detach, leaving the observatory on its own…
News Post: T Minus 23 and Counting…
In less than 23 hours from the time of this writing, the Kepler spacecraft will launch from Pad 17-B at Cape Canaveral, FL, ready to take its place in orbit and begin its mission searching a patch of space for evidence of Earthlike planets. Liftoff will take place at 10:49 PM EST on Friday,…
Lights in the Dark 