A Mariner's Tool Could Help Astronauts Navigate Alien Worlds

Heavenly Guidance Blanddesigns.com

From Popular Science:

Like GPS for marstronauts.

It will probably take another decade to perfect the sophisticated rocket and life-support technology needed to put a human on Mars. But once we’re there, NASA may use centuries-old technology to keep us from getting lost during a stroll.

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Searching For Another Earth

Photo: Planet finder: The CoRot satellite is operated by the French Space Agency CNES, and its mission is to search for planets outside our solar system. Here it’s undergoing mechanical qualification tests prior to launch. Credit: Alcatel Alenia Space/JL Bazile

From The Technology:

A new discovery advances the hunt for Earthlike planets beyond our solar system.

An international team of astronomers has discovered an exoplanet--one outside our solar system--that has a more Earthlike orbit than any alien planet discovered so far using the same technique.

The planet, called CoRot-9b, was discovered by the French-operated satellite CoRot, which has been in orbit since 2006. The spacecraft detected CoRot-9b by measuring the dimming of its star's brightness as the planet passed in front of it, a technique called "transit observation." The small dip in brightness allows the planet's size to be calculated. By measuring the amount of time it takes the planet to complete its orbit, researchers can determine the planet's distance from its star.

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New 'Temperate' Exoplanet Hints At Solar System Like Our Own

An artist's impression shows CoRoT-9b, the first temperate exoplanet to be measured in detail. Scientists say it is about the size of Jupiter and orbits its parent star at about the same distance that Mercury orbits the sun. AFP/ESO

From Christian Science Monitor:

Astronomers have for the first time made detailed measurements of an exoplanet in the temperate zone around its star. Their conclusion: It looks a lot like a planet in our solar system.

Astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-size planet that orbits its host star at a Mercury-like distance – a solar system that begins to look like a topsy-turvy, Alice in Wonderland version of our own.

The discovery has allowed scientists to glean for the first time a wide range of information about an extrasolar planet so relatively distant from its "sun."

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New Era Of Planet Discovery On Horizon

The deepest image of the universe ever taken in near-infrared light, captured by Hubble Space Telescope Photo: NASA/AP

From The Telegraph:

Thousands of new planets will be identified in the next few years, some of which may harbour life, say scientists.

British astronomers are in the vanguard of the search, which could transform humanity's view of its place in the universe.

More than 400 ''exoplanets'' orbiting stars beyond the Sun have been catalogued so far since the first were discovered in 1991.

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Exoplanet Gas Spotted From Earth

Photo: The team used Nasa's Nasa's Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii

From The BBC:

Astronomers have used a new ground-based technique to study the atmospheres of planets outside our Solar System.

The work could assist the search for Earth-like planets with traces of organic, or carbon-rich, molecules.

Astronomers spotted evidence of methane gas in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.

Gases have previously been discerned on exoplanets before, but only by using space-based telescopes.

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We Will Find 'Twins Of Earth' This Year, Says Astronomer Michel Mayor

From Times Online:

Scientists will have detected the first truly Earth-like planet outside the solar system by the end of the year, one of the world’s leading astronomers predicted yesterday.

Professor Michel Mayor, of Geneva University, who led the team that discovered the first extrasolar planet (or exoplanet) in 1995, said he was confident that a planet of a similar size and composition to Earth would be found in the near future.

Addressing a Royal Society conference to mark the 50th anniversary of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) programme, he said: “The search for twins of Earth is motivated by the ultimate prospect of finding sites with favourable conditions for the development of life. We’ve entered a new phase in this search.”

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Hunt For Earth's 'Twin Planet' Takes Leap Forward

Scientists claim the search for an Earth-like planet outside the solar system has entered a new phase Photo: GETTY IMAGES

From The Telegraph:

Scientists are on the brink of discovering the first Earth-like planet outside the solar system, a leading astronomer has claimed.

Professor Michel Mayor, the scientist who led the team that identified the first extrasolar planet in 1995, believes a planet similar in size and composition to Earth will soon be found.

Prof Mayor, of Geneva University, said that the prospect of finding a planet habitable for humans had come a step closer through rapid technological advances allowing observation of planets outside the solar system.

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Second Smallest Exoplanet Spotted: Discovery Highlights New Potential for Eventually Finding Earth-Mass Planets

Astronomers have detected an extrasolar planet with a mass just four
times that of Earth. (Credit: L. Calcada, ESO)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 14, 2010) — Astronomers from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and other institutions, using the highly sensitive 10-meter Keck I telescope atop Hawaii's Mauna Kea, have detected an extrasolar planet with a mass just four times that of Earth. The planet, which orbits its parent star HD156668 about once every four days, is the second-smallest world among the more than 400 exoplanets (planets located outside our solar system) that have been found to date. It is located approximately 80 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Hercules.

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The Exoplanet Explosion

The first six weeks of scientific data returned by Kepler has already turned up five exoplanets, with many more candidates waiting to be studied. (credit: NASA)

From The Space Review:

Fifteen years ago, there were virtually no known planets beyond the (then nine) planets in our own solar system: just a few found by chance orbiting a pulsar. Then, in late 1995 and 1996, came the initial discovery of planets orbiting main sequence stars like the Sun. That slow trickle of discoveries became a steady stream as astronomers refined their instruments and techniques, as well as increased both the number of stars studied and their period of time observed. By the beginning of 2010 astronomers reported finding over 400 such extrasolar planets, or exoplanets.

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MIT Satellite Could Trounce Kepler Telescope, Finding Thousands Of Exoplanets In Just Two Years

MIT's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) MIT

From Popular Science:

The Kepler Space Telescope made headlines last week when it was announced that the planet-hunting instrument has already found its first five exoplanets. Researchers at MIT, however, think they can do better. A satellite proposed by a team of researchers there could scan a piece of sky 400 times larger than Kepler, observing 2.5 million of the closest stars and discovering hundreds of small exoplanets, several of which may be suitable for life. That is, if NASA decides to build it.

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'Earth-Like' Exoplanet Is Intensely Volcanic

The planet, called Corot-7b, was detected by French astronomers in 2009. Credit: ESO

From Cosmos:

SYDNEY: The first rocky planet found outside of our Solar System is likely to be a volcanic wasteland inhospitable to life, scientists have found.

The planet, called Corot-7b, was detected by French astronomers in 2009. It has a similar density to Earth and has a diameter around 70% larger.

Last week astronomers led by Rory Barnes at the University of Washington in Seattle, presented new data on Corot-7b's orbit to a meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington DC.

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Most Earth-Like Exoplanet Ever Found Started Out As A Gas Giant

This artist's impression shows sunrise over CoRoT-7b, the smallest-known exoplanet. The world is about 70 percent larger than Earth. Now, a team led by Brian Jackson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center finds that the planet may be the rocky remains of a gas giant planet whose atmosphere was evaporated by close proximity to the star. (Credit: ESO/L. Calçada)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 10, 2010) — The most earthlike planet yet found around another star may be the rocky remains of a Saturn-sized gas giant, according to research presented January 6 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.

"The first planets detected outside our solar system 15 years ago turned out to be enormous gas-giants in very tight orbits around their stars. We call them 'hot Jupiters,' and they weren't what astronomers expected to find," said Brian Jackson at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "Now, we're beginning to see Earth-sized objects in similar orbits. Could there be a connection?"

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First Earth-Like Planet Spotted Outside Solar System Likely A Volcanic Wasteland

How similar is exoplanet CoRoT-7b to Earth? The newly discovered extra-solar planet (depicted in the above artist's illustration) is the closest physical match yet, with a mass about five Earths and a radius of about 1.7 Earths. Also, the home star to CoRoT-7b, although 500 light years distant, is very similar to our Sun. Unfortunately, the similarities likely end there, as CoRoT-7b orbits its home star well inside the orbit of Mercury, making its year last only 20 hours, and making its peak temperature much hotter than humans might find comfortable. (Credit: ESO/L. Calcada)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Jan. 7, 2010) — When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life.

Rocky planets -- Earth, Mercury, Venus and Mars -- make up half the planets in our solar system. Rocky planets are considered better environments to support life than planets that are mainly gaseous, like the other half of the planets in our system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

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One In Ten Stars 'Have Solar Systems Like Ours'

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the
American Astronomical Society in Washington DC Photo: NASA

From The Telegraph:

One in ten stars in the universe may host solar systems like the Sun's family of planets, astronomers believe.

Potentially hundreds of millions of stars may have solar systems that could harbour life-supporting Earth-like planets.

Our solar system has far-flung gas-giant planets with small rocky worlds such as the Earth and Mars nearer the parent star.

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NASA's Kepler Finds Its First Five Planets - An Odd Assortment

Kepler's first five exoplanets are compared to those in our
solar system in this illustration from NASA. NASA

From Christian Science Monitor:

NASA's Kepler space telescope is just beginning its three-year mission to find Earth-like planets in habitable zones around stars. The first new planets it has found, announced Monday, include two so hot they would melt iron.

NASA's planet-hunting telescope Kepler has bagged its first quarry: five new planets Neptune's size and larger, including one with the density of Styrofoam, making it one of the lightest planets yet found.

In addition to the new planets, Kepler results suggest that the light output from two-thirds of some 43,000 sun-like stars in its field of view is virtually as stable as the sun's output.

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Kepler Telescope Spots 'Styrofoam' Planet

NASA's Kepler telescope has discovered five giant planets that whip around their stars on tight orbits (Illustration: NASA/JPL)

From New Scientist:

A giant planet with the density of Styrofoam is one of a clutch of new exoplanets discovered by NASA's Kepler telescope. The planets are too hot to support life as we know it, but the discoveries, made during the telescope's first few weeks of operation, suggest Kepler is on the right track to find Earth's twins, researchers say.

More than 400 planets have now been found orbiting other stars, but Earth-sized planets – which may be the best habitats for life – have remained elusive.

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New Exoplanet Hunter Makes First 5 Discoveries

From Wired Science:

The Kepler Space Telescope, a designated planet-hunting satellite, has found its first five planets, among them an odd, massive world only as dense as Styrofoam.

The number of planets now known outside the solar system has risen to more than 400, but none is yet Earth-like enough to harbor life. Right now, Kepler can only detect large planets orbiting close to their stars, which means that these first planets are too hot to hold liquid water, a requirement for life as we know it.

But over the next year, the mission’s scientists will be homing in on ever more life-friendly places.

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Can We Find A Living Planet By 2020?

From Discovery News:

There was a lot of excitement last week about the discovery of a “waterworld” planet called GJ 1214b, as reported on Discovery News by my colleague Ian O’Neill.

This world belongs to an emerging class of planets dubbed “super-Earths.” It is 6.5 times Earth’s mass and nearly three times our diameter. Its mass, diameter and density suggest the planet is largely a ball of water with and icy/rocky core.

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Most Earth-Like Extrasolar Planet Found Right Next Door

From Wired Science:

Meet GJ 1214b, the most Earth-like planet ever found outside our solar system.

It’s not exactly Earth’s twin: It’s about six times bigger, a whole lot hotter and made mostly of water. But compared to the giant gas balls that account for nearly every other extrasolar planet ever found, it’s pretty darn close. And through a fortunate happenstance of cosmic geometry, astronomers will be able to study GJ 1214b in great detail.

“If you want to describe in one sentence what this planet is, it’s a big, hot ocean,” said Harvard University astronomer David Charbonneau. “We can even study its atmosphere. This planet will occupy us for years. That’s part of what’s so exciting about it.”

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First Direct Observation Of A Planet-Like Object Orbiting Star Similar To Sun

This August 2009 discovery image of GJ 758 B was taken with the Subaru Telescope's HiCIAO instrument in the near infrared, which measures and records differences in heat. Without the special technique employed here (angular differential imaging), the star's glare would overwhelm the light from the planet candidates. The planet-like object, GJ 758 B, is circled as B in the lower right portion of the image. An unconfirmed companion planet or planet-like object, C, can be viewed above B. The star, GJ 758, is located at the center of the image, at the hub of the starburst. The graphic at the top compares the orbital distances of solar system planets. (Credit: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy/National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Dec. 3, 2009) — 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.

The finding marks the first discovery made with the world's newest planet-hunting instrument on the Hawaii-based Subaru Telescope and is the first fruit of a novel research collaboration announced by the University in January.

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