Tag: exoplanets
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Proxima Centauri b confirmed! Potentially habitable planet orbits the star next door
An artist’s conception shows Proxima Centauri b orbiting its parent star, a red dwarf, with the two other stars of the Alpha Centauri system in the far background. (Credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO) The rumors you’ve heard are mostly true: Scientists say the star that’s closest to our solar system has a planet that could be…
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Potentially-habitable planet discovered around nearest star Proxima Centauri
An artist’s impression of what the surface of Proxima b might look like. Notice the red sky around the star and the darker sky elsewhere. Image: ESO/M Kornmesser. A planet with at least 1.3 times the mass of Earth has been discovered orbiting within the habitable zone of the nearest star to our Sun, Proxima…
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Revived Kepler mission confirms 104 new planets, and two could be a lot like Earth
An artist’s conception shows NASA’s Kepler telescope observing four planets as they pass across the disk of their parent star. The comparative sizes of the spacecraft and the star are not to scale. (Credit: NASA / JPL) Astronomers say they’ve confirmed the existence of 104 worlds to add to the list of extrasolar planets detected…
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Youngest planet spotted around alien star
An artist’s conception shows the planet K2-33b crossing the disk of its parent star. (Credi: NASA / JPL-Caltech) Scientists say they’ve detected a giant planet circling a star that’s only 5 million to 10 million years old, which would make it the youngest exoplanet ever identified. The super-Neptune-sized planet traces a super-close-in orbit, making a complete swing…
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Kepler adds 1,284 exoplanets to its total
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION This artist’s concept depicts select planetary discoveries made to date by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Credits: NASA/W. Stenzel A statistical analysis of data collected by NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope during its initial mission shows a better than 99 percent chance that 1,284 worlds previously classified as “candidates”…
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1,284 new worlds! Kepler mission doubles its tally of planets in one fell swoop
A graphic shows the diversity of planets. (Credit: NASA) The scientists behind NASA’s Kepler mission are using statistics to put their campaign to identify new planets into overdrive: New software that automates the process has verified 1,284 candidates as genuine planets rather than celestial “impostors,” more than doubling its database of confirmed worlds. “This is the…
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NASA keeps its eye on a trio of potentially habitable planets just 40 light-years away
An artist’s impression shows an imagined view from the surface one of the three planets orbiting an ultracool dwarf star just 40 light-years from Earth. (Credit: ESO) Three potentially habitable and definitely weird planets have been detected orbiting an ultracool dwarf star that’s 40 light-years away from Earth. They’re too far to visit anytime soon,…
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Kepler telescope recovered from spacecraft emergency
Artist’s concept of the Kepler observatory with survey regions highlighted in the sky. Credit: NASA NASA’s Kepler planet-searching spacecraft is stable and out of emergency mode, officials said Monday, and the observatory is downlinking data to help engineers determine what caused it to suspend science operations last week. “On Sunday morning, the spacecraft reached a…
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Kepler space telescope in emergency mode
Artist’s concept of the Kepler observatory. Credit: NASA Mission controllers are trying to diagnose a problem that put NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting observatory in emergency mode nearly 75 million miles from Earth this week. Circling the sun in an orbit just outside Earth’s, Kepler is in an extended mission searching for worlds around other stars. Engineers…
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How to do a reality check on the search for life beyond our solar system
When Earth passes in front of the sun, it blocks a small part of the sun’s light. Potential observers outside our solar system might be able to detect the resulting dimming of the sun and study Earth’s atmosphere. (Credit: Axel Quetz / MPIA / NASA) The past decade has brought about a revolution in astronomers’…