Tag: exoplanets
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Trump budget aims to kick-start lunar exploration, cancels space telescope
Artist’s concept of NASA’s proposed deep space station near the moon. Credit: NASA The White House’s $19.9 billion NASA budget outline released Monday would continue development of NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule and begin the deployment of a mini-space station around the moon as soon as 2022, but the proposal…
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How scientists are expanding the spectrum for SETI and the search for alien life
This map from the University of Puerto Rico’s Planetary Habitability Laboratory shows the known planetary systems within about 100 light-years from Earth, plotted on a logarithmic scale. The systems with potentially habitable exoplanets are highlighted with red circles. (PHL @ UPR Arecibo) BERKELEY, Calif. — Twenty years after the movie “Contact” brought the search for…
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Jupiter’s moons, black holes, exoplanets among JWST’s first scientific targets
Artist’s concept of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/Northrop Grumman The James Webb Space Telescope should start returning its first scientific results by the end of 2019, and scientists recently announced a slate of observations selected to whet the appetites of astronomers who will use the multibillion-dollar facility well into the 2020s. The observatory’s…
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‘Sónar Calling’ campaign broadcasts music and messages to an alien super-Earth
The target of the “Sonar Calling” binary-coded radio transmission is a planet known as GJ273 b. (METI International Illustration / Danielle Futselaar) Scientists and artists have banded together to beam coded radio transmissions toward a star that has a potentially habitable planet, just 12.4 light-years from Earth. “Sónar Calling GJ273b” is the latest effort to communicate…
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Ross 128 redux: Red dwarf sparks interest as a potentially not-so-weird locale for life
This artist’s impression shows the temperate planet Ross 128 b, with its red dwarf parent star in the background. (ESO Illustration) A red dwarf star that was previously thought to be the source of a weird signal from aliens turns out to have a temperate Earth-sized planet, astronomers reported today. The “Weird! Signal,” detected this…
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WFIRST astronomy mission faces cuts to contain rising costs
Artist’s concept of the WFIRST observatory. Credit: NASA/GSFC NASA has directed the team developing the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, a flagship astronomy mission set for launch in the mid-2020s to study dark energy and exoplanets, to reduce the observatory’s scientific capabilities and keep it under a $3.2 billion cost cap. Fresh off their experience with…
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Newfound dust belts suggest that Proxima Centauri has more than one alien planet
An artist’s impression shows the newly discovered belts of dust around Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system. This sketch is not to scale — to make Proxima b clearly visible, it has been shown farther from the star and larger than it is in reality. (ESO Illustration / M. Kornmesser) Astronomers created…
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Virtual reality takes you on a trip to Mars with NASA rover – and to alien worlds, too
“Access Mars” provides 3-D views of the Red Planet as captured by NASA’s Curiosity rover. (NASA / JPL Illustration) NASA has been offering virtual-reality tours of Mars for years — but now, with Google’s help, the space agency has come up with one of the most accessible tours yet. “Access Mars” lays out a 3-D terrain…
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Why these scientists argue that we are turning Earth into an alien planet
Imagery from the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite shows Earth’s lights at night. In a newly published study, researchers argue that planets could be classified based on the effects of energy on the environment. (NASA Photo / Joshua Stevens / Miguel Roman) A trio of scientists has just laid out a new classification scheme…
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Project Blue tries again with crowdfunding campaign for planet-watching telescope
An artist’s conception shows a preliminary design for the Project Blue telescope. (Project Blue via Vimeo) Project Blue is launching a second try to attract crowdfunding for a space telescope designed to study planets in the Alpha Centauri system, months after the first try fizzled. This time around, the BoldlyGo Institute and its Project Blue…