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Recent Extrasolar Planet Current Events | Extrasolar Planet News | 2

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A Trio of Super-Earths
Today, at an international conference, a team of European astronomers announced a remarkable breakthrough in the field of extra-solar planets. Using the HARPS instrument at the ESO La Silla Observatory, they have found a triple system of super-Earths around the star HD 40307.   view more (2008-06-17)

Ancient mineral shows early Earth climate tough on continents
A new analysis of ancient minerals called zircons suggests that a harsh climate may have scoured and possibly even destroyed the surface of the Earth's earliest continents.   view more (2008-06-16)

Field Project Seeks Clues to Climate Change in Remote Atmospheric Region
Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting the amount of solar heat that reaches Earth's surface.   view more (2008-06-13)

Field project seeks clues to climate change in remote atmospheric region
Scientists are deploying an advanced research aircraft to study a region of the atmosphere that influences climate change by affecting the amount of solar heat that reaches Earth's surface.   view more (2008-06-13)

Plutoid chosen as name for Solar System objects like Pluto
Almost two years after the International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly introduced the category of dwarf planets, the IAU, as promised, has decided on a name for transneptunian dwarf planets similar to Pluto.   view more (2008-06-12)

Astonomers find tiny planet orbiting tiny star
An international team of astronomers led by David Bennett of the University of Notre Dame has discovered an extra-solar planet of about three Earth masses orbiting a star with a mass so low that its core may not be large enough to maintain nuclear reactions. The result was presented Monday (June 2)... view more (2008-06-03)

Phoenix mission to Mars will search for climate clues
On May 25, 2008, approaching 5 p.m. PDT, NASA scientists will be wondering: Just how green is their valley? That's because at that time the Phoenix Mars Mission space vehicle will be touching down on its three legs to make a soft landing onto the northern Mars terrain called Green Valley.    view more (2008-05-23)

Scorched Earth millenium map shows 'fire scars'
A geographer from the University of Leicester has produced for the first time a map of the scorched Earth for every year since the turn of the Millennium.   view more (2008-05-23)

Key molecule discovered in Venus's atmosphere
Venus Express has detected the molecule hydroxyl on another planet for the first time. This detection gives scientists an important new tool to unlock the workings of Venus's dense atmosphere.   view more (2008-05-16)

Hot climate could shut down plate tectonics
A new study of possible links between climate and geophysics on Earth and similar planets finds that prolonged heating of the atmosphere can shut down plate tectonics and cause a planet's crust to become locked in place.   view more (2008-05-13)

Record-setting laser may aid searches for Earthlike planets
Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated an ultrafast laser that offers a record combination of high speed, short pulses and high average power.   view more (2008-05-08)

Iron 'snow' helps maintain Mercury's magnetic field, scientists say
New scientific evidence suggests that deep inside the planet Mercury, iron "snow" forms and falls toward the center of the planet, much like snowflakes form in Earth's atmosphere and fall to the ground.   view more (2008-05-08)

Artificial intelligence boosts science from Mars
Artificial intelligence (AI) being used at the European Space Operations Centre is giving a powerful boost to ESA's Mars Express as it searches for signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.   view more (2008-04-30)

Plan to identify watery Earth-like planets develops
Astronomers are looking to identify Earth-like watery worlds circling distant stars from a glint of light seen through an optical space telescope and a mathematical method developed by researchers at Penn State and the University of Hawaii.   view more (2008-04-24)

Glaciers Reveal Martian Climate Has Been Recently Active
The prevailing thinking is that Mars is a planet whose active climate has been confined to the distant past. About 3.5 billion years ago, the Red Planet had extensive flowing water and then fell quiet - deadly quiet. It didn't seem the climate had changed much since.   view more (2008-04-24)

Is there anybody out there?
Is there anybody out there? Probably not, according to a scientist from the University of East Anglia. A mathematical model produced by Prof Andrew Watson suggests that the odds of finding new life on other Earth-like planets are low, given the time it has taken for beings such as humans to evolve... view more (2008-04-17)

The Drifting Star
By studying in great detail the 'ringing' of a planet-harbouring star, a team of astronomers using ESO's 3.6-m telescope have shown that it must have drifted away from the metal-rich Hyades cluster. This discovery has implications for theories of star and planet formation, and for the dynamics of... view more (2008-04-16)

New rocky planet found in constellation Leo
Spanish and UCL (University College London) scientists have discovered a possible terrestrial-type planet orbiting a star in the constellation of Leo. The new planet, which lies at a distance of 30 light years from the Earth, has a mass five times that of our planet but is the smallest found to... view more (2008-04-10)

Meteorites delivered the 'seeds' of Earth's left-hand life
Flash back three or four billion years - Earth is a hot, dry and lifeless place. All is still. Without warning, a meteor slams into the desert plains at over ten thousand miles per hour. With it, this violent collision may have planted the chemical seeds of life on Earth.   view more (2008-04-07)

A Planet in Progress?
Scientists are one step closer to understanding how new planets form, thanks to research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and carried out by a team of astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.   view more (2008-03-27)

Hubble finds first organic molecule on extrasolar planet
The tell-tale signature of the molecule methane in the atmosphere of the Jupiter-sized extrasolar planet HD 189733b has been found with the Hubble Space Telescope. Under the right circumstances methane can play a key role in prebiotic chemistry - the chemical reactions considered necessary to form... view more (2008-03-20)

Mercury's shifting, rolling past
Patterns of scalloped-edged cliffs or lobate scarps on Mercury's surface are thrust faults that are consistent with the planet shrinking and cooling with time. However, compression occurred in the planet's early history and Mariner 10 images revealed decades ago that lobate scarps are among the... view more (2008-03-18)

Mars Express reveals the Red Planet's volcanic past
A new analysis of impact cratering data from Mars reveals that the planet has undergone a series of global volcanic upheavals. These violent episodes spewed lava and water onto the surface, sculpting the landscape that ESA's Mars Express looks down on today.   view more (2008-03-17)

Meteorites are rich in the building blocks of life, claims new research
Amino acids that are the building blocks of life have been found in their highest ever concentration in two ancient meteorites which crashed to Earth millions of years ago, scientists claim today.   view more (2008-03-14)

10 questions shaping 21st-century earth science identified
Ten questions driving the geological and planetary sciences were identified today in a new report by the National Research Council. Aimed at reflecting the major scientific issues facing earth science at the start of the 21st century, the questions represent where the field stands, how it arrived... view more (2008-03-13)

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