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Extrasolar Planet Current Events | Extrasolar Planet News | 5

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Astronomers find first habitable Earth-like planet
Astronomers have discovered the most Earth-like planet outside our Solar System to date, an exoplanet with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and capable of having liquid water.   view more (2007-04-25)

CU-Boulder space scientists set for second spacecraft flyby of Mercury
NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft, which is toting an $8.7 million University of Colorado at Boulder instrument to measure Mercury's wispy atmosphere and blistering surface, will make its second flyby of the mysterious, rocky planet Oct. 6.   view more (2008-10-01)

'Over The Moon' At Saturn
UK scientists involved in the Cassini space mission were 'over the Moon' after the spacecraft's 100,000 km per hour white knuckle ride courtesy of Saturn's gravity which successfully completed the critical manoeuvre to place Cassini in orbit around the ringed planet. 'I've waited 15 years for this moment,' said Dr Andrew Coates of the UK's... view more... (2004-07-01)

Hunt for planets outside solar system uncovers a small one
Perhaps edging closer to finding planets that harbor life, astronomers have discovered the smallest planet yet identified outside our solar system.   view more (2006-01-26)

Scientists reveal fate of Earth's oceans
Scientists at The University of Manchester have uncovered the first evidence of seawater deep inside the Earth shedding new light on the fate of the planet's oceans, according to research published in Nature.   view more (2006-05-11)

Exoplanets clue to sun's curious chemistry
"For almost 10 years we have tried to find out what distinguishes stars with planetary systems from their barren cousins," says Garik Israelian, lead author of a paper appearing this week in the journal Nature. "We have now found that the amount of lithium in Sun-like stars depends on whether or not they have planets."   view more (2009-11-12)

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)

Jupiter's massive winds likely generated from deep inside its interior, scientists report
A new computer model indicates Jupiter's massive winds are generated from deep within the giant planet's interior, a UCLA scientist and international colleagues report today in the journal Nature.   view more (2005-11-14)

Jupiter-like Planets Could Form Around Twin Suns
Life on a planet ruled by two suns might be a little complicated. Two sunrises, two sunsets. Twice the radiation field.    view more (2009-01-06)

Surprisingly rapid changes in the Earth's core discovered
In a recent paper published in Nature Geoscience, the geophysicist Mioara MANDEA from the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam and her Danish colleague Nils OLSEN from the National Space Institute/DTU Copenhagen, have shown that motions in the fluid in the Earth's core are changing surprisingly fast, and that this, in turn, effects... view more... (2008-07-08)

Lightest exoplanet yet discovered
Well-known exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor today announced the discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, "e", in the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our Earth.   view more (2009-04-22)

ESA scientist discovers a way to shortlist stars that might have planets
Markus Landgraf of the European Space Agency and colleagues (*) have found the first direct evidence that a bright disc of dust surrounds our Solar System, starting beyond the orbit of Saturn. Remarkably, their discovery gives astronomers a way to determine which other stars in the Galaxy are most likely to harbour planets and allows mission... view more... (2002-02-15)

Scientists Recreate Martian Environment
Scientists at the University of Leicester's Space Research Centre are recreating the hostile environment found on Mars in their laboratory, with a device known as the Martian Environment Simulator (MES). The machine reproduces the temperature, air pressure and unbreathable atmosphere known to exist on Mars. The MES is currently being used to test... view more... (2002-05-31)

And now the weather ... on Mars
Blinding dust storms can seriously ruin your plans for a landing on Mars. ESA is adapting the global climate models that we use to forecast our weather on Earth for the turbulent conditions that Mars offers its future visitors. You could hardly call the weather on Mars pleasant, and presently it is far from predictable. As well as having an... view more... (2002-07-03)

Polarization technique focuses limelight
An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Svetlana Berdyugina of ETH Zurich's Institute of Astronomy, has for the first time ever been able to detect and monitor the visible light that is scattered in the atmosphere of an exoplanet.   view more (2007-12-27)

NASA images, White Sands features support a wetter Mars
NASA's announcement yesterday of evidence that water still flows on Mars, at least in brief spurts, demonstrates that the view of Mars as a very dry planet should be reevaluated, says Dawn Sumner, professor of geology at UC Davis. Recent work from by Sumner and graduate student Greg Chavdarian also supports the presence of liquid water near the... view more... (2006-12-08)

Saturn's winds are variable
A team of astrophysicists at the University of the Basque Country has detected, for the first time ever, changes in Saturn's winds. The research has merited front page coverage in the scientific magazine, Nature. The winds blowing around Saturn and Jupiter are special. Unlike those of the rest of the planets, these move in an eastwards direction... view more... (2003-06-09)

Venus comes to life at wavelengths invisible to human eyes
A pale yellow-green dot to the human eye, Earth's twin planet comes to life in the ultraviolet and the infrared. New images taken by instruments on board ESA's Venus Express provide insight into the turbulent atmosphere of our neighbouring planet.   view more (2008-12-04)

Four of Saturn's moons parade by their parent
On 24 February 2009, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a photo sequence of four moons of Saturn passing in front of their parent planet.   view more (2009-03-18)

Sign of 'Embryonic Planets' Forming in Nearby Stellar Systems
Astronomers at the University of Rochester are pointing to three nearby stars they say may hold "embryonic planets"-a missing link in planet-formation theories.   view more (2007-10-02)
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