A new Goldilocks for habitable planets
The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher.
The search for habitable, alien worlds needs to make room for a second "Goldilocks," according to a Yale University researcher.
Astronomy
Aug 19, 2016
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The Kepler satellite was designed to search for Earth-sized planets in the habitable zone of stars by measuring dips in a star's brightness as orbiting planets move across the stellar disc (transits). Its sensitive camera ...
Astronomy
May 16, 2016
9
782
I've said many times in the past that the Earth is the best planet in the universe. No matter where we go, we'll never find a planet that's a better home to Earth life than Earth. Of course, that's because we, and all other ...
Astronomy
Sep 25, 2019
2
347
Astronomers at the 29th International Astronomical Union General Assembly will announce on August 14 the discovery of a new transiting "circumbinary" planet, bringing the number of such known planets into double digits. A ...
Astronomy
Aug 7, 2015
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2546
On Saturn’s giant moon Titan, it is so cold that water is frozen as hard as granite. And yet there is a complete liquid cycle of methane and ethane. Scientists wonder whether there could also be life.
Space Exploration
Mar 18, 2010
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0
TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, was launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering small planets around the Sun's nearest neighbors, stars bright enough to allow for follow-up characterizations of their planets' ...
Astronomy
Oct 26, 2020
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695
Earth came early to the party in the evolving universe. According to a new theoretical study, when our solar system was born 4.6 billion years ago only eight percent of the potentially habitable planets that will ever form ...
Astronomy
Oct 20, 2015
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The fate of humanity if aliens were to discover Earth with its balmy climate and bountiful resources, has long been a concern for scientists—many of whom fear the worst.
Astronomy
Apr 1, 2016
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498
Can life survive for billions of years longer than the expected timeline on Earth? As scientists discover older and older solar systems, it's likely that before long we'll find an ancient planet in a habitable zone. Knowing ...
Astronomy
May 7, 2015
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5267
An international team of astronomers including Carnegie's Paul Butler has found clear evidence of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System. The new world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool ...
Astronomy
Aug 24, 2016
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3014