News tagged with habitable zones

New super-earth detected within the habitable zone of a nearby star

(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of scientists has discovered a potentially habitable super-Earth orbiting a nearby star. With an orbital period of about 28 days and a minimum mass 4.5 times that of ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (37) | comments 47 | with audio podcast

Super-Earth unlikely able to transfer life to other planets

While scientists believe conditions suitable for life might exist on the so-called "super-Earth" in the Gliese 581 system, it's unlikely to be transferred to other planets within that solar system.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (14) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Dark matter could provide heat for starless planets

(PhysOrg.com) -- In a recent paper posted at arXiv.org and submitted to Astrophysical Journal, Dan Hooper and Jason Steffen, physicists at Fermilab in Illinois, present the theory that cold and dark planet ...

Physics / General Physics

created Apr 01, 2011 | popularity 3.3 / 5 (20) | comments 149 | with audio podcast report

Kepler confirms its first planet in habitable zone of sun-like star

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed its first planet in the "habitable zone," the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface. Kepler also has discovered more than 1,000 ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 05, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (29) | comments 41 | with audio podcast

Scientists find potentially habitable planet near Earth

(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of planet hunters led by astronomers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the Carnegie Institution of Washington has announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet (three ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 29, 2010 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (78) | comments 67 | with audio podcast

Habitable planets and white dwarfs

(PhysOrg.com) -- The search for habitable planets similar to Earth has routinely focused around active nuclear burning stars. However, in a recently published paper by Eric Agol from the University of Washington, ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 22, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (21) | comments 21 | with audio podcast report

Kepler finds first earth-size planets beyond our solar system

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (33) | comments 61 | with audio podcast

Astronomers identify three extrasolar planets

(Phys.org) -- It's not little green men, but it could be a step in that direction: Cornell astronomers, using data from the NASA Kepler Mission, have identified three Earthlike planets orbiting their own suns, all of which ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Apr 26, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

First rocky planet discovered: NASA spots tiny Earth-like planet, too hot for life

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA has spotted a tiny, rocky planet about the size of Earth doing a speedy orbit of a star outside our solar system, but its scorching temperatures are too hot for life, the space agency ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Jan 10, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (13) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Many billions of rocky planets in the habitable zones around red dwarfs in the Milky Way

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new result from ESO’s HARPS planet finder shows that rocky planets not much bigger than Earth are very common in the habitable zones around faint red stars. The international team estimates ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (18) | comments 37 | with audio podcast

Extending the habitable zone for red dwarf stars

Scientists have long thought that planets had to orbit very close to small and dim red dwarf stars in order to be warm enough for life. New research challenges that assumption.

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Feb 24, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Avatar's moon Pandora could be real

In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable - and inhabited - alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Dec 17, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (28) | comments 10

50 new exoplanets discovered by HARPS

Astronomers using ESO's world-leading exoplanet hunter HARPS have today announced a rich haul of more than 50 new exoplanets, including 16 super-Earths, one of which orbits at the edge of the habitable zone ...

Space & Earth / Astronomy

created Sep 12, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (17) | comments 14 | with audio podcast

Elements of ExoPlanets

By looking at the wavelengths of light from nearby stars, researchers have determined the abundance of certain elements for more than a hundred stars. Trace elements in such stars may influence their habitable ...

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Feb 02, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Is it snowing microbes on Enceladus?

There's a tiny moon orbiting beyond Saturn's rings that's full of promise, and maybe -- just maybe -- microbes.

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 28, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (12) | comments 4 | with audio podcast