News tagged with rocky planet
First of NASA's GRAIL spacecraft enters Moon orbit
(PhysOrg.com) -- The first of two NASA spacecraft to study the moon in unprecedented detail has entered lunar orbit.
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Jan 01, 2012 |
4.1 / 5 (9) |
15
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Mercury's magnetic field -- nipped in the bud
(PhysOrg.com) -- Mercury, the smallest of the eight planets with a diameter of 4900 kilometres and the closest to the Sun, looks more like the Moon than the Earth from the outside. It is the only rocky planet ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Dec 23, 2011 |
5 / 5 (3) |
27
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Clocking Neptune's spin
(PhysOrg.com) -- By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a UA planetary scientist has accurately determined the planet's rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets ...
Jun 29, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (15) |
3
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Watery, rocky planets may be common in the Milky Way
(PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of astronomers have discovered compelling evidence that rocky planets are commonplace in our Galaxy. Leicester University scientist and lead researcher Dr Jay Farihi ...
Apr 13, 2010 |
4.8 / 5 (25) |
8
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Solar systems around dead Suns?
(PhysOrg.com) -- Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, an international team of astronomers have found that at least 1 in 100 white dwarf stars show evidence of orbiting asteroids and rocky planets, suggesting ...
Apr 20, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (15) |
3
Astronomers discover a rare stellar disk of quartz dust
A research team of Japanese astronomers led by Dr. Hideaki Fujiwara (Subaru Telescope) has discovered a main-sequence star that is surrounded by a rare disk of quartz dust. Collisions of planetesimals, building ...
May 05, 2012 |
5 / 5 (12) |
4
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When stellar metallicity sparks planet formation
New research predicts the criteria needed for Earth-like planets to form around a star that have one-tenth the metallicity of our Sun. If researchers find small, rocky planets orbiting stars with lower metallicity, ...
Apr 10, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
9
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Stars with dusty disks should harbor Earth-like worlds
Stars with disks of debris around them might be good targets to search for Earth-like planets, researchers say.
Mar 09, 2012 |
4.5 / 5 (4) |
0
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Twin Grail spacecraft begin collecting lunar science data
(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft orbiting the moon officially have begun their science collection phase. During the next 84 days, scientists will obtain a ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Mar 07, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
2
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The water reservoir in a young planetary system
(PhysOrg.com) -- Astronomers once thought that the process of star formation was more-or-less controlled by the simple coalescence of material by gravity, leading eventually to a new star. But they have come ...
Nov 15, 2011 |
4.4 / 5 (5) |
1
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Lutetia: A rare survivor from the birth of the Earth
(PhysOrg.com) -- New observations indicate that the asteroid Lutetia is a leftover fragment of the same original material that formed the Earth, Venus and Mercury. Astronomers have combined data from ESA’s ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Nov 11, 2011 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
8
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Heavy metal stars produce Earth-Like planets
New research reveals that, like their giant cousins, rocky planets are more likely to be found orbiting high metallicity stars. Furthermore, these planets are more plentiful around low mass stars. This could ...
Sep 30, 2011 |
5 / 5 (14) |
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How common are earth-moon planetary systems?
Sebastian Elser, Prof. Ben Moore and Dr. Joachim Stadel of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, in cooperation with Ryuji Morishima of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, tried to estimate how common Earth-Moon ...
Sep 18, 2011 |
4.9 / 5 (15) |
20
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Rocky planets could have been born as gas giants
When NASA announced the discovery of over 1,200 new potential planets spotted by the Kepler Space Telescope, almost a quarter of them were thought to be Super-Earths. Now, new research suggests that these ...
Sep 16, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (11) |
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Greenhouse effect could extend habitable zone
The distant region beyond Saturn is too cold for liquid water, a necessity for life as we know it. But new research indicates that rocky planets far from their parent star could generate enough heat to keep ...
Aug 26, 2011 |
4.8 / 5 (9) |
20
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