For life to form on a planet it needs to orbit the right kind of star
In the search for life-sustaining planets we must first choose the right host star.
Astronomy
Dec 2, 2014
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Page 15 - News tagged with rocky planet
Spitzer telescope witnesses asteroid smashup
(Phys.org) —NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted an eruption of dust around a young star, possibly the result of a smashup between large asteroids. This type of collision can eventually lead to the formation of planets.
Astronomy
Aug 28, 2014
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Enter the Dragon: Mega-Earth in Draco smashes notions of planetary formation
Worlds like this one aren't supposed to exist. In Draco the Dragon-the 8th largest constellation in our sky-there exists a solid planet weighing close to 17 times as much as Earth. This announcement rocked the scientific ...
Astronomy
Jun 16, 2014
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Astronomers find a new type of planet: The 'mega-Earth'
Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a new type of planet - a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn't form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas ...
Astronomy
Jun 2, 2014
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Astronomers identify signature of Earth-eating stars
(Phys.org) —Some Sun-like stars are 'Earth-eaters.' During their development they ingest large amounts of the rocky material from which 'terrestrial' planets like Earth, Mars and Venus are made.
Astronomy
May 20, 2014
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Scientists solve riddle of celestial archaeology
A decades old space mystery has been solved by an international team of astronomers led by Professor Martin Barstow of the University of Leicester and President-elect of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Astronomy
Mar 26, 2014
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Space sunflower may help snap pictures of planets
A spacecraft that looks like a giant sunflower might one day be used to acquire images of Earth-like rocky planets around nearby stars. The prototype deployable structure, called a starshade, is being developed by NASA's ...
Astronomy
Mar 21, 2014
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Mercury contracted more than prior estimates, evidence shows
New evidence gathered by NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft at Mercury indicates the planet closest to the sun has shrunk up to 7 kilometers in radius over the past 4 billion years, much more than earlier estimates.
Space Exploration
Mar 16, 2014
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Massive exoplanets may be more earth-like than thought: 'Super-earths' likely to have both oceans and continents
(Phys.org) —Massive terrestrial planets, called "super-Earths," are known to be common in our galaxy, the Milky Way. Now a Northwestern University astrophysicist and a University of Chicago geophysicist report the odds ...
Astronomy
Jan 7, 2014
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Kepler provides insight about enigmatic but ubiquitous planets, five new rocky planets
(Phys.org) —More than three-quarters of the planet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft have sizes ranging from that of Earth to that of Neptune, which is nearly four times as big as Earth. Such planets dominate ...
Astronomy
Jan 6, 2014
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