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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2009
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NEWS ABOUT: planet

planet stories: 37 news summaries

21 - 37 of 37 Stories | << Prev 1 2

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OPINION

 New Planets Yield 
 Hopes of Life 
 Beyond  

Rocky, Earth-like orbs appear to be out there; might we indeed have company?

Jun 24, 08 1:43 PM CDT
(Newser) - The discovery, announced last week, that rocky, Earth-sized planets appear to be circling sun-sized stars in our own galaxy should thrill the closet Star Trek geek in all of us, Natalie Angier writes in the New York Times. "If planets abound, scientists suspect that life abounds, too, at... More »

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astronomy • space exploration • planet • deep space • extraterrestrial life • Milky Way • galaxy • Kepler spacecraft

Scientists Find Planets Out of This World

Discoveries of, info about new heavenly bodies pour into NASA

Mar 24, 08 9:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - Humans took centuries to discover the other planets in the solar system, but in the 13 years since the first additional planet was identified, planetary scientists have found 277 more worlds orbiting other suns. And those extrasolar planets are just the confirmed ones—many more are suspected, and excitement among... More »

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NASA • planet • MIT • space • extrasolar planets • JPL • Joint Propulsion Laboratory

Saturn Moon Rings Detected

Rhea could be be the first known moon with rings

Mar 7, 08 4:20 AM CST
(Newser) - Saturn’s second-largest moon, Rhea, could be the first known moon with rings. The spacecraft Cassini detected apparent evidence of rings when it spotted debris around Rhea as it flew by in 2005, reports space.com. The set of rings has not been directly seen, but scientists inferred that the... More »

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planet • Earth • deep space • Saturn • Cassini • moons • spacecraft • electron • space mission

New Solar System Sparks Hope for
Other Life

Maybe we're not alone, say astronomers

Feb 15, 08 4:10 AM CST
(Newser) - Excited astronomers say that the discovery of a solar system with strong similarities to our own raises the chances of other life out there. The system has two gas giants similar to Jupiter and Saturn orbiting at a similar distance from the alien sun 5,000 light years away, and... More »

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astronomy • planet • space • extraterrestrial life • solar system

Spectacular Show Awaits Sky Gazers

Venus and Jupiter
to converge, and the
moon drops in, too

Jan 26, 08 2:58 PM CST
(Newser) - Sky gazers have an exceptional show awaiting them over the next couple of weeks, Space.com reports, and the most striking celestial sights will be in the early morning. Venus and Jupiter, the two brightest planets, will converge, forming a spectacular "double planet" low in the dawn light, and... More »

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astronomy • planet • space • Jupiter • moon • Venus

Probe Zips Over Mercury Today

Messenger will take 1,200 pictures from 124 miles up

Jan 14, 08 4:33 AM CST
(Newser) - NASA's Messenger spacecraft this afternoon will whiz past Mercury at 141,000 mph and snap an estimated 1,200 detailed photos of the planet's surface from a mere 124 miles up. It will be the first of three passes before the craft starts orbiting the planet closest to the sun... More »

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NASA • planet • space • research • sun • photograph • Mercury • Messenger

Planet Found Orbiting Star

Gas giant is 45 times the size of Earth

Nov 6, 07 10:28 PM CST
(Newser) - Astronomers have found a planet that’s at least 45 times the size of Earth orbiting a star 41 light years away, Space.com reports. The giant ball of gas is the fifth planet discovered around the star 55 Cancri. And while it's not a "twin of our solar... More »

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astronomy • planet • space • solar system • Cancri 55

Astronomers Watch as New Earth-Like Planet Forms

424 light-years away, materials clump together around young star

Oct 4, 07 2:45 PM CDT
(Newser) - A massive belt of dust swirling around a young star 424 light-years away could be evidence of a second Earth in the making, Space.com reports. Astronomers observing the area through a NASA space telescope say many of the conditions for forming an Earth-sized planet are present, including moderate temperatures... More »

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NASA • astronomy • planet • Earth

When the Sun Dies, Earth Might Not

Just-discovered planet survived; so there's hope for the old globe

Sep 13, 07 3:32 AM CDT
(Newser) - When the Sun begins to kick out in some 5 billion years, it might not take Earth with it, reports the New York Times. Scientists are more optimistic since discovering a planet that survived a similar situation. A lack of hydrogen fuel is expected to cause the Sun to expand... More »

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planet • Earth • sun • solar system • life

25 Biggest Scientific Discoveries

From the unfathomably small to the mind-blowingly huge, the most significant breakthroughs

Aug 21, 07 1:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - The invention of the wheel was pretty good. Fire, even better. But what has science done for us lately? USA Today lists the top 25 scientific discoveries; here are the top 10:
  1. Accelerating universe
  2. Human genome
  3. Climate accord
More »

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Internet • science • planet • Hubble • DNA • list • RNA • genes • genome • ozone • Pluto • quarks

Largest Planet Ever Discovered

Huge, lightweight discovery puzzles scientists

Aug 7, 07 1:53 PM CDT
(Newser) - Forget Jupiter. Scientists have discovered the largest planet out there—a "puffy" space mass almost twice the size of our solar system's gas giant. But the find is posing more questions than answers, Space.com reports: TrES-4’s mass is large but its density is about the same as... More »

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astronomy • planet • space • exoplanet • Lowell Observatory • Georgi Mandushev • discovery

Destroy Earth: 10 Easy Methods

Get your evil on with these surefire ways to obliterate the planet

Aug 6, 07 9:34 AM CDT
(Newser) - Destroying life on earth is one thing; obliterating the planet entirely is quite another. Bring out your inner supervillain with any of these 10 strategies.
  1. Hurl the earth into the sun.
  2. Release a Von Neumann machine beneath the earth's crust.
  3. Smash something large (such as Mars) into
... More »

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environment • global warming • planet • list • Earth • destruction • black hole

Planet with Water Discovered

HD 189733b holds superheated water vapor but is too hot for aliens

Jul 11, 07 3:57 PM CDT
(Newser) - Astronomers located the first planet beyond our solar system that hosts water—a giant gas ball bigger than Jupiter and named HD 189733b. Its sizzling climate, which can reach upwards of 3,600 degrees, renders it uninhabitable to any extraterrestrials, but the discovery shows that water is more common in... More »

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NASA • water • European Space Agency • planet • space • extraterrestrial life • Spitzer orbiting telescope • wobble • light • aliens • HD189733b • Vulpecula the Fox • Jupiter • discovery

Scientists Find Cold Dwarf Star

Failed star has temperature a tenth of the sun's

Jun 5, 07 8:51 AM CDT
(Newser) - Scientists are over the moon with the discovery of a cold brown dwarf in the Cetus constellation. The star-like body, spotted by a British team using the UKIRT telescope in Hawaii, is the coldest of its kind ever seen, the BBC reports, tipping thermometers at just 800 degrees F, a... More »

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space exploration • planet • space • dwarf star • telescope • star • Cetus • discovery

Crop of New Planets Means Better Chance of Life

Rapid discovery of planets outside our solar system ups odds one has liquid water

May 29, 07 7:07 AM CDT
(Newser) - Astronomers who've spotted 28 new planets in the past year are gaining confidence that other solar systems may be able to support life like ours. One researcher estimated that there are probably "tens of billions" of planets with habitable conditions, most important of which is hospitality to water. More »

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astronomy • planet • space • solar system • universe • exoplanet

Earth-Like Planet Could Sustain Life

Scientists claim major breakthrough
in search for extraterrestrial life

Apr 25, 07 7:29 AM CDT
(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a planet that can sustain liquid water, the prerequisite for life as we understand it. Named Gliese 581 C, the new planet orbits a red dwarf star in what's called the "Goldilocks zone"—not so close that water melts, and not so far that it... More »

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astronomy • space exploration • science • planet • Gliese 581 C • dwarf star • Goldilocks zone • extraterrestrial life

NASA Shutters Ideas Factory  

Mar 22, 07 8:47 AM CDT
(Newser) - In a cost-cutting move, NASA is shutting down its futuristic think tank, source of way-ahead-of-the-curve ideas, many of them worthy of a Star Trek script. Closing the Institute for Advanced Concepts will save $4 million out of NASA’s $16 billion dollar budget. But former NASA scientist Keith Cowing describes... More »

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technology • NASA • space exploration • genetics • science • planet • space • think tank • Institute for Advanced Concepts • Keith Cowing • NIAC • deep space

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