Finding new planets lurking in space isn't as hard as it used to be, but that doesn't mean it's not a challenge. High-tech instruments like NASA's Kepler Space Telescope have provided researchers with a wealth of data that can be mined for new discoveries. University of British Columbia student Michelle Kunimoto did just that and now has 17 brand new planets to her name.
Kunimoto, a PhD candidate, is the lead author of a new paper published in The Astronomical Journal that describes the 17 new planets in rough detail. We don't know much about them, but at least one of them is approximately Earth-sized and is thought to be rocky, just like our own planet.
Not to change the topic here:
Destination Uranus! Rare chance to reach ice giants excites scientists
Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) as seen by Voyager 2, the only probed to have visited the planets. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech (L) and NASA (R)
Momentum is building among planetary scientists to send a major mission to Uranus or Neptune — the most distant and least explored planets in the Solar System. Huge gaps remain in scientists' knowledge of the blueish planets, known as the ice giants, which have been visited only once by a spacecraft. But the pressure is on to organize a mission in the next decade, because scientists want to take advantage of an approaching planetary alignment that would significantly cut travel time.
NASA Approves Development of Universe-Studying, Planet-Finding Mission | NASA
Scientists seize rare chance to watch faraway star system evolve -- ScienceDaily
A young planet located 150 light-years away has given UNSW Sydney astrophysicists a rare chance to study a planetary system in the making.
The findings, recently published in The Astronomical Journal , suggest that the planet DS Tuc Ab -- which orbits a star in a binary system -- formed without being heavily impacted by the gravitational pull of the second star.
"We expected the pull from the second star to tilt the rotating disk of gas and dust that once surrounded the main star -- a process that would skew the orbit of the planet," says Dr Benjamin Montet, Scientia Fellow at UNSW Sydney and lead author of the study.
Were you following this:
Planets offer contrasting colors Friday morning | | tucson.com
Look toward the east at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 5, to see the nearly 11-day-old moon just east of the twins Castor and Pollux (closest to the moon) in Gemini the Twins. To the right (south) of the moon 17 degrees is Procyon in Canis Minor the Lesser Dog.
Friday at 5:30 a.m., look toward the southeast. Bright Jupiter is readily evident 20 degrees above the horizon. To the right (west) of Jupiter 7 degrees and higher above the horizon is Mars. To the left (east) of Jupiter 8 degrees and closer to the horizon is Saturn. These planets form a nearly straight line. Jupiter is bright white, and Saturn is yellow white. Mars is distinctly red providing a nice contrast with the colors of Jupiter and Saturn.
See what a former NASA scientist had to say about planet emojis
You want to know which emoji is best to send to your crush without being too obvious? Can't help you there. Want to know which planet emoji is the most scientifically accurate? Just ask a guy who worked for NASA .
The Twitterverse has now literally turned into the universe. James O'Donoghue, a former NASA scientist who now works for Japan's space agency, JAXA, recently tweeted his ultimate ranking of ringed planet emojis based on how photorealistic they were, assuming these planets were trying to be Saturn . It might not be the criteria you would expect for scrutinizing a bunch of mini planet images that weren't beamed back by a spacecraft — but it's also strangely fascinating.
Astronomers Watch Faraway Star System Evolve – Rare Chance to Study a Planetary System Forming
This is an artist’s impression of a young star surrounded by a protoplanetary disk in which planets are forming. Credit: European Southern Observatory
At only 1% the age of the sun, the DS Tuc binary system shows us how a planet might naturally develop before its orbit is disturbed by external forces.
A young planet located 150 light-years away has given UNSW Sydney astrophysicists a rare chance to study a planetary system in the making.
Total lunar eclipse: observing the Earth as a transiting planet
The sunlight that passes through the Earth's atmosphere before it reaches the moon and back reflects to Earth is called the Earthshine. The Earth's atmosphere contains many by-products of biological activity, such as oxygen and ozone in association with water vapor, methane and carbon dioxide. These biogenic molecules present attractive narrow molecular bands at optical and near infrared wavelengths for detection in atmospheres of other planets.
January 2019 featured a total lunar eclipse. The moon dimmed by a factor of 20,000 during totality which is the reason why the light gathering capability of the 11.8 m Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona was needed for the observations.
Happening on Twitter
Congratulations to @UBC PhD student, Michelle Kunimoto! Your discovery is a significant 🇨🇦 contribution to the fiel… https://t.co/JiHJ1VMieb csa_asc (from Saint-Hubert, Quebec, Canada) Mon Mar 02 21:41:06 +0000 2020
A UBC astronomy student has discovered 17 new possible planets, including 1 that may have water. https://t.co/fj4rhvLYYR cbcnewsbc (from Vancouver, British Columbia) Mon Mar 02 05:33:01 +0000 2020
Astronomy student discovers 17 new planets https://t.co/5XcssKbzUj https://t.co/nPte3oSfP0 nypost (from New York, NY) Mon Mar 02 15:41:10 +0000 2020
ICYMI: B.C. astronomy student uses publicly available NASA data to find 17 new possible planets https://t.co/xs6MTEfxWQ CBCAlerts (from Toronto) Mon Mar 02 12:08:58 +0000 2020
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