The exoplanet, called K2-315b, orbits a dwarf star that lies 186 light-years from Earth, a new study reports. K2-315b was spotted in data gathered in 2017, during the extended K2 mission of NASA's Kepler space telescope , and was confirmed using 2020 observations by a network of ground-based telescopes called SPECULOOS (a creative acronym for "Search for Habitable Planets Eclipsing Utra-cool Stars").
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"The planet moves like clockwork," study lead author Prajwal Niraula, a graduate student in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, said in a statement .
In case you are keeping track:
Mars Glistens, The Moon Glides Past Planets As Equinox Occurs: What To Watch For In The Night Sky
With plenty of planets and a Moon moving past Jupiter and Saturn, this week is great for looking up. ... [+]
Each Monday I pick out the northern hemisphere's celestial highlights (mid-northern latitudes) for the week ahead, but be sure to check my main feed for more in-depth articles on stargazing, astronomy and eclipses.
This week sees the autumnal equinox, a celestial event that begins the astronomical season of fall. We earthlings will all get the same amount of sunlight, with the day and night of almost identical length ("equinox" comes from aequus and nox, Latin for equal and nox) . Exactly halfway between the summer and winter solstice's, it's the point of the year when the Sun crosses the celestial equator heading south and Earth's axis is side-on to the sun.
Venus is a 'Russian planet,' Kremlin top scientist claims | Fox News
Dmitry Rogozin, the director general of Russian space agency Roscosmos, said the second planet from the sun is a "Russian planet" as the former Soviet Union landed a probe on Venus decades ago.
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The Soviet-era Venera program was designed to learn more about the planet Venus, which some researchers believe was habitable in its distant past. The Venera program, which lasted between 1961 and 1984, saw a number of achievements, including a soft landing on the planet on Dec. 15, 1970 (Venera 7), the first of its kind.
First Possible "Survivor" Planet Discovered by NASA Next to a Stellar Cinder
WD 1856 b, a potential planet the size of Jupiter, orbits its dim white dwarf star every 36 hours and is about seven times larger. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
The Jupiter-size object, called WD 1856 b, is about seven times larger than the white dwarf, named WD 1856+534. It circles this stellar cinder every 34 hours, more than 60 times faster than Mercury orbits our Sun.
“WD 1856 b somehow got very close to its white dwarf and managed to stay in one piece,” said Andrew Vanderburg, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “The white dwarf creation process destroys nearby planets, and anything that later gets too close is usually torn apart by the star’s immense gravity. We still have many questions about how WD 1856 b arrived at its current location without meeting one of those fates.”
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See the International Space Station, 3 planets in tonight's sky | Lehigh Valley Regional News |
UW-Madison Astronomer Finds Planet Circling Tiny, Dead Star
Like stars tend to do when they run out of fuel, it probably puffed up to a red giant many times its original size, engulfing nearby planets in its wake, says Andrew Vanderburg, an assistant professor of astronomy at UW-Madison. It then shrank down into a dull, dense white dwarf, which would start to cool off over the years.
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He and his colleagues recently discovered a large planet, about the size of Jupiter, tightly circling the dead star — the first time a planet has been found in such close orbit to a white dwarf. This means a planet was probably farther away from the star at first, but then was pulled into a tighter orbit after the blast.
Alien planets in deep space could be made of diamonds, researchers suggest | Fox News
Newly published research suggests that some exoplanets in deep space largely comprised of carbon could turn into diamonds.
The research, published in The Planetary Science Journal , suggests that these "carbon-rich" planets could have the right conditions, such as water, heat and pressure, to turn the carbon into diamonds. These planets could also form other minerals that are found on Earth, such as silicates and oxides.
llustration of a carbon-rich planet with diamond and silica as main minerals. Water can convert a carbide planet into a diamond-rich planet. In the interior, the main minerals would be diamond and silica (a layer with crystals in the illustration). The core (dark blue) might be iron-carbon alloy. Credit: Shim/ASU/Vecteezy
Happening on Twitter
'Pi planet' alien world takes 3.14 days to orbit its star https://t.co/RJIqlJcWym https://t.co/YREJ6p8Nhl SPACEdotcom (from NYC) Tue Sep 22 12:05:32 +0000 2020
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