Kepler Planet-Hunting hits major technical problems [update]
NASA’s Kepler Planet-Hunting telescope has lost its ability to point toward stars, because one of the reaction wheels that control the telescope’s orientation in space,
Two Earth like Exoplanets found
An international team of scientists analyzing data from NASA’s Kepler mission, has announced the discovery of the first small, potentially rocky planets. Named Kepler-62e and
Earth-like Exoplanets are right Next Door
Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), using publicly available data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, have found that six percent of red dwarf
Sharing the Light of Two Suns
Kepler-47 detected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope, is the first transiting circumbinary system – multiple planets orbiting two suns – 4,900 light-years from Earth, in
Closest two-planet system yet found
“These two worlds are having close encounters!” said Josh Carter, a Hubble Fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Two planets in the Kepler-36 system they
More exoplanets from Kepler
This illustration shows the 63 hot Jupiter systems, planetary systems with Jupiter-size planet candidates in three-day orbits, and their stars as well as approximate stellar
The light of Alien Super Earth (video)
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope was able to detect a super Earth’s direct light for the first time using its sensitive heat-seeking infrared vision. Super Earth’s
Kepler finds two more Exoplanets orbiting Binary Stars
Using data from NASA’s Kepler Mission, San Diego State University astronomers announced the discovery of two new transiting “circumbinary” planet systems — planets that orbit
Kepler mission finds three Smallest Exoplanets
Astronomers announced today that they found three new planets outside our solar system, that they are the smallest exoplanets yet discovered—each of them tinier than
Best of Astronomy 2011
The year of exoplanets. The Kepler space observatory to discover Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. The spacecraft, named in honor of the 17th-century German astronomer
