Sentences with phrase «earth for astronomers»

Not exact matches

Astronomers have discovered an Earth - sized planet outside our solar system which is expected to be temperate and could be a «comfortable abode for possible life».

Few biologists, few geologists, few physicists and astronomers are creationists, they see the evidence for evolution and an old — indeed, ancient — Earth in what they work with every day.

For example, from the time of 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, the earth was viewed as the center of the universe, called the geocentric theory, with the sun and planets revolving around it.

In the case of GRB 990123, astronomers were able for the first time to obtain a record of the event from a variety of instruments as its radiation reached Earth.

Bizarrely, the supernovae appeared to be farther away from Earth than anybody had anticipated, implying that the cosmos was altogether bigger than astronomers had bargained for, as though gravity's pulling power was somehow being overwhelmed.

Geneticists and information scientists have built and are building models for the transition of organic molecules to self - replicating living organisms, based on theories of Earth's early development provided by astronomers, geologists, and oceanographers and on the evidence of fossilized microorganisms discovered by paleontologists.

In addition, 55 Cancri e transits its star, meaning it crosses the star's face as seen from Earth, casting a shadow that astronomers can data - mine for information about the planet's possible atmosphere and surface.

Astronomers used a radio telescope called the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) to look for organic molecules in the Large Magellanic Cloud, located about 160,000 light - years from Earth.

That would be big enough to fulfill several high - priority items on astronomers» wish lists, revolutionizing studies of faraway galaxies, observations of planets in the outer solar system and searches for life on Earth - like exoplanets.

When it comes to extrasolar planets, smaller is better — at least for astronomers, who long to find worlds like Earth.

After years of scrutinizing the closest star to Earth, a red dwarf known as Proxima Centauri, astronomers have finally found evidence for a planet, slightly bigger than Earth and well within the star's habitable zone — the range of orbits in which liquid water could exist on its surface.

«This theoretical model will help astronomers concentrate on promising candidates in their search for Earth - like planets,» says Alibert.

And it would allow astronomers to closely examine dozens of potentially Earth - like exoplanets for signs of alien life.

A team of astronomers at the University of Chicago and Grinnell College seeks to change the way scientists approach the search for Earth - like planets orbiting stars other than the sun.

To identify a truly Earthlike exoplanet with the potential for life, astronomers need to confirm three essential attributes: an atmosphere that contains life - supporting molecules such as oxygen and water, plus a size and mass similar to Earth's.

For astronomers who observe the universe through radio waves generated by stars and galaxies, interference from an Earth - based source can easily drown out any far - off signal.

China's astronomers rallied around the idea of leapfrogging to a 12 - meter telescope that, if completed quickly before other giants like the TMT, would for some years be the largest telescope on Earth.

Since liquid water is critical to life on Earth, many astronomers believe the search for extraterrestrial life should focus on planets where liquid water occurs.

It sounds like science fiction, but astronomers discovered it could be reality for the TRAPPIST - 1 system, which boasts seven Earth - sized worlds — a record.

A SCIENCE - FICTION scene could be playing out for real about 4900 light years from Earth, where astronomers have spotted the first known pair of planets jointly orbiting a binary star system (Science, doi.org/h8h).

Despite all these negatives, humidity does have one major upside: It steadies the «seeing,» the astronomer's descriptive and remarkably untechnical term for the blurriness caused by Earth's atmosphere.

The idea that the universe was made just for us — known as the anthropic principle — debuted in 1973 when Brandon Carter, then a physicist at Cambridge University, spoke at a conference in Poland honoring Copernicus, the 16th - century astronomer who said that the sun, not Earth, was the hub of the universe.

«Looking around the very nearest Sun - like stars is the next logical step in the search for another Earth,» says Supriya Chakrabarti, an astronomer at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who is developing planet - imaging technologies for Project Blue.

Kepler's bureaucratic history was even more tortured than Corot's, but the spacecraft is headed for launch on April 10, 2009, and astronomers are counting on it to settle the question of just how common Earths are — a result that will guide the whole future search for life in the universe.

For astronomers — especially astrobiologists — Titan is closer to Earth than the physical distance would first suggest.

Dayton Jones and Thomas Kuiper, radio astronomers at JPL, have sketched a plan for deploying a rover to build a VLF radio telescope - essentially a huge network of wires acting as radio - wave receivers - in a crater on the lunar farside, where the moon's bulk blots out Earth's radio noise.

Centuries ago people imagined Earth to be ground zero for the universe — its center and starting point — until astronomers told them otherwise.

For a long time the apparent discrepancy between the age of earth and the age of the cosmos posed a great problem to geologists and astronomers alike.

Fast radio bursts, which flash for just a few milliseconds, created a stir among astronomers because they seemed to be coming from outside our galaxy, which means they would have to be very powerful to be seen from Earth, and because none of those first observed were ever seen again.

Reaching for the Stars The enterprise got a boost on Aug. 24 when astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile announced the discovery of an Earth - like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, one of three stars in the Alpha Centauri system.

The theory, for example, that the dinosaur die - off was caused by Earth's collision with an asteroid or comet owes much to multidisciplinary efforts by astronomers, geologists, paleontologists, and chemists.

The «DNA» collected traces the ancestry of stars, showing astronomers how the Universe went from having only hydrogen and helium — just after the Big Bang — to being filled today with all the elements we have here on Earth that are necessary for life.

For example, another research team has already analyzed the gas and dust emitted by Wild 2, and astronomers look forward to January 2006 when a Stardust capsule containing thousands of comet dust particles will return to Earth for more thorough investigatiFor example, another research team has already analyzed the gas and dust emitted by Wild 2, and astronomers look forward to January 2006 when a Stardust capsule containing thousands of comet dust particles will return to Earth for more thorough investigatifor more thorough investigation.

Titan's surface seems to be covered with ethane oceans and an organic goo that may resemble the Earth's early surface chemistry, but nobody knows for sure, because astronomers can't see through the moon's maddeningly opaque orange fog.

For nearly 2 centuries, astronomers have been using a trigonometric device called a parallax to measure the distances between Earth and other objects in our region of the Milky Way galaxy.

Astronomer Fabrizio Nicastro of the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his colleagues monitored the galaxy Markarian 421, which contains a «blazar» — an active black hole that aims powerful jets of energy toward Earth.

«In 1972 the leap second was considered a step forward,» says astronomer Dennis McCarthy, who runs the Washington - based time directorate for the International Earth Rotation Service.

The broad - shouldered summit of Mauna Kea holds many meanings for many people: For astronomers, it's a high - altitude playground of stars, among the best places on Earth to explore the firmament with minimal atmospheric distortifor many people: For astronomers, it's a high - altitude playground of stars, among the best places on Earth to explore the firmament with minimal atmospheric distortiFor astronomers, it's a high - altitude playground of stars, among the best places on Earth to explore the firmament with minimal atmospheric distortion.

The astronomers have to correct for the distortions caused by Earth's atmosphere.

The rapid rate of discovery of exoplanets can be attributed to the maturity of Doppler spectroscopy, by which astronomers measure a planet's gravitational tug on its host star, and by a technique involving «transiting» planets — looking for planets that move between their host stars and Earth, the method used by Mandushev to find TrES - 4.

For astronomers, the proposed new telescope represents tremendous promise: With a mirror nearly three times larger than any other on Earth, it could detect signs of life in other solar systems and provide clues to the origins of the universe.

Astronomers are searching for seasonal changes during the Jovian year (11.86 Earth years).

After years of scrutinizing the closest star to Earth, a red dwarf known as Proxima Centauri, astronomers have finally found evidence for a planet, slightly bigger than Earth, well within the star's habitable zone — the range of orbits in which liquid water could exist on its surface.

Surely this could be used as evidence for panspermia, the theory that life on Earth was seeded from space, as proposed by astronomers Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasinghe.

The new findings may help astronomers narrow their search for objects in orbits that threaten Earth, the researchers suggest.

Astronomers have for the first time recorded the full force of the shock wave hurled from supernova 1987A, the brightest stellar explosion witnessed from Earth since the invention of the modern telescope.

And astronomer Zoltan Balog of the Steward Observatory in Tucson, Arizona, says he thinks the research «basically means that protoplanetary disks might be able to produce prebiotic molecules and ultimately the basic building blocks for life at the place where an Earth would form.»

This is very closely analogous to a question that astronomers have discussed for thousands of years, concerning the Earth and the sun.

For the first time, astronomers predicted when and where an asteroid would strike Earth — and recovered pieces of the rock to prove it.

As an astronomer who has been involved in topics relating to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) for 30 years, and as a former member of SETI advisory panels, I feel there is an arrogance in the transmission of these messages by small groups who have claimed the right to shout on behalf of Earth without consulting anybody else.