The study of alien worlds is entering its next phase as astronomers amass
the best planets outside our Solar System to look for signs of life.
Not exact matches
NASA: Three
planets found are some of
best candidates so far for habitable worlds
outside our
solar system.
Breaking News NASA: Three
planets found are some of
best candidates so far for habitable worlds
outside our
solar system.
None of the
planets yet found
outside our
solar system score particularly
well.
The discovery of seven Earth - sized
planets orbiting a single cool star fuels a debate over what counts as
good news in the search for life
outside the
solar system.
«We will know the masses [of these
planets]
better than any
planet outside of our
Solar System,» says lead author Matthew Holman from the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
New work led by Carnegie's Jacqueline Faherty surveyed various properties of 152 suspected young brown dwarfs in order to categorize their diversity and found that atmospheric properties may be behind much of their differences, a discovery that may apply to
planets outside the
solar system as
well.
In a field where small is
good — small meaning less like Jupiter and more like Earth — the latest batch of
planets netted by the space observatory includes five of the eight smallest worlds now known
outside the
solar system.
While it is unlikely that astronomers will continue to find larger objects in the belt, Brown says that the region
outside the belt, in the coldest hinterland of the
solar system, could very
well hold
planet - size rocks.
The technology, known as Laser Guide Star adaptive optics, will lead to important advances in the study of
planets both inside and
outside our
solar system, as
well as of galaxies, black holes, and how the universe formed and evolved, Ghez said.
With Hubble and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers can develop cloud maps to
better understand the atmosphere of
planets outside the
solar system.
The Year in
Planets February 01, 2012 2011 was a good year in the hunt for planets outside our solar
Planets February 01, 2012 2011 was a
good year in the hunt for
planets outside our solar
planets outside our
solar system.