Sentences with phrase «in planet hunting»

Discover talked with Seager, now at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about what's next in planet hunting.

Not exact matches

SpaceX is set to launch Wednesday evening from Florida in its latest mission for NASA, launching a new planet - hunting satellite into orbit around the Earth.

But, once released from its constraints, we flooded over the planet and, in 2000 years, we peeled the land of large game species (with the exception of Africa, where those species had time to co-evolve with us) and fueled a population boom that we could no longer feed by hunting.

But after last week's malfunction of a crucial piece of equipment on NASA's planet - hunting Kepler space telescope, the May 20 gathering of more than 100 astronomers in Cambridge,...

But the next real advance in planet - hunting will be TESS, which will correct for Kepler's most frustrating limitation: It was a little too good at its job.

In fact many scientists regard the planet - hunting space observatory as one of NASA's most successful scientific ventures.

The good news is that Kepler's latest results include 117 candidates at or below the size of Kepler - 10 b and 23 smaller than Earth, strongly suggesting that the planet - hunting probe should soon find small, rocky exoplanets in kinder climates.

The planet was found with the radial velocity method, a planet - hunting technique that relies upon slight variations in the velocity of a star to determine the gravitational pull exerted by nearby planets that are too faint to observe directly with a telescope.

But planet hunting is in its infancy, and astronomer Dimitar Sasselov estimates that our galaxy harbors some 100 million «super-Earths,» large rocky planets whose stable atmospheres and complex chemistry actually make them mathematically better candidates for the emergence of life than our own small world.

But after last week's malfunction of a crucial piece of equipment on NASA's planet - hunting Kepler space telescope, the May 20 gathering of more than 100 astronomers in Cambridge, Mass., proved all too timely.

Kepler 10b: Kepler's Calling Card Announced in January 2011, Kepler 10b was the mission's first discovery of a small, rocky planet, proof of the Kepler telescope's planet - hunting prowess.

Orosz found the new worlds while looking at data from the planet - hunting Kepler space telescope, which searches for stars with planets that cross in front of them, or transit, as seen from Earth.

Unencumbered by human frailties, Curiosity — like the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which survived on the Red Planet years longer than expected — will be free to hunt for E.T. «If we find evidence for life on Mars, boy, are we just gonna go wild with speculation about how common it is in the universe,» says Lou Friedman, a former scientist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and cofounder, with Carl Sagan, of the Planetary Society.

These will include planet - hunting stalwarts such as the HARPS instrument at the European Southern Observatory in La Silla, Chile, and the new Miniature Exoplanet Radial Velocity Array (MINERVA)- Australis, a group of five planned 0.7 - metre telescopes near Toowoomba, Australia.

Let's say I handed you a check for $ 1 trillion to use in the hunt for life on other planets.

Despite the loss of its precision steering in May, NASA's Kepler space telescope may hunt planets again — by carefully balancing nudges from the sun that would otherwise put it in a spin.

But before telescopes for prospective exoplanet - hunting missions can be designed, astronomers must know if there is a fundamental limit to their ability to see a tiny, dim planet next to a bright star when the system is shrouded in dust.

Neither Borucki nor anyone in the planet - hunting business expects or wants that.

By next spring, the planet - hunting space telescope known as Kepler — rejected by NASA three times but then approved after those initial detections of exoplanets in the 1990s — will most likely report the discovery of the first known Earth - like planet in an Earth - like orbit.

Kruse was looking for transits others might have missed in data from the planet - hunting Kepler Space Telescope when he saw something in the binary star system KOI - 3278 that didn't make sense.

Thus, «giant chunks of space debris clobbering the planet and wiping out life on Earth has undeniably broad appeal,» Meltzer says, whereas «no one in Hollywood makes movies» about more nuanced explanations, such as Clovis points disappearing because early Americans turned to other forms of stone tool technology as the large mammals they were hunting went extinct as a result of the changing climate or hunting pressure.

With increased funding for planet hunters, NASA's plans to launch the $ 550 million planet - seeking Kepler mission in 2009, and the French national space agency's launch of the alien - Earth - hunting COROT late last year, the exosolar ranks should continue to grow.

The hunt for exoplanets has, in some ways, been about the hunt for an Earth - like planet — something warm where water could exist.

NASA's prolific exoplanets - hunting satellite Kepler has found its strongest candidate yet for an Earth - like planet in a life - friendly orbit around a sunlike star.

So whereas NASA's TESS exoplanet - hunting mission, which could launch in 2017, will spend just 1 month gazing at any one region of the sky and as a result be limited to «hot» planets closer to their parent stars, PLATO will have up to 3 years at a time.

The discovery, announced today at a COROT symposium in Paris, is good news for NASA's Kepler mission, which will hunt for Earth - like planets orbiting in the habitable zones of their stars.

The hunt is on for planets about the size of Earth that orbit at just the right distance from their star — in a region termed the habitable zone.

TRAPPIST - 1e, f, and g, however, represent the holy grail for planet - hunting astronomers, as they orbit in the star's habitable zone [6].

«The Kepler team continues to amaze and excite us with their planet hunting results,» said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Similarly - aged stars moving through space together in a group — described by astronomers as an association — are of great interest to researchers, because they are considered a prime target to hunt for brown dwarfs and free - floating planet - like objects.

Earlier this year the scientists of NASA's Kepler mission announced that their planet - hunting space telescope had identified more than 1,200 possible exoplanets (worlds orbiting stars other than our own sun) in its first few months on the job.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope will have two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth - sized planets around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri.

Kepler mission co-investigator Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard University, speaking at the popular TED talks, tried to convey the excitement of hunting for Earth - size planets orbiting in the habitable zones of other stars.

Team members in the hunt for Earth - size planets circling other stars released the identity and characteristics of 306 candidate exoplanets located using the Kepler spacecraft launched in March 2009.

In recent years, planet hunters have been able to measure extremely precise velocities as they hunt for the tiny shifts a small planet, like the one orbiting Proxima, induces in its star, tugging it towards and away from uIn recent years, planet hunters have been able to measure extremely precise velocities as they hunt for the tiny shifts a small planet, like the one orbiting Proxima, induces in its star, tugging it towards and away from uin its star, tugging it towards and away from us.

In the hunt for the beginning of the much - debated «Anthropocene» — a supposed new geologic era defined by human influence of the planet — the new research suggests a need to look back farther in time than the arrival of human - caused climate change, atomic weapons, urbanization or the industrial revolutioIn the hunt for the beginning of the much - debated «Anthropocene» — a supposed new geologic era defined by human influence of the planet — the new research suggests a need to look back farther in time than the arrival of human - caused climate change, atomic weapons, urbanization or the industrial revolutioin time than the arrival of human - caused climate change, atomic weapons, urbanization or the industrial revolution.

If everything else goes well — including a lunar flyby in May researchers will start getting results from the planet - hunting telescope in a few months, after it reaches its final orbit in June.

The large majority of exoplanets cataloged so far are very close to their host stars because several current planet - hunting techniques favor finding planets in short - period orbits.

Similar to Kepler and CoRot, the observatory will «hunt» for drops in brightness that would signal a planet's transit in front of a star.

In exoplanet hunting today, there seems to be one burning question that nearly every new article published asks: Where did these planets come from?

TESS will take the baton from NASA's other planet - hunting spacecraft, Kepler, which is running out of fuel after almost a decade in space.

Unlike other planet hunting techniques, microlensing works for finding big planets in large orbits.

The Kepler Mission has exemplified NASA's main approach in the hunt for new planets for years.

The next step in the hunt for life on Mars is getting a better grip on the prevalence (or lack thereof) of organic compounds on the surface and in the atmosphere — and then actually digging down into the crust of the Red Planet, to look for actual signs of life, either in the form of fossils or actual living microorganisms.

Several established planet - hunting teams have used various radial velocity or star transit methods in their searches around these two bright stars.

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, a Russian - launched, European - built spacecraft that arrived at Mars in October, is starting to dip into the upper reaches of the red planet's atmosphere in a year - long «aerobraking» campaign place the observatory in the right position to hunt for methane, an indicator of potential biological activity.

Orbital ATK designed, manufactured, integrated and tested the planet - hunting spacecraft, which was awarded to them by NASA in 2013.

JWST will be able to hunt for other planets in the system and probe the region interior to the dust ring for structures such as an inner asteroid belt.

The discovery of a powerful aurora surrounding a distant failed star may in future aid astronomers in their hunt for habitable planets.

Fomalhaut has been a candidate for planet hunting ever since an excess of dust was discovered around the star in the early 1980s by NASA's Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS).