EXOPLANETS

NASA's Kepler spacecraft is seen in an undated artist's rendering. During a scheduled contact on Thursday, April 7, 2016, mission operations engineers discovered that the Kepler spacecraft was in Emergency Mode and the mission has declared a spacecraft emergency. The spacecraft is nearly 75 million miles from Earth. REUTERS/NASA/Handout via Reuters THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS
NASA NASA / Reuters
SCIENCE
‘Goodnight, Kepler’: NASA’s Planet-Hunting Telescope Has Finally Run Out Of Fuel
By Dominique Mosbergen
Rest in space, Kepler.
SCIENCE
Until we get better tools, excited reports of 'habitable planets' need to come back down to Earth
By The Conversation Global, Contributor
The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academ...
Jumping the gun The smallest planets in our own solar system are rocky and the largest planets are gaseous, but we see a
BUSINESS
People Like Choices But Not Too Many
By Ira Kalb, Contributor
President Kalb & Associates and Assistant Professor of Clinica...
Evidence of the Power of Three in the marketplace Most stable shape Earth's location in our solar system Our brains evolved
SCIENCE
To boldly go toward new frontiers, we first need to learn from our colonial past
By The Conversation Global, Contributor
The Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academ...
From stone age to space age? We need to rupture the barriers that confine us to the land mass of a single planet. By breaking
SCIENCE
Proxima Centauri b: Earth-sized? Earth-like? Or Habitable?
By Dr. Sten Odenwald, Contributor
Astronomer, NASA Heliophysics Education Consortium
Finally after decades of hope and hard work, astronomers finally discovered a planet orbiting the nearest star to our sun: Proxima Centauri. Describing it in human terms leads to some interesting problems!
SCIENCE
The World Next Door
By Seth Shostak, Contributor
Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute
If it's for real, it's the closest planet beyond our solar system. The closest planet in outer space.
SCIENCE
Reinventing The Drake Equation
By Marc Dantonio, Contributor
Chief Photo and Video Analyst MUFON
The Drake Equation is a thought problem created in 1961 by Astronomer Frank Drake to produce a number meant to indicate how many intelligent and detectable civilizations may exist in the Milky Way galaxy which is our home in the Universe.
Artist's rendering of Kepler-186f, one of more than 200 exoplanets that researchers say lie within the "habitable zone" of their stars and could have life.
Danielle Futselaar
SCIENCE
Are These Rocky Worlds Where We'll Find Alien Life?
By David Freeman
No one has found E.T. yet, but we may be getting closer.
Artist's impression of the triple star system HD 131399. The reddish object at the lower-left is the planet known as HD 131399Ab.
ESO/L. Calçada
SCIENCE
Scientists Discover Bizarre World With Three Suns, 300-Year Seasons
By David Freeman
Eat your heart out, Tatooine!
A colorful deep space image captured by the Hubble Space Telescope is seen in a NASA handout released June 3, 2014. Researchers say the image, from a new study called the Ultraviolet Coverage of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, provides the missing link in star formation. The Hubble Ultra Deep Field 2014 image is a composite of separate exposures taken in 2003 to 2012 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3. REUTERS/NASA/ESA/Handout via Reuters (OUTER SPACE - Tags: ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY) ATTENTION EDITORS - FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS
NASA / Reuters
SCIENCE
Alien Civilizations May Number In The Trillions, New Study Says
By Lee Speigel
"We really do know that pretty much every star in the sky hosts at least one planet," says astronomer Adam Frank.
There's the potential for life on three, temperate planets that astronomers discovered recently.
European Southern Observatory
SCIENCE
Astronomers Find 3 'Temperate' Planets That May Support Life
By Michael McLaughlin
The Earth-like planets are the first ones found orbiting an ultracool dwarf star.
An artist's rendering shows the planet HD 20782, the most eccentric planet ever known, passing its star in close orbit.
NASA
SCIENCE
This Is The 'Most Eccentric' Planet Yet Known
By Jacqueline Howard
“It is a fascinating object!”
SCIENCE
Life in the Milky Way
By Mario Livio, Contributor
Dr.
We have discovered that neither our place in the galaxy nor our galaxy itself is special. The discovery of extrasolar life will demonstrate that that claim to being special will have to be abandoned.
In this artist's conception GJ 1132b, a rocky exoplanet very similar to Earth in size and mass, circles a red dwarf star. GJ 1132b is relatively cool, about 450 degrees F, and could potentially host an atmosphere. At a distance of only 39 light-years, it will be a prime target for additional study with Hubble and future observatories like the Giant Magellan Telescope.
Dana Berry
SCIENCE
Venus-Like Planet Sheds New Light On Alien Atmospheres
By Jacqueline Howard
"This planet is going to be a favorite target of astronomers for years to come."
SCIENCE
Are There Signals Coming from Deep Space?
By Seth Shostak, Contributor
Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute
The star KIC 8462852 may have an unpronounceable name, but just about everyone with an interest in aliens has been talking about it. As of today, they can elaborate their discourse with some new results.
MOFFETT FIELD, CA - DECEMBER 05: Bill Borucki, Kepler Principal Investigator at NASA Ames Research Center speaks during a news conference about the newly discovered planet Kepler-22b during a news conference at the NASA Ames Research Center on December 5, 2011 in Moffett Field, California. Scientsts with NASA's Kepler mission announced that they discoverd a planet in the 'habitable zone' where water could exist on the planet's surface. The newly confirmed planet is being called Kepler-22b and is approximately 2.4 times the radius of earth and orbits a star similar to the earth's sun. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
GREEN
How Exploring Space Led A Top NASA Scientist To Worry About Earth's Climate Change
By Kate Sheppard
With all the planets that may support life, why haven't we heard from any?
SCIENCE
ET, the Deafening Silence
By Benjamin T. Solomon, Contributor
Member, Nuclear and Future Flight Propulsion Technical Committ...
We choose to search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence because as Americans, we are free, permissive, non-conformist, incorrigible, and preoccupied with our choices.
SCIENCE
The Nearest Earth
By Seth Shostak, Contributor
Senior Astronomer, SETI Institute
If you make wedding photos for your sister, and all the relatives appear no larger than a dot, she probably won't be ordering prints. But in astronomy, that small image can sometimes be enough to make a major discovery
ENVIRONMENT
Only One Earth
By Robert J. Walker, Contributor
President of the Population Institute
Our collective impact on the Earth's atmosphere, oceans and forests is now so impactful and so pervasive, that leading scientists assert that we have entered a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, in which humans have become the major driver of environmental change.
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