Are We Alone In The Universe?
– http://www.dailygalaxy.com/
The Book of Secrets
December 9, 2014
Science, Space aliens, apocalyptic, civilisations, destruction, planets, technology, universe Leave a comment
Are We Alone In The Universe?
– http://www.dailygalaxy.com/
November 9, 2014
Space planets, young star 2 Comments
The clearest ever image of planets forming around an infant star has been taken by the Alma radio telescope.
In a vast disc of dust and gas, dark rings are clearly visible: gaps in the cloud, swept clear by brand new planets in orbit.
The sun-like star at the centre, HL Tau, is less than a million years old and is 450 light years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
The image was made possible by Alma’s new high-resolution capabilities.
Because the process of planet formation takes place in the midst of such a huge dust cloud, it can’t be observed using visible light.
Source: BBCNews Read and see more
October 6, 2014
Space dwarf planet, planets, Pluto, Solar System Leave a comment
Age: 4.6bn years old.
Appearance: Slightly different to its appearance last week.
You know, I thought that too. Has it had its hair done? No, not that, you idiot. Between you and me I think it might look a little more, well … planet-y than usual.
Surely that can’t be the case. We’ve been through this before, remember? I know, I know. Pluto had been a planet since its discovery in 1930, only to be unceremoniously relegated to dwarf planet status by the International Astronomical Union in 2006. And yet …
And yet what? And yet the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysicists is lobbying hard for Pluto to become a planet again.
Why? We’ve just had all the textbooks reprinted. It’s all about the definition. According to the Harvard-Smithsonian news blog, even if Pluto is a dwarf planet, we should still treat it as a planet because: “A dwarf fruit tree is still a small fruit tree, and a dwarf hamster is still a small hamster.” The centre had a debate, and then there was a vote, and the result was overwhelmingly in favour of Pluto’s reinstatement as a planet.
What happens if we do let Pluto back in? Well, there’s a chance that other distant trans-Neptunian objects – such as Triton or Eris or 50000 Quaoar or 90377 Sedna – could also qualify for official planetary status.
But this is madness! The floodgates will open! We’ll never be able to turn back the tide of shifty-looking would-be planets looking to get an unjustified cut of our solar system! All right, Farage, rein it in.
Fine. But does any of this actually matter? If you’re a member of the International Astronomical Union or the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysicists – basically the Sharks and the Jets of the planetary-definition game – then yes.
And what does Pluto make of all this? Pluto is a massive clump of rock and ice trapped in a lonely silent orbit through the dark recesses of space several billion miles away from Earth. As such, it could not be reached for comment.
Do say: “Welcome back to the solar system, Pluto. We’ve missed you.”
Don’t say: “Now get out. We’ve changed our minds again.”
June 25, 2013
Philosophy, Space galaxy, habitable zone, humans, Mars, planets, super-Earths 4 Comments
I have read several accounts that strongly suggest we (humans) are not from this planet. There is some evidence and conjecture that we may have come here from Mars after we had made the planet inhabitable, but that we aren’t even from there, but further afield. Suggesting the possibility that we are in fact a race of space nomads.
If we are not from here, that would explain why they can’t find the so called ‘missing link’ between us and apes; there isn’t one.
We have succeeded in stripping this planet and making it uninhabitable, is this why we are searching so far and wide in the galaxies at great expense to find the next port of call?
Was Douglas Adams spoof ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy‘ terribly far off the mark? “So long and thanks for all the fish!”
Maybe we’ve found our next home…
Scientists have identified three new planets around a star they already suspected of hosting a trio of worlds.
It means this relatively nearby star, Gliese 667C, now has three so-called super-Earths orbiting in its “habitable zone”.
This is the region where temperatures ought to allow for the possibility of liquid water, although no-one can say for sure what conditions are really like on these planets.
Gliese 667C is 22 light-years away.
22 light-years, just next door really.
October 17, 2012
Space Alpha Centauri, planets 2 Comments
Astronomers say they have found a planet in the Alpha Centauri B star system similar to Earth in location and size
Astronomers say they have found a nearby planet that is similar to Earth in location and size.
It is the type of planet they have been searching for across the Milky Way galaxy and was found circling a star ‘right next door’ – 25tn miles (40tn kilometres) away in the Alpha Centauri B star system. But the Earth-like planet is so hot, its surface may be like molten lava.
The team of European astronomers who found it say it is likely there are other planets circling the same star, and that those planets could orbit in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold region around the star that astronomers sometimes call the Goldilocks zone.
The research was released online in the journal Nature on Tuesday.
All this searching deep space, and it was just down the road all the time. 25tn miles away, spatially speaking, that’s right under our noses. We could almost hop on a bus to visit.
August 21, 2012
Awesome, Mysteries, Space planets, red giant, stars 2 Comments
Astronomers have found evidence for a planet being devoured by its star, yielding insights into the fate that will befall Earth in billions of years.
The team uncovered the signature of a planet that had been “eaten” by looking at the chemistry of the host star.
They also think a surviving planet around this star may have been kicked into its unusual orbit by the destruction of a neighbouring world.
Details of the work have been published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The US-Polish-Spanish team made the discovery when they were studying the star BD+48 740 – which is one of a stellar class known as red giants. Their observations were made with the Hobby Eberly telescope, based at the McDonald Observatory in Texas.
Rising temperatures near the cores of red giants cause these elderly stars to expand in size, a process which will cause any nearby planets to be destroyed.
“A similar fate may await the inner planets in our solar system, when the Sun becomes a red giant and expands all the way out to Earth’s orbit some five billion years from now,” said co-author Prof Alexander Wolszczan from Pennsylvania State University in the US.
September 16, 2011
Uncategorized Kepler Telescope, planets, suns Leave a comment
Named Kepler-16b, it is thought to be an uninhabitable cold gas giant, like Saturn.
The newly detected body lies some 200 light years from Earth.
Though there have been hints in the past that planets circling double stars might exist – “circumbinary planets”, as they are known – scientists say this is the first confirmation.
It means when the day ends on Kepler-16b, there is a double sunset, they say.
‘Stunning’
Kepler-16b’s two suns are smaller than ours – at 69% and 20% of the mass of our Sun – making the surface temperature an estimated -100 to -150F (-73 to -101C).
.