Tag: Exoplanet
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Three years on, TESS delivers on discoveries as extended mission continues
Three years ago, on April 18, 2018, NASA’s and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, launched successfully into a very high Earth orbit aboard the last new Block 4 Falcon 9 before the current human-rated Block 5 entered service. Since then, it has dutifully observed the southern and northern skies,…
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Hubble returned to operational service, showcases exoplanet’s second atmosphere
The Hubble Space Telescope recently garnered headlines for a software anomaly that caused the iconic observatory to enter safe mode as its control teams worked to successfully restore the telescope to operational status. While Hubble is showing its age, scientists using the observatory are nonetheless continuing to produce incredible scientific discoveries, including a recent announcement…
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NASA selects potential small-scale astrophysics missions, Hubble measures exoplanet’s odd orbit
The Hubble Space Telescope has successfully measured the highly eccentric and distant orbit of an exoplanet circling a double star system 336 light years from Earth. The new exoplanet information is potentially important much closer to home as scientists search for the proposed Planet Nine in our solar system. Meanwhile, NASA has selected four small…
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First possible “survivor” planet orbiting a white dwarf seen via NASA telescopes
A potential planet… where no planet should be. An international team of astronomers utilizing NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and data obtained from the now-retired Spitzer space telescope have reported an astounding potential discovery of a surviving planet closely orbiting a white dwarf. So what’s the big deal? Scientists have found many exoplanets in close…
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InSight ready for final preparations for a trip to land on Mars
NASA’s InSight Mars lander is ready for the final processing sprint before its launch opportunity opens in a month’s time. NASA and prime contractor Lockheed Martin held a media day for the spacecraft, whose long name is the “Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport,” at its Vandenberg Air Force Base launch site…
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The K2-138 system: the first exoplanet system discovered by citizen scientists
NASA has announced the discovery of a planetary system around star K2-138. The discovery was the first of its kind, being made by citizen scientists using data from the K2 mission as part of the Zooniverse Exoplanet Explorers effort. This detection is the first multi-planet system discovered exclusively by crowdsourcing – the practice of obtaining…