Tag: Kepler
-
Alien megastructure? Nothing to see around formerly weird star, scientists say
This illustration shows a star behind a shattered comet. Observations of the star KIC 8462852 by NASA’s Kepler and Spitzer space telescopes suggest that its unusual light signals are probably due to dusty comet fragments that blocked the light of the star. (Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech) Recent infrared observations of a star that once showed…
-
‘Alien megastructure’ update: SETI telescope detects no sign of E.T., but search goes on
The Allen Telescope Array looks for alien radio signals. (Credit: Seth Shostak / SETI Institute) The SETI Institute says it hasn’t detected any alien radio signals coming from a star whose light seems to be dimming in a weird way, but it’s too early to determine what kind of phenomenon is behind the pattern. The star,…
-
Alien megastructures? SETI Institute’s Allen Telescope Array targets weirdly winking star
The antennas of the Allen Telescope Array in California is collecting signals from a strange star known as KIC 8462852. (Credit: SETI Institute) One of the premier telescope arrays in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI, is focusing its antennas on an anomalously blinking star, thanks in part to speculation that the star called KIC 8462852 could…
-
Kepler telescope spots Earth-like ‘cousin’
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS & USED WITH PERMISSION Artist’s concept of Kepler-452b, the first near-Earth-size world to be found in the habitable zone of star that is similar to our sun. Credit: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle Analysis of data from NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler space telescope has revealed a near Earth-size world orbiting in the habitable zone of…
-
Kepler’s data catalog exceeds 1,000 confirmed planets
Artist’s concept of an exoplanet discovered by Kepler. Credit: NASA Astronomers culling imagery from NASA’s Kepler space telescope have found eight new worlds around other stars, raising the number of verified discoveries made by Kepler to more than 1,000 planets. The planets were found in Kepler’s original four-year data set. Three of the newly-validated planets…
-
With $2M in Kickstarter funds, asteroid-mining company’s public telescope could find alien planets
It ain’t Kepler, but an upgrade to Planetary Resources’ crowdfunded public telescope could hunt for alien planets. The Bellevue-based asteroid-mining company announced new Kickstarter stretch goals in its campaign to produce the world’s first crowdfunded, public use space telescope. After two weeks, funding sits about $140,000 shy of the original $1 million goal. With 19 days…
-
NASA Kepler closing in on “Earth’s Analogue”
The continuing success of NASA’s Kepler mission was highlighted on Monday, following the discovery of 461 new planet candidates – four of which are less than twice the size of Earth and orbit in their sun’s habitable zone. Scientists believe it’s just a matter of “when” a twin of our own planet is found by…
-
Year in review (Part II) – Through the solar system and beyond
For NASA’s unmanned explorers, 2012 was an astonishing year filled with discoveries and observations inside our solar system, at the outer reaches of our solar system, and in the star systems beyond our own. Leading these discoveries were the NASA probes MESSENGER, GRAIL, Cassini, Voyager I, and the Kepler Space Telescope. MESSENGER at Mercury –…
-
Year in Review – Part 2: Kepler makes astonishing discoveries
Following on the planetary accomplishments of NASA’s fleet of unmanned solar system explorers in 2011, the U.S. space agency was also extremely busy in the field of extra-solar studies via observations of other solar systems with the impressive Kepler Space Telescope. Understanding our uniqueness – Kepler sheds light on extra-solar planets: It was a difficult start…
-
Kepler Mission Produces Results – Ramps Up Search for Extra-solar Planets
After one and one half years in space, NASA’s Kepler observatory, a telescope designed to search for Earth-like, terrestrial planets in the Cygnus and Lyra constellations, has produced the first-ever simultaneous discovery of two extra-solar planets (via the transit method of detection) orbiting the same parent star. Mission Recap: Just over one-third of the way…