Tag: PLANET

It's not much to look at. This photo from the Gemini Observatory in 2008 lacks the "wow" factor of the Hubble Deep Field, but tihs may be just as important. This image, primarily of the star 1RSX J160929.1-210524, is the first confirmed photograph of an extra-solar planet (or exoplanet) orbiting a sun-like star. Normally, exoplanets are detected through indirect methods, such as the ...

Last week, astronomers announced that they had discovered a solar system that was "like our own" about 5,000 light years away. And, of course, by like our own they mean that it might be... potentially... kinda-sorta... similar in some respects... to our own solar system. The new system has a red star at the center about half the mass of our own sun and is orbited by at least two planets. The two ...

As recently as 1995, we had no evidence that planets existed around other stars. It was just a logical assumption that extra-solar planets must exist. Since then, we have found hundreds of planets orbiting other stars, most of them gas giants like Jupiter. But recently a smaller planet has been found orbiting Gliese 581 about 20 light-years away. What makes this planet even more interesting is ...

Each year on Earth Day, the shocking facts surrounding the poor health of our planet guilt many people into promising to take action. Unfortunately, once the bamboo noisemakers go silent and the organic-cake hangover wears off, those oaths to be greener suddenly aren't such a huge priority anymore, particularly when it involves shutting off some of our energy-hogging, toxic-ingredient-filled ...