Scientific discoveries are made as time moves forward, Kepler 62f has not been the exception in the scientific community. Kepler 62f, is an Earth size planet in the habitable zone of a star smaller and cooler than the sun, located about 1,200 light years from planet Earth in the constellation known by the name of Lyra. Kepler 62f orbits its host star every 267 days and is roughly 40 percent larger than Earth in size, the size of Kepler 62f is known, but its mass and composition are not. However, based on previous scientific discoveries of similar size landmarks that are rocky, scientists are able to determine its mass by association of scale. Very much similar to our solar system, Kepler 62 is home to possible habitable zone worlds; Kepler
The possibility of life beyond Earth is a tantalizing idea long prompting our species to wonder if there are other worlds where life exists. As space technology advances, the chances of finding life on other planets are now greater than ever. With new technologies such as satellites and solar panels, scientists are able to expand their exploration farther into our solar system. In 1995, an astronomer named Michel Mayor together with Didier Queloz discovered 51 Pegasi b. This was truly an incredible discovery that rocked the science community. Pledges b, a wobbling star the size of our sun, was slowly approaching, and according to Mayor’s
Scaled radius of Venus: 6.05 x 103 Km * (1 cm/6.96 x 104 Km) = 0.09 cm
The exoplanet known as Kepler-453b is what is known as a circumbinary planet. A circumbinary planet is a planet that orbits two stars, and Kepler-453b is the tenth such planet discovered so far. It is a timely discovery not only because it was discovered at around the same time that news broke out of the world’s superpowers looking to make Star Wars a reality by waging war in space, but also because the real-life Tatooine was discovered by chance in a classic case of being in the right place at the right time.
A red dwarf star’s HZ, for example, would be much closer to the star itself compared with that of our sun. It is also important to determine the planet’s size and mass, which is imperative in deciding whether it can sustain an atmosphere. Maintaining an atmosphere is essential for life to exist and small a planet with a small gravitational force at its surface may not be capable of retaining one. The Kepler transit data can only measure planet masses, diameters, orbital periods, and parent star types and although this information is useful for determining habitable zones, further data is required to determine true habitability. The latter can be done by studying the composition of the exoplanet’s atmosphere.
NASA discovered a system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star outside our solar system. All of these seven rocky planets could have water which is a key to life and three of them are firmly located in the habitable zone. This system is about 40 light-years (235 trillion miles) from Earth. Because of locating outside of our solar system, these planets are scientifically known as exoplanets. This exoplanet system is called TRAPPIST-1, name of telescope in Chile. Researchers using TRAPPIST announced they had discovered three planets in the system and then discovered more to seven by several ground-based telescopes. Moreover, NASA used data from Spitzer to measure the sizes of the seven planets and estimates the masses and density of six of them. The data indicated that they are likely to be rocky and could have liquid water on their surfaces but the mass of the seventh has not been estimated yet. Scientists assumed it could be an icy like snowball world. The temperature of TRAPPIST-1 star is cooler than our sun,
Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz established another milestone, recording 51 Pegasi b, also known as Bellerophon, as the first established exoplanet in 1995. Located about 50 million light years away in the constellation Pegasus, Bellerophon is known as the first planet outside our solar system that orbits a star similar to our sun with the help of spectroscopy. Spectroscopy is described as the study of communication amongst matter and electromagnetic radiation. It used to consider visible light scattered according to its wavelength by a prism, but later the idea was developed to contain any contact with radiative energy as a function of its wavelength or frequency. Technological advances, most notably in high-resolution spectroscopy, led to
Planet Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the fifth largest of the planets of the Solar System. Earth’s surface is 71 percent water and is the only astronomical planet currently known where life exists. Earth is our home planet. Scientist and astronomers have studied our planet for Centuries and they have discovered much about our planet. Scientist have gained so much more knowledge of our Solar System in the last half-century after the NASA launched the first spacecraft and travel beyond Earth’s atmosphere has opened up to those who wish to explore. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss Earth and the
This implies that the Kepler 11 planetary system is very much like our solar system. The distance (m) of Kepler-11b
As technology improves it is even more likely that we will discover more about our solar system. A great current example of this is the claim of ‘Planet X’. Researchers say that there is possibly another planet in our solar system that orbits beyond Neptune but is large in size. Two scientists recently announced evidence that a body nearly the size of Neptune that orbits the sun every 15,000 years. Since it has never been seen, because it only orbits every 15,000 years, scientists and researchers cannot make a factual claim on the body even though there is strong evidence of its
For countless centuries humans have looked up at the sky and have wondered what is out there? As a member of the Planet Hunter Team, I believe that we help answer these types of questions. One of the many questions that we have been asked is, what is a planet? This question was one of many driving forces that made Pluto a dwarf planet, as stated in “When is a Planet not a Planet?” by David H. Freedman. But once again this question has appeared, as a result of our most recent discovery.
Scientists have discovered a new planet that they believe may be capable of housing life. LHS 1140 b, the planet in question, is six times heavier than Earth, yet only 1.5 times as large, suggesting that it is an extremely dense ball of metal and rock. LHS 1140 b is ten times closer to its sun than Earth, as well, making the orbit only 25 days. The sun LHS 1140 b orbits, LHS 1140, is an old, dim red dwarf star, 40 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cetus. Everything about it is rather ordinary; red dwarfs are the most common type of star, and the light that LHS 1140 produces is too dim to be spotted with the naked eye.
World War I was the most violent, deadly, and costly war of its time. World War I was a result of multiple causation; militarism, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, and the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. All the causes of World War I come to light as the European powers began to industrialize. As industrialization began, these nations would go to other countries to get the resources they needed. This allowed imperialism to occur. Imperialism is when a strong nation tries to dominate a weaker nation, economically, socially, or politically. These weaker nations couldn’t fight back because they were not industrialized. However, the race for resources led to a competition between the European powers. France and Germany competed
The field of exoplanets is transitioning from an age of discovery into an era of planetary characterization. In the last decade, the Kepler spacecraft revealed that planets are ubiquitous within the galaxy, and over the coming years, TESS will find hundreds of nearby terrestrial planets. A primary NASA goal in astrophysics from the Science Mission Directorate is to “search for life on planets around other stars.” To achieve this, the properties of transiting candidate planets must be well understood to assess potential habitability. In particular, the planetary radii derived from the light curves of wide-field surveys are significantly underestimated. For Kepler, by a factor of 1.5 on average (Ciardi et al. 2015). High-resolution imaging
In the outer limits of our solar system there is a planet unlike any other, Pluto. Pluto was discovered in February of 1930 by an American astronomer, Clyde Tombaugh. It is the only planet to have been discovered by an American. All though we have known of the existence of Pluto for over thirty years now, there are still many mysteries surrounding this celestial body. Being the farthest planet has made it difficult to study Pluto, Adding to the obscurity of this strange planet is that the capability to send spacecraft such distances has never been achieved. Through the wonders of science and astronomy, there are many things that can be determined, concluded, and hypothesized about this obscure planet.
Uncovering the mysteries of Jupiter is a crucial step for a greater understanding of our Solar System. Being the massive planet that it is, this mysterious planet may hold many answers to how our the Solar System formed and evolved. The understanding of the origins of the universe includes answers even to the formation of Earth itself. Many believe that the research of Jupiter will lead to discoveries on planet formation and the role of giant planets on the formation f stars and other smaller bodies. Mysteries of Jupiter include its composition, what is under its clouds, what is in its core and its magnetic field. Research on the amount of water in the planet will tell us about the