Sizzling Planet Makes Some Stars Look Cool Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
The hottest planet ever discovered is charcoal black and makes even some stars seem cool. Scientists think the exoplanet absorbs nearly all the starlight that reaches its surface and then reradiates it back out into space as heat.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 72 [+].
Astronomers find hottest planet ever discovered Posted: 3 months ago by AutumnLotus
A planet called WASP-12b is the hottest planet ever discovered (about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 2,200 degrees Celsius), and orbits its star faster and closer in than any other known world.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 297 [+].
Two unusual older stars giving birth to second wave of planets Posted: 12 months ago by AutumnLotus
Hundreds of millions — or even billions — of years after planets would have initially formed around two unusual stars, a second wave of planetesimal and planet formation appears to be taking place. "This is a new class of stars, ones that display conditions now ripe for formation of a second generation of planets, long, long after the stars themselves formed."
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 252 [+].
Circumstellar Space: Where Stars Are Born Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Picture a cool place, teeming with a multitude of hot bodies twirling about in rapidly changing formations of singles and couples, partners and groups, constantly dissolving and reforming. If you were thinking of the dance floor in a modern nightclub, think again. It's a description of the shells around dying stars, the place where newly formed elements make compounds and life takes off.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 177 [+].
Astronomers from Heidelberg discover planet in a dusty disk around a newborn star Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg have discovered the youngest known extrasolar planet. Its host star is still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust from which it was only recently born. This discovery allows scientists to draw important conclusions about the timing of planet formation.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 237 [+].
Setting stars reveal planetary secrets Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Watching the stars set from the surface of the Earth may be a romantic pastime but when a spacecraft does it from orbit, it can reveal hidden details about a planet’s atmosphere. It works by watching stars from space, while they drop behind the atmosphere of a planet under investigation, before disappearing from view below the planet’s horizon.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 195 [+].
Planet-hunters find bonanza of new solar systems Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
Planet-seekers who have spotted 28 new planets orbiting other stars in the past year say Earth's solar system is far from unique and there could be billions of habitable planets.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 55 [+].
How Solar Systems are Organized Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
It is the rare gas giant planet that inhabits the outskirts of its solar system. Most are like our own Jupiter and prefer to stick close to their stars, a new study suggests.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 121 [+].
Has the youngest known planet been spotted? Posted: 9 months ago by AutumnLotus
A team of astronomers says it may have spotted the youngest planet ever found, boasting an age of less than 100,000 years old, and perhaps as young as 1600 years old. They say it bolsters a controversial theory that planets form very quickly, like stars – but other astronomers say the massive object may not be a planet at all but a 'failed' star, which explains its speedy birth.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 239 [+].
Three students discover unique planet Posted: 1 month ago by AutumnLotus
Three undergraduate students, from Leiden University in the Netherlands, have discovered an extrasolar planet. The extraordinary find, which turned up during their research project, is about five times as massive as Jupiter. This is also the first planet discovered orbiting a fast-rotating hot star.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 351 [+].
Planet Of The Heston Posted: 1 year ago by latueofstiberty
Planet of the Apes cut down to Charlton Heston's dialoge only. Makes it sound like a 15 minute rant.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 94 [+].
Scientists discover new planet orbiting dangerously close to giant star Posted: 2 months ago by AutumnLotus
A team of astronomers from Penn State and Nicolaus Copernicus University in Poland has discovered a new planet that is closely orbiting a red-giant star, HD 102272, which is much older than our own Sun. The planet has a mass that is nearly six times that of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system.
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 182 [+].
Planet Unicorn Heyyy! Posted: 1 year ago by dork
A gay boy wishes for a planet full of Unicorns. This is the story of that planet
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 97 [+].
Earth's moon could become a planet Posted: 2 years ago by Jaxomlotus
The new definition, proposed this week by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), basically says every round object orbiting the sun is a planet, unless it orbits another planet. Asteroid Ceres will become a planet. Pluto's moon Charon will become a planet, things could get really strange.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 4 [+].
Were the first stars dark? Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Perhaps the first stars in the newborn universe did not shine, but instead were invisible “dark stars” 400 to 200,000 times wider than the sun and powered by the annihilation of mysterious dark matter. The study calculated how the birth of the first stars almost 13 billion years ago might have been influenced by the presence of dark matter – the unseen, yet-unidentified stuff that scientists believe makes up most matter in the universe.
Comments: 2 Score: [-] 264 [+].
Planets Go 'Splat' on Stars Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Debris spots found on stars reveal planets that went splat like bugs on a windshield. The finding could help unravel mysteries of planet formation.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 67 [+].
Amazing Old Stars Give Birth Again Posted: 12 months ago by AutumnLotus
Two old stars appear to be gearing up for a second generation of planet formation, a phenomenon astronomers say they have never seen before.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 360 [+].
NASA finds extremely hot planet, makes first exoplanet weather map Posted: 2 years ago by AutumnLotus
Researchers using the Jet Propulsion Laboratory- managed Spitzer Space Telescope have learned what the weather is like on two distant, exotic worlds, including the hottest planet yet discovered, NASA announced today.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 40 [+].
Finally, the 'planet' in planetary nebulae? Posted: 10 months ago by AutumnLotus
Astronomers at the University of Rochester, home to one of the world’s largest groups of planetary nebulae specialists, have announced that low-mass stars and possibly even super-Jupiter-sized planets may be responsible for creating some of the most breathtaking objects in the sky.
Comments: 0 Score: [-] 231 [+].
Stars go 5-0 to start the season Posted: 2 years ago by icepigs
This is the second best start in franchise history. (One more win will tie best start)
Check out the video for a phenominal shoot-out shot by Ryan Shannon and even more phenominal stop by Turco!
Comments: 1 Score: [-] 1 [+].
First known planet to survive red-giant phase found Posted: 1 year ago by AutumnLotus
Astronomers have discovered the first known planet to survive its "red-giant" phase, a period when an aging star expands and engulfs bodies orbiting it. The discovery of the gas-giant planet three times the size of Jupiter offers a look at the future of our own solar system and what will happen to the Earth when the sun grows old and collapses.
Comments: 3 Score: [-] 212 [+].