What do you do when you see the flash? In the case of a dying star, you know a supernova is coming.
Mission Impossible
There’s news this week of an “impossible” triple star system recently discovered by astronomers. One that “defies known physics.” Needless to say, there’s no need to abandon physics quite yet.
Snow Queen
Kepler-421b is a cold world orbiting a star about 1,000 light years away. At least according to a new paper announcing its discovery. This work hasn’t yet been peer reviewed, but it looks quite promising. What makes the discovery a big deal is that it is the longest period planet to be discovered by the transit method.
Needle in a Haystack
Just how difficult is it to discover a planet moving around another star? The Kepler space telescope finds planets by observing the brightness of stars over long periods. If a planet passes in front of its star, the light will dim slightly. But it doesn’t dim very much, so it takes some serious data analysis to discover.
Losing Direction
Launched in 2009, Kepler was intended as a “planet hunter” telescope. It finds planets by observing stars for long periods of time. To make long observations, Kepler needs to be able to point in the same direction very precisely, and it must be able to adjust its direction if it starts to drift. So how do you keep a telescope oriented?
Twins
NASA and JPL have announced the discovery of an Earth-sized planet orbiting in the habitable zone of its star. The planet is named Kepler-186f, and is the 5th planet from its star, Kepler 186.
Vast Worlds
The Kepler mission has announced the addition of 715 new exoplanets to the official list of known worlds. This almost doubles the number of confirmed planets to the list.
Dying World
The Kepler telescope has led to the discovery of more than a thousand exoplanets. But there are still several thousand “candidate” planets. An exoplanet can be in candidate status for various reasons. The data may not be solid enough to confirm the planet, or what looks like a planet doesn’t seem to have a stable orbit, or half a dozen other reasons. Sometimes the data might look good, but it’s just…strange.
Tilt a Whirl
As a star forms, a protoplanetary disk also forms, out of which the planets coalesce. Since the protoplanetary disk is generally aligned with the equator of the star, the planets form with that same basic orientation. This is what we see in our solar system and in many exoplanetary systems. But not all systems follow this rule.
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