Glimpse of planets around a multiple star system

• Astronomers have discovered three proto-planets orbiting around GG Tau A, a multiple-star system, located about 489 light years away from the Earth1. The star system has a massive dust ring surrounded by a shallow disk.
• The researchers say the proto-planets would eventually form planets and this discovery may shed new light on how planets form around multiple star systems in the universe.
• Scientists have, so far, detected numerous planets around single stars such as the Sun. However, little is known about planets around multiple-star systems.
• To better understand such systems, the scientists, including Liton Majumdar, an astronomer from the National Institute of Science Education and Research in Odisha, India, scanned the Taurus star-forming region using an array of radio telescopes parched in the Atacama Desert of Chile. 
• They have detected that one of the proto-planets, lying at almost 10 times the Sun-Neptune distance from the star system, is sucking in gas and dust from a surrounding disk. This has created a ‘hot spot’ that is much warmer than its surroundings and is rich in carbon monoxide gas.
• They have also detected a spiral pattern, which is brightest at the hot-spot location, just outside the dust ring. One of the proto-planets probably produced this pattern.
• The absence of a clear gap in gas or dust at the planet location means that its mass is significantly lower than that of Jupiter, but close to that of Neptune. This suggests that planets with a mass similar to Neptune may form in dense circumbinary disks orbiting binary stars, says Majumdar.
• Reference: 1. Phoung, N. T. et al. Planet-induced spirals in the circumbinary disk of GG Tauri A. Astron. Astrophys. 635, L9 (2020) Source: https://www.natureasia.com/

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Bright Star Reveals New Exoplanet

Credit: Vincent Van Eylen

By studying the star around which the planet revolves, they found that the star's rotation appears to be well-aligned with the planetary movement. The object can be well-studied because the star is relatively bright, it can be seen if strong binoculars are used. The planet orbits one star of what appears to be a binary star, and the orbit is not circular but slightly eccentric. This is an artist impression of the star Kepler-410A. The black dot represents the planet Kepler-410A b, as it moves in front of the star, blocking a small part of the star light and thereby allowing it to be indirectly detected. The stellar companion Kepler-410B is about 10,000 times further away from the planet and is not shown on the image. The planet is a bit larger than our Earth, with a radius of about 2.8 times that of our planet. With a period of around 18 days, it is much closer to its star than Earth is to our sun, and therefore unlikely to be suitable for life due to its high temperature. Perturbations on the discovered planet indicate that there is likely another, as of yet unknown planet in the system. After the first discovery of the first exoplanet (a planet around which doesn't orbit our Sun, but another star), the number of planets has increased up to around 1000 currently known exoplanets. Kepler-410A b is interesting because it can be studied in detail. It has been observed for four years with the Kepler space telescope, a NASA satellite which has monitored the brightness of more than 150.000 stars simultaneously, to look for small regularly-recurring dips in the light, which are indicative of the presence of an exoplanet. The exquisite quality of the Kepler data has allowed a very detailed study of the host star. On top of that, the star is rather bright; it is in fact the third brightest exoplanet host star discovered by Kepler. This has allowed the team to study tiny variations in the stellar brightness caused by stellar pulsations, a technique which is called asteroseismology. Thereby they have been able to measure stellar properties such as its mass and radius to an accuracy of a few percent. "Ultimately, to understand anything about exoplanets, we need to understand the stars they revolve around. In this case, asteroseismology has even allowed us to measure the inclination angle of the star. We now know we are looking at the equator of the star, not at the pole. This can be compared with the orbit of the planet to learn about planetary formation. The star is around 2.7 giga-years old and is a little larger than the Sun. We will never be able to go there, as it is located at around 425 lightyears from Earth," says lead author Vincent Van Eylen. Because of the brightness of the star, it is a suitable target for further observations. The team has accurately measured the times of transit and found it doesn't cross the star exactly every 17.8 days, but is slightly perturbed: the planet is sometimes up to 15 minutes late or early. These perturbations indicate that there could be another planet present, slightly pulling or pushing Kepler-410A b around. "We are confident that there is another planet, but because it doesn't move in front of the star, we don't yet know what it is like," says Vincent Van Eylen. Contacts and sources: Vincent Van Eylen, Aarhus University, The findings are published in Astrophysical Journal. The international team consists of 15 people from 7 different universities. Lead author Vincent Van Eylen is a PhD student at Aarhus University in Denmark, and he is also associated to the KU Leuven. The work originates from his master project, which he undertook in Aarhus as part of an Erasmus exchange year.Vincent Van Eyen regularly blogs at Scilogs.be, a blog portal by the magazine EOS. Source: Article

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Newfound planet could be habitable

   © Photo: NASA

American and German astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet 22 light years away from Earth. The planet, situated in a solar system with three suns, has 4.5 times the Earth’s mass, a solid surface and liquid water, a necessary condition for organic life. American and German astronomers have discovered a potentially habitable planet 22 light years away from Earth.The planet, situated in a solar system with three suns, has 4.5 times the Earth’s mass, a solid surface and liquid water, a necessary condition for organic life. Tags: planets, World, Sci-Tech, News, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia.

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Planet 17 times larger than Jupiter spotted outside solar system

Astronomers have spotted a planet 13 times the size of Jupiter orbiting a star 2.5 times the mass of the Sun 170 light years away from Earth. A picture of the giant planet was obtained, using a telescope on the top of a mountain in Hawaii. Scientists hope the discovery will shed light on planet formation. By now, more than 800 planets have been discovered outside the solar system, but only a few of them have been photographed because the bright light emitted by stars outshines the orbiting planets. Utro.ru, Source: Voice Of Russia

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Two planets... two stars: Nasa detects strange new solar system (and one of the planets occupies the life-supporting 'Goldilocks zone')

Nasa has announced the discovery of a solar system which is home to not one, but two stars. The Kepler solar system, 4,900 light-years away from Earth, has two stars - called a binary system - orbiting each other in a cosmic dance. What makes this discovery exciting is the discovery of two planets circling the system - and one of them inhabits the so-called 'Goldilocks Zone', where the planet is the right distance ('not too hot, not too cold') to support liquid water and potentially support life. Before today, it was unknown whether planets could form around a two-star system. The discovery shows that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star, and also demonstrates the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy. The two orbiting stars eclipse each other every 7.5 days from our vantage point on Earth. One star is similar to the sun in size, but only 84 percent as bright. The second star is diminutive, measuring only one-third the size of the sun and less than 1 percent as bright. Jerome Orosz, associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University and lead author, said: 'In contrast to a single planet orbiting a single star, the planet in a "circumbinary" system must transit a "moving target". Source: The Coming Crisis

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Vesta: the asteroid that could have been a planet

By Zakutnyaya Olga: New data on Vesta asteroid revealing its complex structure and turbulent history were finally made public. Obtained by NASA's Dawn mission, the first ever spacecraft to orbit an asteroid, they confirm earlier suggestions on Vesta's origin and nature and pose new questions for planetary scientists. The findings show that Vesta could have possibly become a real planet had it not been located in the vicinity of Jupiter. A batch of articles published in Science magazine marked the completion of the first part of NASA's Dawn mission, targeted at two small bodies of the Solar System believed to be remnants from the first stages of its formation. According to the current theory, Earth and Mars, as well as Venus and Mercury, formed from much smaller bodies through accretion. However, the process was not at all smooth with Jupiter in the vicinity, whose gravity interfered with the formation of one more planet leaving a belt of asteroids instead of one body. This asteroid belt, known as the main belt, now hosts numerous small bodies, Vesta being one of the largest (with radii from 289 to 229 km) and one of the most massive among them. It was believed that Vesta is a protoplanet – a body formed from much smaller planetesimals, which could later have become a planet. Tags: asteroid, Sci-Tech, World, Commentary, Читать далее, Source: Voice of Russia. 

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Possible Exoplanet UCF-1.01

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have detected what they believe is an alien world just two-thirds the size of Earth -- one of the smallest on record. The exoplanet candidate, known as UCF-1.01, orbits a star called GJ 436, which is located a mere 33 light-years away. UCF-1.01 might be the nearest world to our solar system that is smaller than our home planet. Although probably rocky in composition like Earth, UCF-1.01 would be a terrible place for life. The world orbits scorchingly close to its star, so in all likelihood this planet lacks an atmosphere and might even have a molten surface, as shown in this artist's impression. Evidence for UCF-1.01 turned up when astronomers were studying a known, Neptune-sized exoplanet, called GJ 436b, seen in the background in this image. The identification of nearby small planets may lead to their characterization using future instruments. In this way, worlds like UCF-1.01 might serve as stepping stones to one day finding a habitable, Earth-like exoplanet. Because of GJ 436's proximity to our solar system, the star field around it shares many of our culture's famous cosmic landmarks. To the far left, the constellation of Orion gleams, though in a distorted shape compared to our vantage point on Earth. The red giant Betelgeuse (Orion's right shoulder) and blue Rigel (Orion's left foot) stand out, as well as the three belt stars. From GJ 436's perspective, however, the stars do not align as they do in our sky. The Pleiades star cluster is located to the upper left of UCF-1.01. The artist's animation depicts a Star Trek-like voyage out to GJ 436, finished with a flyby of UCF-1.01. Starting from Earth, we quickly zoom out of the solar system into our sun's local neighborhood, populated by the closest stars that lie within a few light-years of Earth. Swinging around, we shift our attention to the dwarf star GJ 436, which is so faint that it is invisible to us until we get close enough to see its dim glow. From here we move into the GJ 436 system, at first seeing the candidate planet UCF-1.01 as it transits its star. Although probably rocky in composition like Earth, UCF-1.01 would be a terrible place for life. The world orbits scorchingly close to its star, so in all likelihood this planet lacks an atmosphere and might even have a molten surface, as shown in this animation. Near the end of the movie, a Neptune-sized exoplanet already known to exist around GJ 436, designated GJ 436b, appears in the background. Evidence for UCF-1.01 turned up when astronomers were studying this previously known world. Source: Minsex

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Nicole Richie: 'I'm The Best Hairstylist On The Planet'

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Starpulse: Nicole Richie stars in a sexy spread for the June issue of Glamour magazine, showing off her healthy figure. The Fashion Star judge reveals her secrets to her hair styling and how she feels about her body in the new issue of the magazine. "I have naturally curly hair, so 'natural' beach waves are not so natural for me. I like to braid my hair at night and then let it out the next day. And I also curl my hair with a flat iron," she tells the magazine before revealing who her favorite hair stylist is. "I actually think I’m the best hairstylist on the planet,' she adds. The mother of two, four-year-old daughter Harlow and son Sparrow, three - is also feeling good about herself these days. "I feel great about my body,' she reveals. 'You know, aesthetically I can be picky, but I choose not to. I’ve taken huge leaps. I’m proud of that. I work out, and I get lots of sleep, and so I feel great. And that is most important." Check out more of Nicole in the new issue of Glamour magazine and at Glamour.com., Source; Starpulse

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The Diamond Planet

The Dry Bones Blog: Did you miss this piece of news? According to the Washington Post: Diamond planet discovered by astronomers "A diamond-crystal planet five times the size of Earth and with more mass than Jupiter has been discovered in our own Milky Way galaxy. An international team of astronomers led by Swinburne University of Technology in Australia spotted the exotic planet racing around a tiny star 4,000 light years away and published their findings Thursday in the journal Science.."Read Full Story At: The Dry Bones Blog

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A wild view of apes of the planet

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eScienceCommons: “It’s a very humbling experience to come face to face with an adult, male lowland gorilla,” says Emory primate disease ecologist Tom Gillespie. “They have a characteristic bluff.” The male charges toward the perceived threat, says Gillespie, who has been charged often during in his research in Africa. “They put a leaf between their teeth, they beat their chest, and they move back and forth at very close proximity, just in front of you. You can smell their breath at times when they’re doing this.  It  takes  all

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of your strength away. So it’s a very humbling experience.” But despite their enormous physical power, gorillas don’t resort to violence unless it’s absolutely necessary to protect themselves or their families. “No one has been killed by a gorilla in any case where they didn’t provoke the gorilla,” Gillespie says. “There’s a misconception of what a gorilla is. Gorillas are extremely peaceful animals. They’re 100-percent vegetarian and they live in a family group that basically keeps to itself.”  What we know from studies of apes in the wild runs counter to the characteristics of  the  animals portrayed

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in the movie “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” he says. Even the more war-like behavior observed in chimpanzees in the wild might be less aggressive without human involvement, Gillespie says. “A lot of those things happened because we intervened. We went in there and fed a bunch of bananas to the animals. They changed their ranges, they got accustomed to getting bananas and then when we walked away and stopped giving them bananas, all the sudden they needed food and they started fighting over where they’re going to get the food.” Source: eScienceCommons

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Planet Mercury Has Buildings In NASA Photos! 100% Indisputable Evidence That Aliens Exist.

ScottcWaring: The featured photo of alien structure in Mercury crater is made possible by NASA. Old pictures before photoshop was invented! Since the first day half a century ago, NASA continues to be hiding the info about the presence of aliens within our system. The simplest method to prove that aliens exist is by using NASA photos. In doing this they cannot be disputed about who or what took the photos. We want more scientists searching the NASA archives photos of planets, moons and sun photos, by doing this we

are able to put pressure on NASA to ensure they disclose the reality sooner. Help by searching NASA photos in your spare time and please put these screenshots and photos with links into a video, posting it to Youtube so the world can see the truth. Now I’m sure you’ll inquire, “Why would NASA keep the presence of aliens a secret?” That’s a simple question. The CIA and NSA will classify any information found that might be advantageous to keeping the United States number 1 for security or financial reasons. Aliens

could offer  technology developments which are 1000′s of years in front of our very own. This will turn our economy to dust. If only these narrow minded people knew that a planet and its inhabitants can survive with out a monetary system. The NASA Apollo Image Atlas is a great starting point. Why? Since the old images come from a period when NASA didn’t have illustrator so it’s simpler to locate structures. Here is a nice video I made today showing you some structures I found in NASA Mercury photos. SCW Source: ScottcWaring

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Humans may colonise alien planet in next 100 years

Indian Express, Agencies, London, The US military is planning a mission of flying mankind in the next 100 years to an alien planet – which would otherwise take around 70,000 years to reach with current technologies. The project, called the 100-Year Starship study, will see key decisions taken within the next 12 weeks - such as where to head for, reports the Sun. Our own solar system''s inhospitable planets have been ruled out. Alpha Centauri - among the stars

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closest to us - is a candidate. America''s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is offering a 300,000 pounds prize to scientists who can begin overcoming hurdles such as whether to freeze humans for the mission - or to send embryos that can be “born” when near their new home. In September a meeting will take place in Florida, U.S, and initial plans will be drawn up for the exploration and colonisation of world beyond the solar system. Source: Indian Express

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Solar system had a fifth giant planet?

Indian Express: It's known that our solar system has always had four giant planets -- Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus. Now, astronomers claim to have found evidence which suggests that the solar system might have a fight giant planet which was mysteriously knocked out into deep space. Computer simulations by researchers  at  the  Southwest  Research  Institute  in  San  Antonio,  Texas,

Solar system began to take shape four and a half billion years ago when a huge cloud of dust and gas collapsed to form the Sun. (Reuters)

showed that it is statistically extremely unlikely that the solar system began with four giants. By their calculations, it only had a 2.5 per cent chance of reaching its current population and orbital layout with four giants, but was 10 times more likely to have developed to its present state if there was a fifth monster body in the mix, the Daily Mail reported. To reach this conclusions, the researchers led by David Nesvorny ran 6,000 simulations of the solar system's birth and early development. Solar system had a fifth giant planet? - Indian Express

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NASA Discover New Earth Like Planet "Kepler - 22b"

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Uploaded by keithypops, Share Link: DP World, on Dec 5, 2011, It may have a radius about 2.4 times that of our home planet, but NASA scientists have confirmed that Kepler-22b — depicted in the artist's conception up top — is the first planet we've ever confirmed orbits within the so-called "habitable zone" of a Sun-like star, making it the most Earth-like planet we've yet discovered. In astronomy, the habitable zone (also known as the Goldilocks zone") is the region surrounding a star in which an orbiting planet could maintain liquid water (and, by extension, life) on its surface. And as the "Goldilocks" moniker implies, whether or not a planet resides inside
a habitable zone has everything to do with whether the planet is a little too cold, a little too hot, or just right, temperature-wise. Take Kepler-21b, for example, whose discovery was announced last week by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. Kepler-21b is even closer to the size of Earth than Kepler-22b, but it orbits far too close to its sun to sustain any form of life we're familiar with; as this conception of K-21b by artist Ron Miller clearly illustrates, surface temperatures on the planet are estimated to reach as much as 3000-degrees Fahrenheit — that's hot enough to melt iron, not to mention any hope of us ever calling K-21b "Earth 2.0." But Kepler-22b is a different story. Sure, the planet orbits about 15% closer to its star than Earth 

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does to the Sun, but its star is also significantly cooler, dimmer, and smaller than ours. And while scientists have yet to determine K-22b's composition — be it rocky, gaseous or liquid — they estimate that surface temperatures on K-22b average a very Earth-like 72-degrees Fahrenheit. "This is a major milestone on the road to finding Earth's twin," said Douglas Hudgins, Kepler program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "Kepler's results continue to demonstrate the importance of NASA's science missions, which aim to answer some of the biggest questions about our place in the universe."

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