Planet
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NASA
NASA Missions Spy First Possible ‘Survivor’ Planet Hugging White Dwarf Star
An international team of astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and retired Spitzer Space Telescope has reported what may be the first intact planet found closely orbiting a white dwarf, the dense leftover of a Sun-like star, only 40% larger than Earth. The Jupiter-size object, called WD 1856 b, is about seven times larger than the white dwarf, named WD 1856+534. It circles…
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NASA
Earth-Size, Habitable Zone Planet Found Hidden in Early NASA Kepler Data
Editor’s note: This release has been updated to add language about how this discovery relates to the field of astrobiology. A team of transatlantic scientists, using reanalyzed data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, has discovered an Earth-size exoplanet orbiting in its star’s habitable zone, the area around a star where a rocky planet could support liquid water. Scientists discovered this planet, called Kepler-1649c,…
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Press Releases
Gas Insulation Could be Protecting an Ocean Inside Pluto
SAPPORO, Japan, May 20, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Computer simulations provide compelling evidence that an insulating layer of gas hydrates could keep a subsurface ocean from freezing beneath Pluto’s icy exterior, according to a study published in the journal Nature Geoscience. Natural color images of Pluto taken by NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in 2015. Source: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker…
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