Tag Archives: blog7

An Exoplanet Near You

Last year, in August 2016, astronomers discovered an exoplanet within Alpha Centauri, the closest star system to our Sun.  Only 4.3 light-years away, Alpha Centauri consists of the binary stars Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri.  Orbiting in the habitable zone of this red dwarf is an exoplanet named Proxima Centauri-b. … Continue reading An Exoplanet Near You Continue reading

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Blog #7: The Great Filter Theory

If we think for a moment about the size of our universe and how many Earth like planets orbiting a star much like our Sun, it doesn’t take long to begin to wonder, where is everybody else? This is called the Fermi Paradox. Some estimate that there should be about 10 quadrillion (10 million billion) […] Continue reading

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Lone Ranger

We usually defined a planet as something that orbits a star but this lone ranger a.k.a. nomad planet, rogue planet, free-floating planet, or  orphan planet is unique since they do not orbit a star. Instead, they orbit the galaxy directly and considered as homeless world where they have neither sunrises nor sunsets (starless planet). What Are … Continue reading Lone Ranger Continue reading

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“Where is Everybody?”

All quiet on the vertical front. Continue reading

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OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb or The Iceball Planet

(ScienceDaily) Yesterday, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) announced the discover of a new planet orbiting the star much fainter than our sun, but, it is of similar size to earth and a similar distance to earth. In fact, this is actually the smallest planet ever discovered using a technique called microlensing (ScienceDaily). Microlensing utilizes the … Continue reading OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb or The Iceball Planet Continue reading

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Blog #7

Image of hematite tubes from microfossils discovered in the hydrothermal vents We only had to memorize a few dates for Astro 2110, but one of them was how long ago life on Earth began. Memorizing such dates are easy, but I think it’s so interesting to consider how exactly scientists (and our textbook authors!) are … Continue reading Blog #7 Continue reading

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Hyperthermophile

A hyperthermophile is an organism that thrives in extremely hot environments—from 60 °C (140 °F) upwards. An optimal temperature for the existence of hyperthermophiles is above 80 °C (176 °F). Hyperthermophiles are a subset of extremophiles, which are often micro-organisms within the domain Archaea, although some bacteria are able to tolerate temperatures of around 100 °C (212 °F), as well – Wikipedia. […] Continue reading

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A Universe Produced Home Birth Video

About 4.5 billion years ago, our solar system was “born”, out of a spinning disk of gas and dust, that somehow became a bunch of planets, moons, and the other miscellaneous space objects that we know and love today. While our solar system is definitely unique in a variety of ways, it is not the… Continue reading A Universe Produced Home Birth Video Continue reading

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First Super-Earth Exoplanet with Atmosphere Discovered

Earlier this month, scientists discovered the existence of an atmosphere on an exoplanet much like Earth, making this the first Earth-like exoplanet with atmosphere to have been detected aside from earth itself. The planet is named GJ 1132b, located in the constellation Vela as a planet of the low-mass star GJ 1132. The planet is […] Continue reading

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BLOG #7-Discovering New Planets

On April 26th 2017, Scientists from NASA discovered a curious exoplanet named OGLE-2016-BLG-1195Lb orbiting a small brown dwarf star 13,000 light years away with a mass only 7.8 percent of that of the Sun. This curious planet has a mass similar to that of earth and orbits its mother star at the same distance as … Continue reading BLOG #7-Discovering New Planets Continue reading

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