Some Interesting Exoplanets

In 1990 the first planets outside our solar system were discovered, and with the discovery of 51 pegasi b, the number of identified exosolar, or exoplanets, has soared to about 230. Some are stranger than others.

#10: The first exoplanet discovered is a hot jupiter also called Bellerphon after the constellation it's located in, known as 51 pegasi b.

#9: The closest exoplanet to our solar system is Epsilon Eridani b, orbiting a star only 10.5 ligh years from earth, orbits too far away to support liquid water. However, scientists predict there are other stars in the system that could support alien life.

#8: There are some planet-sized objects that have no sun at all and float untethered through space, called planemos. These are similar but smaller than brown dwarfs, which are failed stars too small to achieve stellar ignition.

#7: There are some exoplanets that orbit their parent stars so closely that their orbits last less than a day called ultra-short-period planets. One example is SWEEPS-10.

#6: One of the largest temperature differences astronomers have ever seen on an exoplanet occurs on Upsilon Andromeda b, which is tidally locked to its sun so one side of the planet is always facing its star. One side of the planet is hot as lava while the other is chilled below freezing.

#5: The youngest exoplanet discovered is less than one million years old and orbits Coku Tau 4, which is a star 420 light-years away.

#4: The oldest exoplanet discovered is 12.7 billion years old, more than 8 billion years before Earth and only 2 billion years after the Big Bang. The discovery of this planet raised the possibility that life began far sooner than scientists had imagined.

#3: The planet HD209458b has a year only 3.5 Earth-days long because the planet orbits so close to its star that at least 10 thousand tons of material is being blown away by stellar wind every second.

#2: One of the first planets to have its light analyzed, or sniffed, HD 189733b's atmosphere contains thick clouds of particles similar to grains of sand, but scientists suspect there might be water vapor hidden beneath the clouds.

#1: The smallest exoplanet ever detected is also the first to lie within the habitable zone of its parent star, raising the possibility that the surface might sustain liquid water and even life. It is called Gliese 581 C.

All in all, these exoplanets are remarkable discoveries that are slowly giving scientists more and more clues as to where to search for extraterrestrial life.

How William Borucki Launched the Kepler Mission

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"The Exoplanet Sleuth Behind NASA's Kepler Mission"

Bill Borucki is the man behind NASA's decision to build and launch the first spacecraft capable of finding Earth-size planets orbiting other stars, Kepler. Of course Borucki was part of a team of scientists, computer scientists, engineers, and educators at the SETI Institute; however, he was the man steering the Kepler mission through navigating the maze of changing requirements, reallocated funding, technical issues, and political challenges.

Borucki grew up in Delevan, Wiscosin as a budding young scientist- he was president of the school's science club- and progressed from there. After earning both a B.S. and M.S. in physics, Borucki applied and earned his dream job at NASA. Then he worked at the Theoretical Studies Branch where they studied the atmospheres of Earth and other planets and built theoretical models of the atmosphere to understand how mankind's influence would change it. His interests emerged and he wrote two papers on his thinking about how photometry and spectrometry could be used to find other planets.

Finally, in 2000 he proposed a planet-finding mission to NASA, in response to a call for Discovery mission proposals, and the Kepler Mission was selected as the 10th Discovery Mission in December 2001. Although the mission encountered plenty of obstacles before finally launching, Bill Borucki and his team worked together to overcome them and successfully embark on a mission that could change our view of our world (and others) as we know it.

Some Strange Things in Space

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"Top 10 Strangest Things in Space"

There are many exceptionally astonishing things going on in the universe around us. One such phenomenon are quasars; bright beacons at the edge of the universe which release more energy than hundreds of galaxies combined. Scientists believe these are black holes in distant galaxies.

In space, although we tend to think empty space is simply empty, it is in fact countless 'virtual' subatomic particles that are constantly being created and destroyed. The short-lived particles fill the space with energy which creates an anti-gravitational force that pushes space apart.

Distortions in space-time predicted by Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity are known as gravity waves. These waves travel at the speed of light, but can only be detected by scientists when large cosmic events take place because otherwise they are too weak.

Discovered in space were strange particles that are opposite versions of particles making up normal matter, called anti-matter. For example, an electron has an anti-matter equivalent called a positron, which is opposite the electron by being positive. When normal and anti- matter meet their mass is converted into pure energy (E=mc2). Futuristic space ship designs incorporate anti-matter engines.

All in all, there are many strange things in space, some proven some not, that are slowly providing clues to the questions we pose as we seek for others like ourselves in the universe.

Switch to Digital TV Excludes Aliens from Viewing

http://www.space.com/searchforlife/090618-seti-aliens.html

"Aliens Lose in Switch to Digital TV"

Television signals as well as FM radio and radar have served as humans probing into deep space ever since World War II. A lot of people don't believe its possible for extraterrestrials to pick up on television, whether it be analog or digital, because the broadcasts would fade away long before they reached even the nearest star because every doubling of distance causes a four-fold reduction in intensity. But the massive switch to DTV has many others believing signals aliens used to be able to pick up will be replaced with smoother DTV. Radio technology is very sensitive though, and with large antennas it is possible to detect faint radio static from distant corners of the universe. Radio static from analog television is a lot of energy concentrated in a small range of frequencies which create spikes; aliens could find this emission and although they wouldn't have TV picture and sound they would know we were on the air.

However, DTV creates a smooth, low hiss, and television broadcast no longer emits a spike in frequencies that are detectable light-years away. On the other hand, the most powerful signals from our planet are radar transmissions such as the Arecibo telescope, which can be detected with a similarly sized antenna nearly one thousand light-years away. All in all, although its possible aliens will be cut off from being able to detect television broadcasts from earth, other frequencies will still be out there to catch their attention.

Tropical Storms on Saturn's Moon

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/090812-titan-clouds.html

"Tropical Storm Spotted on Saturn's Moon Titan"

Saturn's Moon Titan has a climate resembling that of Earth, but instead of a water cycle, Titan has a methane cycle. Clouds, rains and lakes all exist on Titan, but they are all made of methane. This is because the moon is so cold any water is frozen into rock-hard ice. Last summer, astronomers observed something very startling: a tropical storm.

This is not supposed to be there, according to the models that predicted that the equatorial region should be very dry and should not support cloud formation. While clouds of vaporized methane are not uncommon on Titan, though they have never before been observed in Titan's tropics. Scientists suspect the storm's trigger may have been some kind of geologic activity on the moon's surface, such as a geyser or new mountain range forming, or atmospheric effects.

This development simply furthers the fascination of Titan; the processes are nearly identical to Earth's, but with alien materials. As Saturn's 30-year-long orbit plays out a full rotation of seasons on the moon, scientists hope that by having telescopes trained on the moon and the every-six weekly view from NASA's Cassini spacecraft they will be able to learn a lot more.