Kepler confirms 1,000th Exoplanet and habital zone discoveries!

NASA has just made an announcement that they've confirmed a thousand extrasolar worlds and three of the latest are in their stars' habitable zones.

 (Click the images above to enlarge.)

"Each result from the planet-hunting Kepler mission's treasure trove of data takes us another step closer to answering the question of whether we are alone in the Universe," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at the agency’s headquarters in Washington. “The Kepler team and its science community continue to produce impressive results with the data from this venerable explorer."

The planets were validated as part of a survey of more than 4,000 objects. In addition, 554 further candidates were added to the mission for study. 

This is truly an amazing universe we live in. No longer are we bound by science fiction---we live in a universe with a cool grand in new, unexplored worlds!

Read NASA's statement for the full announcement.

Images: NASA

STUDY: 1 in 5 stars like our sun have planets in a habitable zone!

NASA recently completed analysis of Kepler telescope data and findings form the Keck telescope in Hawaii, examining  stars similar to our sun (G and K type). They were looking for candidates that might have planets in habitable "Goldilocks" zones.

Scientists focused on 42,000 stars and found more than 600 planets--10 of those are Earth-sized in habitable zones! From Universe Today:

Since there are about 200 billion stars in our galaxy, with 40 billion of them like our Sun, noted planet-hunter Geoff Marcy said that gives us about 8.8 billion Earth-size planets in the Milky Way.

...and...

“For NASA, this number – that every fifth star has a planet somewhat like Earth – is really important, because successor missions to Kepler will try to take an actual picture of a planet, and the size of the telescope they have to build depends on how close the nearest Earth-size planets are,” said Andrew Howard, astronomer with the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii. “An abundance of planets orbiting nearby stars simplifies such follow-up missions.”

While it's true not all are likely to be hospitable to life, this gives researchers a specific pool of candidates to examine for further study. Looks like more great news for exoplanet research!!

Read more at Universe Today

A THOUSAND Worlds and Counting!

This week, the number of exoplanets reached 1, 010! It's been more than 20 years--1992, to be exact-- since the first confirmed extrasolar planet (a.k.a. a planet outside our solar system). Since then, the tools have vastly improved from Earth-based telescopes that had to contend with atmospheric interference to space-based ones like the Kepler telescope which has been racking up finds since 2009. 

The field of exoplanet research has expanded beyond just locating planets, it now encompasses classification--separating the gas giants from the rocky abodes--in the hopes that another Earth-like planet might be found.

As of today, eight candidates have been identified as being in the "Goldilock's Zone" of their respective parent stars (i.e., sustainable temperature for liquid water), where life--at least as we know it on Earth--might have the best chance to thrive. 

In the meantime, the bounty of alien worlds has been plentiful. From NBC News:

Indeed, the current tally is likely just the tip of the exoplanet iceberg. For example, a study published last year estimated that every star in the Milky Way hosts 1.6 planets on average — meaning that our galaxy likely harbors at least 160 billion alien worlds.

And those are just the planets with obvious parent stars. Another recent study calculated that "rogue planets" — those that cruise through space apparently unbound to any star — may outnumber "normal" worlds by 50 percent or so.

The number of confirmed planets should continue its dramatic upward swing in the near future as astronomers continue to hone their techniques and analyze data collected by instruments on the ground and in space. 

Here's to the search for an alien Earth and all the exoplanets yet to be discovered!

Update: Here's a nice little video recently put together by MIT, explaining some exoplanet basics:

 

More details:

• Astrobiology Magazine: Exoplanets: 1,000 and Counting
• BBC News: Exoplanet tally soars above 1,000
• NBC News: Hello worlds! Alien planet count passes 1,000 mark
• Universe Today: Changing the Paradigm: Exoplanet Interview with Dr. Sara Seager
• Exonauts Twitter feed - I typically link to exoplanet discoveries in the news there
• Exonauts Exoplanet page and blog post tags

IMAGE: First exoplanet without a sun spotted!

Feast your eyes on that pale blue dot (lower right) folks--this is the first CONFIRMED rogue planet discovered outside our solar system! We've already detected the existence of billions of others) But this is the first one we've laid eyes on--land it's less than 100 light years away!

Just think: it's out there alone...combing it's pomador...scoping the universe for chicks.

Artists interpretation:

Wait, here's a better one:

So what do we know about the inscrutably named CFBDSIRJ2149? From io9:

Located just 100 light years from Earth, it's the nearest free-floating planet candidate ever discovered. It's big (around 4—7 times the mass of Jupiter), but not too big. Objects more than 13 times the mass of our solar system's largest planet are considered to be not planets at all, but brown dwarfs. It has company; the planet appears to belong to a traveling band of celestial objects known as the AB Doradus Moving Group. It's also very cool. In visible light, the planet would be a dim, deep-red color. In the images seen here the planet appears blue, as light at longer IR wavelengths are thought to have been absorbed by molecules in the planet's atmosphere.

Rogue planets are often dubbed "orphans" having no "parent" star. But it shouldn't be assumed that they're always frozen, lifeless hells, some scientists believe that rogue planets could have their own internal heat that might make for more habitable conditions (think bacteria or sea plankton here).



Meanwhile, back on Earth, there's an effort by space enthusiast group Uwingu to get a book published to help exoplanets get real names that don't resmble barcode vomit. Via NBC News.

Big ol' tip of the bubble helmet to io9.com.

Also, LA times, CBS News, and the BBC.

Video: Space.com

Images: L. Calçada, P. Delorme, Nick Risinger, R. Saito, European Southern Observatory/VVV Consortium

SETIcon II arrives next week to inspire space explorers and enthusiasts

Why do I hear about these things A WEEK BEFORE THEY HAPPEN? Seriously, had I known about SETIcon, I'd have been scrimping and saving all year to go. Forget ComicCon--poseurs!--this is for REALZ. From the SETIcon website:

SETIcon, envisioned and organized by the SETI Institute, is a unique, entertaining and enlightening public event where science and imagination meet.  SETIcon brings together innovative scientists, science fiction authors, space and science artists, space lovers, and the curious and adventurous everywhere for a 3-day public celebration and exploration of space, real science, technology, imagination, and science education.

There is no other event in the world like SETIcon that explores space and the human imagination through the lens of real science, attracting global interest and participation. This is not a science conference with technical lectures (SETI Institute scientists lecture all over the world). Instead we’ll bring together scientists with authors and artists to celebrate science and exchange ideas around space exploration and our place in the cosmos. SETIcon will create a new channel of discussion between Earthlings where real science and imagination will meet.

Among the speaker presentations is a keynote by Bill Nye the Science Guy! More to my interests though are several presentations by exoplanet/planetary experts like Geoff Marcy, Martin Still, and Franck Marchis.

Should someone leave me an envelope of $1,000 at my front door for airfare, reg, and expenses, (hint hint!) here's a few of the programs I'd be attending:

Sat, June 23

• 9:30 a.m. – C1.Asteroids: Junkpiles or Resources for the Next Generation?
• 11:00 a.m. – Interview with Kevin Grazier (science advisor for half-a-dozen major sci-fi shows, movies) and Alex Filippenko (the charasmatic scientist you've seen 100x on the History Channel's "The Universe")
  1:00 p.m. – This one's a toughie, I'm torn equally between:
• A3. All Aboard the 100 Year Starship!
• C3.Exoplanets – What Can SETI Learn from Kepler? (This one would likely win out)
• And an interview with SETI director Jill Tarter
• 3:00 p.m. – A4.The Race to Find Alien Life
• 4:15 p.m. – C5. Do You Need Good Science to Have Good Science Fiction? and maybe sneak over to the Andre Bormanis (Producer for Star Trek and the new TRON cartoon) interview

Sun, June 24

• 9:30 a.m. – A6.Do Any Exoplanets Have Intelligent Occupants?
• 11:00 a.m. – Interviews with Marc Okrand (guy who invented the Klingon language!) and Debra Ann Fischer (exoplanetary science pioneer)
• 12:00 p.m. Brunch with Frank Drake, "father of modern science of SETI"
• 1:30 p.m. – Aw, man this one is REALLY tough. I'd flip a 1d4 and see where I end up:
• A8.Would Discovering ET Destroy Earth’s Religions?
• B8.Artists Imaging Exoworlds – Getting it Right*
• C8.Citizen Science – Can Science Harness the Power of 7 Billion?
• Kepler Planet Data Visualized
• 3:00 p.m. – B9.The Magnificence and Majesty of the Outer Solar System* (given my recent fascination with the Kuiper Belt) 
• 4:15 p.m. – B10.Gaming the Future: Science and Video Games * (I really should go to the Kepler session though) and if I can get there in time, I'd see the interview with Antarctica researcher Dale Anderson.

If you're in the Santa Clara, CA region or can drive, fly, or beam your way there, online registration is still open.

What would you see if you could go?

Help Find the First Exomoon!

This is EXACTLY the kind of crowdfunding project I love. FIND AN ALIEN MOON! It's not a comic, or a video game on Kickstarter--this is FOR REAL.

To date, there are more than 700 confirmed exoplanets (as of this writing)--but none of them yet have an identifiable moon. Researchers at the University of Cambridge are hoping to use the Kepler Telescope to find the first. The astronomers heading this search are using Petridish.org (think Kickstarter for science) to crowdfund their project.

In order to study exomoons, we will need to use Kepler telescope data. The Kepler looks at stars and takes photos every hour, searching for changes in the brightness of each star. The dimming of a star correlates with the passing of a planet or moon in front of it. Further, because planets and moons orbit around each other, the gravitational tug of the moon causes the planets to wobble. We can detect that wobbling motion and use those clues to know that a moon is there.

To analyze all of the Kepler data, we need a small supercomputer working 24 hours a day to sift through the data. This supercomputer, like most technology, comes at a high cost, so we would be unable to make strides in this research arena without the private support of $10,000.

They're two-thirds the way there already, but they need help to reach their goal. In case you're wondering, I backed it myself--I only blog about projects I personally back.

With all the creative projects out there, it's great to see something that could really change our world and the way we view the universe. Petridish has plenty of other great projects to back as well.

THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO BOLDLY GO!

Back the hunt for exomoons on Petridish.org

Now, who wants to start the first crowdfunder to build one of these?

Hat tip to Boing Boing

Watery Exoplanet Discovered!

Hubble Telescope scientists are reporting the discovery of a new class of expolanet--a water world. Planet GJ1214b is larger than Earth but smaller than Uranus (tee hee!) and orbits a red dwarf star. From Hubblesite.org:

They found the spectrum of GJ1214b to be featureless over a wide range of wavelengths, or colors. The atmospheric model most consistent with the Hubble data is a dense atmosphere of water vapor.

"The Hubble measurements really tip the balance in favor of a steamy atmosphere," Berta said.

Since the planet's mass and size are known, astronomers can calculate the density, of only about 2 grams per cubic centimeter. Water has a density of 1 gram per cubic centimeter, while Earth's average density is 5.5 grams per cubic centimeter. This suggests that GJ1214b has much more water than Earth does, and much less rock.

As a result, the internal structure of GJ1214b would be an extraordinarily different world than our world.

"The high temperatures and high pressures would form exotic materials like 'hot ice' or 'superfluid water,' substances that are completely alien to our everyday experience," Berta said.

Theorists expect that GJ1214b formed farther out from its star, where water ice was plentiful, and migrated inward early in the system's history. In the process, it would have passed through the star's habitable zone, where surface temperatures would be similar to Earth's. How long it lingered there is unknown.

GJ1214b is located in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus, and just 40 light-years from Earth. Therefore, it's a prime candidate for study by the planned James Webb Space Telescope.

So a few important items to note here beyond the facts and figures.

1: At first glance it appears that the intense atmospheric pressure could be hostile to most life on Earth, but if you recall, we've found microbes, worms, and other simple organisms thriving in heat vents on the ocean floor, so anything is possible.

2: Hubble is still a relevent and extraordinary piece of equipment for finding planets--and not just an instrument for deep space only missions. It's a shame that its life expectancy won't be lengthened, but it's nice to know that the exoplanet work carried out by the James Webb Telescope can earmark GJ1214b for future study.

Bonus excersise: If life does exist on this steamy, high-pressure world, what form do you think it takes? Feel free to speculate in the comments....

Read the full article on Hubblesite.org.

NASA: 100+ Billion Planets in the Milky Way

NASA has conducted a recent survey of our home galaxy and through the sheer power of statistics, came up with this astonishing find:

The survey results show that our galaxy contains, on average, a minimum of one planet for every star. This means that it’s likely there are a minimum of 1,500 planets within just 50 light-years of Earth.

The study is based on observations taken over six years by the PLANET (Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork) collaboration, using a technique called microlensing to survey the galaxy for planets. In this technique, one star acts like a magnifying lens to brighten the light from a background star. If planets are orbiting the foreground star, the background star's light will further brighten, revealing the presence of a planet that is otherwise too faint to be seen.

The study also concludes that there are far more Earth-sized planets than bloated Jupiter-sized worlds. A rough estimate from this survey would point to the existence of more than 10 billion terrestrial planets across our galaxy.

They seem to be on to something--three more smaller-than-Earth-sized exoplanets were just discovered.

All of this comes on the heels of last month's discovery of Kepler22-b, hypothosized to be the first habitable planet outside our own solar system.

Kepler22-b; artist's rendering

And the 100 billion+ discovery STILL does't count the billion+ rogue planets thought to be out there as well.

It's such an exciting moment for science and the whole human race. I'm really, profoundly moved just to be hearing news like this. Take a moment and think about this pale blue dot we live on and it's true place in the universe, and sheer promise of what lies out there waiting for us to discover.



The Milky Way study will appear in tomorrow's issue of Nature.

All images: NASA

A habitable-zone exoplanet discovered in new crop of 50 finds

Star HD 85512; image via ESO and Digitized Sky Survey 2; Photo by: Davide De Martin

Let's get something straight--digging up exoplanets can be tedious work--but the pay-off can sometimes be incredible. Using extremely sensitive equipment, astronomers look for a "wobble" in a star's path that might be caused by a planetary body. When the technique was first used to find possible planetary systems, gas giants made up the early finds (Saturn and Jupiter-sized) because they were big and had a lot of mass to indicate planet's orbit.

As the technique has been refined, smaller planets often considered to be rocky like Earth--though there's no definitive proof yet of their composition--are now being picked up. Five such smaller planets have recently been detected--one of them lies in the Goldilocks Zone that would allow for liquid water and possibly life to exist. This exciting news comes from the BBC:

Of the new finds, a total of five planets have masses that are less than five times that of Earth.

"These planets will be among the best targets for future space telescopes to look for signs of life in the planet's atmosphere by looking for chemical signatures such as evidence of oxygen," said Francesco Pepe, from the Geneva Observatory, who contributed to the research.

The star HD 85512 lies some 35 light-years away and hosts a potentially habitable planet. One of the worlds, called HD 85512 b, is estimated to be only 3.6 times the mass of the Earth.

It is located at the edge of the habitable zone - the narrow strip around a star where liquid water can be present on the surface of a planet. Liquid water is considered essential for the existence of life.

That's the star pictured above. Get the full story or check out the Exoplanets link above for more resources.

Scientists find "billions" of isolated planets in Milky Way

Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt

Astronomers are reporting in the journal Nature a colossal find of "hundreds of billions of rogue, Jupiter-like planets that outnumber the stars in the Milky Way.

Imagine, what that means for moment. Hundreds of billions of shadowy worlds that could have moons or their own. So plentiful there aren't nearly as many stars in comparison.

I posted more at Threads of Adventure, including a little animation from NASA/JPL-Caltech.

FIRST EARTH-LIKE EXOPLANET DISCOVERED!!!!

Our science officer has identified the first M-class planet capable of supporting life, just 20 light years off the port bow.

You know what they say--go boldly or go home!

Expiscor Eternus!