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Domain: whitedwarf.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to whitedwarf.org.
Stories · 4
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Astronomers Find Planet Barely Larger Than Earth's Moon
The Bad Astronomer writes "A team of astronomers has announced the discovery of the smallest exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like star yet found: Kepler-37b, which has a diameter of only 3865 kilometers — smaller than Mercury, and only a little bigger than our own Moon. It was found using the transit method; as it orbits its star, it periodically blocks a bit of the starlight, revealing its presence (abstract). Interestingly, the planet has been known for some time, but only new advances in asteroseismology (studying oscillations in the star itself) have allowed the star's size to be accurately found, which in turn yielded a far better determination of the planet's diminutive size. Also, the asteroseismology research was not funded by NASA, but instead crowd funded by a non-profit, which raised money by letting people adopt Kepler target stars." -
NASA's Kepler Mission Extended For Two Years
An anonymous reader writes "A report just released from NASA's senior review panel recommends extending the Kepler mission(Pdf), initially for two years. 'Kepler is not only a unique source of exoplanet discoveries, but also an organizing and rallying point for exo-planet research. It has enabled remarkable stellar science." The scaled-down budget for the extended mission was broadly expected to include funding only for continued operations and management, with no funding for science. Astronomers have already started seeking private funding to continue their Kepler-related work, through crowd-funding websites like PetriDish and FundaGeek, as well as through the non-profit Pale Blue Dot project." -
Exoplanet Candidates Revealed
An anonymous reader writes "Last summer, NASA announced that the Kepler space telescope had identified more than 700 exoplanet 'candidates' from the first few months of observations in 2009. Only 312 of the candidates were initially made public, while 400 others (click the green search button) were sequestered until February 2011. The team is soon expected to announce that a large number of these candidates have been confirmed as exoplanets. A non-profit organization in Boulder, Colorado supports scientific research on the Kepler data through $10 adopt-a-star donations. The price is $100 for confirmed exoplanets, so hurry while these 700+ stars are still 'candidates'!" -
Adopt-a-Star To Fund Research
Travis writes "An international collaboration of astronomers is taking a unique approach to funding their research, through an 'adopt-a-star' program. Preparing for the launch of NASA's Kepler satellite next February, the group will help characterize thousands of stars that the mission will be searching for evidence of Earth-like planets. For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star."