Planet Quest: News Archive

Media Information Media inquiries regarding the missions, science or technology covered in this Web site should be directed to Jane Platt, media relations specialist. (818) 354-0880

SIM PlanetQuest technology 'in hand' (November 15, 2006) A new Northrop Grumman press release heralds the completion of SIM's technology development milestones and the mission's readiness to enter its next phase of development. (External press release)

Mercury transit foreshadows future planet hunt (November 6, 2006) On Wednesday, November 8, the planet Mercury passed between Earth and the sun, covering part of the sun's disc and demonstrating the method that NASA's Kepler mission will use to find planets around other stars.

Earth: The lone pale blue dot? (November 6, 2006) A recent photo from the Cassini spacecraft shows the mighty planet Saturn and a faint pinprick of light. That tiny dot is Earth. (External press release)

Planet-finding by numbers (October 18, 2006) Scientists with NASA's SIM PlanetQuest mission, scheduled to launch in the next decade, have calculated how many potentially habitable planets the mission might detect around other stars. (External press release)

Spitzer sees day, night on exotic world (October 12, 2006) NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has made the first measurements of the day and night temperatures of a planet outside our solar system. (External press release)

On the trail of other Earths (October 11, 2006) Answering that question is just the first step in NASA's long-range quest to look for life around stars beyond our solar system, according to Dr. Wes Traub. And to answer it, he says, we have to go into space.

Hubble detects 16 extrasolar planet candidates (October 4, 2006) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates orbiting a variety of distant stars in the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. (External press release)

SuperWASP detects 2 transiting planets (September 18, 2006) SuperWASP has discovered 2 new extra-solar transiting planets in the constellations Andromeda and Delphinus. The discoveries were made with data from the SuperWASP-North observatory and confirmed by radial velocity using the newly commissioned SOPHIE spectrograph at the observatoire de Haute Provence. (External press release)

Spitzer sees brown dwarf in planetary system (September 18, 2006) Spitzer sees brown dwarf in planetary system (September 18, 2006) - Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered and directly imaged a small brown dwarf star, 50 times the mass of Jupiter, orbiting with a planet around a Sun-like star. (External press release)

Puffed-up planet spied at double star (September 14, 2006) Using a network of small automated telescopes known as HAT, Smithsonian astronomers have discovered a planet unlike any other known world. (External press release)

New roadmap in hunt for alien life (September 14, 2006) It is only a matter of time before astronomers find an Earth-sized planet orbiting a distant star. When they do, the first questions people will ask are: Is it habitable? (External press release)

'Sleuth' telescope snags a rare planet type (September 12, 2006) A rare planet circling a star 500 light-years away has been spotted by astronomers using a telescope whose development was funded by NASA.

Look, up in the sky - it's another solar system! (September 8, 2006) If you've ever looked up on a clear winter night, you've probably seen it: Pollux, also known as Beta Geminorum, one of the brightest and most familiar stars in the night sky.

Study: Earthlike planets may be common (September 7, 2006) More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside Earth's solar system may harbor Earth-like planets, many covered in deep oceans with potential for life, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder and Pennsylvania State University. (External press release)

Honey, I shrunk the solar system (August 24, 2006) If you woke up Thursday morning and sensed something was different about the world around you, you're absolutely right. Pluto is no longer a planet. (External press release)

Spitzer spies over 2,000 planet-forming disks (August 14, 2006) Astronomers have long scrutinized the vast and layered clouds of the Orion nebula, an industrious star-making factory visible to the naked eye in the sword of the famous hunter constellation. Yet, Orion is still full of secrets. (External press release)

Binocular planet-finder receives 2nd mirror (August 8, 2006) The second of two primary mirrors has been mounted inside the Large Binocular Telescope, which will study the formation of solar systems and will be capable of directly detecting giant planets around other stars.

Planet-forming disks might put brakes on stars (July 24, 2006) Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have found evidence that dusty disks of planet-forming material tug on and slow down the young, whirling stars they surround. (External press release)

Astronomers discover five new planets (July 20, 2006) A team of astronomers has announced the discovery of five new gas-giant planets around nearby stars. This brings the total number of known extrasolar planetary systems to 193. The newly discovered planets are: HD 164922 b, HD 66428 b, HD 99109 b, HD 107148 b and HIP 14810 b.

Hubble reveals 2 dust discs around star (June 27, 2006) NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has revealed two dust disks circling the nearby star Beta Pictoris. The images confirm a decade of scientific speculation that a warp in the young star's dust disk may actually be a second inclined disk, which is evidence for the possibility of at least one Jupiter-size planet orbiting the star. (External press release)

Scientists find infant solar system awash in carbon (June 7, 2006) Scientists using NASA's Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, or FUSE, have discovered abundant amounts of carbon gas in a dusty disk surrounding a young star named Beta Pictoris. (External press release)

Found: 3 'Neptunes' and a 'hot Jupiter' (May 18, 2006) European astronomers have announced the first discovery of a system consisting of several Neptune-mass planets, including one located near the habitable zone, where temperatures would be suitable for liquid water to exist (ESO press release). Elsewhere, a team of professional and amateur astronomers, using off-the-shelf equipment, has discovered a hot, Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a star 600 light-years from Earth (HubbleSite press release). (External press releases)

Pursuing the invisible with Einstein's lens (May 8, 2006) Though he couldn't be observed directly, the Invisible Man knew his presence could be betrayed by his effect on visible things. Employing a similar principle, a team led by Andrew Gould of Ohio State University will hunt for hard-to-see celestial objects, like black holes and dark matter, by observing how they affect light coming from stars behind them.

Hints of planet birth surround dead star (April 5, 2006) NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered new evidence that planets might rise up out of a dead star's ashes. (External press release)

March of the planets: 4 new discoveries (March 20, 2006) The current month already has brought four new discoveries of planets beyond our solar system - including a new type of rocky, frozen world dubbed a "super-Earth."

Water world? Discovery heats up search for life (March 9, 2006) Until recently, Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus was thought to be cold and dead. But stunning images obtained by NASA's Cassini mission show icy jets and towering plumes erupting from the moon's south pole, and mission scientists said Thursday they have evidence that liquid water may be the source.

Spitzer directly detects hot alien world (February 21, 2006) A NASA-led team of astronomers have used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to detect a strong flow of heat radiation from a toasty planet orbiting a nearby star. The findings allowed the team to "take the temperature" of the planet. (External press release)

Building a better guide to the galaxy (February 14, 2006) It is the job of astronomers to put numbers on the stupefying vastness of space and the objects it holds. That's how they get the universe to spill its secrets.

Take a 3D tour of the galaxy (February 14, 2006) How big is our galaxy? Where are we located? Explore the geography of the Milky Way with this interactive experience.

Spitzer uncovers hints of mega solar systems (February 8, 2006) NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has identified two huge "hypergiant" stars circled by monstrous disks of what might be planet-forming dust. The findings surprised astronomers because stars as big as these were thought to be inhospitable to planets. (External press release)

Discovery implies rocky planets may be common (January 25, 2006) Using a relatively new planet-hunting technique that can spot worlds one-tenth the mass of our own, researchers have discovered a potentially rocky, icy body that may be the smallest planet yet found orbiting a star outside our solar system.

Planets with multiple suns common, astronomers find (January 17, 2006) In the most comprehensive survey of its kind, Georgia State University astronomers have found that about one in five known extrasolar planetary systems include more than one sun.
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