Project News

How to Learn a Star’s True Age

Kepler • Project News • May 23rd, 2011

For many movie stars, their age is a well-kept secret. The same is true of stars in space. Like our Sun, most stars look almost the same for most of their lives. So how can we tell if a star is one billion or 10 billion years old? Astronomers may have found a solution – measuring the star’s spin.

WISE Delivers Millions of Galaxies, Stars, Asteroids

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • Project News • April 14th, 2011

Astronomers across the globe can now sift through hundreds of millions of galaxies, stars and asteroids collected in the first bundle of data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission.

Kepler Listens to an Orchestra of Solar-Type Stars

Kepler • Project News • April 7th, 2011

An international team of asteroseismologists, led by the University of Birmingham, has used data from the NASA Kepler Mission to sample the ‘stellar music’ of 500 stars similar to the Sun, according to research published today (8 April 2011) in the journal Science.

Kepler Discovery of a Unique Triply Eclipsing Triple Star

Kepler • Project News • April 7th, 2011

Star HD 181068 , a 7th magnitude star almost visible to the naked eye is in reality a complex triple system in which three stars undergo mutual eclipses as each of the stars gets behind or in front of the others. The most luminous object is a red giant star around which a close pair of two red...

Echoes from the depth of a red giant star

Kepler • Project News • April 7th, 2011

Continuation of news item from 2011 March 17. Science article: Kepler Detected Gravity-Mode Period Spacings in a Red Giant Star, by P. G. Beck et al. - Asteroseismic observations with the Kepler satellite probed the deep interior of an evolved star.

Giant Stars Reveal Their Inner Secrets for the First Time

Kepler • Project News • March 30th, 2011

University of Sydney astrophysicists are behind a major breakthrough in the study of stars known as red giants, finding a way to peer deep into their cores to discover which ones are in early infancy, which are fresh-faced teenagers, and which facing their dying days.

Astronomers Detect Echoes from the Depth of a Red Giant Star

Kepler • Project News • March 17th, 2011

Today an international team of astronomers reports the discovery of waves inside a star that travel so deep that they reach the core. The discovery was possible thanks to precise measurements with the Kepler space telescope.

Can WISE Find the Hypothetical 'Tyche'?

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • Project News • February 18th, 2011

In November 2010, the scientific journal Icarus published a paper by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, who proposed the existence of a binary companion to our sun, larger than Jupiter, in the long-hypothesized "Oort cloud" -- a faraway repository of small icy bodies at the edge of...

NASA's NEOWISE Completes Scan for Asteroids and Comets

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • Project News • February 1st, 2011

NASA's NEOWISE mission has completed its survey of small bodies, asteroids and comets, in our solar system. The mission's discoveries of previously unknown objects include 20 comets, more than 33,000 asteroids in the main belt between Mars and Jupiter, and 134 near-Earth objects (NEOs).

NASA Finds Earth-size Planet Candidates in Habitable Zone, Six Planet System

Kepler • Project News • February 1st, 2011

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars...

How to Learn a Star’s True Age

Kepler • May 23rd, 2011

For many movie stars, their age is a well-kept secret. The same is true of stars in space. Like our Sun, most stars look almost the same for most of their lives. So how can we...

WISE Delivers Millions of Galaxies, Stars, Asteroids

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • April 14th, 2011

Astronomers across the globe can now sift through hundreds of millions of galaxies, stars and asteroids collected in the first bundle of data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared...

Kepler Listens to an Orchestra of Solar-Type Stars

Kepler • April 7th, 2011

An international team of asteroseismologists, led by the University of Birmingham, has used data from the NASA Kepler Mission to sample the ‘stellar music’ of 500 stars similar...

Kepler Discovery of a Unique Triply Eclipsing Triple Star

Kepler • April 7th, 2011

Star HD 181068 , a 7th magnitude star almost visible to the naked eye is in reality a complex triple system in which three stars undergo mutual eclipses as each of the stars...

Echoes from the depth of a red giant star

Kepler • April 7th, 2011

Continuation of news item from 2011 March 17. Science article: Kepler Detected Gravity-Mode Period Spacings in a Red Giant Star, by P. G. Beck et al. - Asteroseismic...

Giant Stars Reveal Their Inner Secrets for the First Time

Kepler • March 30th, 2011

University of Sydney astrophysicists are behind a major breakthrough in the study of stars known as red giants, finding a way to peer deep into their cores to discover which...

Astronomers Detect Echoes from the Depth of a Red Giant Star

Kepler • March 17th, 2011

Today an international team of astronomers reports the discovery of waves inside a star that travel so deep that they reach the core. The discovery was possible thanks to...

Can WISE Find the Hypothetical 'Tyche'?

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • February 18th, 2011

In November 2010, the scientific journal Icarus published a paper by astrophysicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire, who proposed the existence of a binary companion to our...

NASA's NEOWISE Completes Scan for Asteroids and Comets

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • February 1st, 2011

NASA's NEOWISE mission has completed its survey of small bodies, asteroids and comets, in our solar system. The mission's discoveries of previously unknown objects include 20...

NASA Finds Earth-size Planet Candidates in Habitable Zone, Six Planet System

Kepler • February 1st, 2011

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's...