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Hot Topic
Deep Space
Cosmic Evolution
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Free-floating Twins Test Theories
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
08/08/06 |
| The cast of exoplanets has an extraordinary new member. Using ESO's telescopes, astronomers have discovered an approximately seven- Jupiter-mass companion to an object that is itself only twice as hefty. Both objects have masses similar to those of extra-solar giant planets. |
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Cosmic Rain
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
08/06/06 |
| For the last 30,000 years, our planet has been hit by a constant rain of cosmic dust particles. Scientists have reached this conclusion after investigating the amount of the helium isotope 3He in cosmic dust particles preserved in an Antarctic ice core. |
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Planets as Brake Pads
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/28/06 |
| 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. |
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An IOTA of Red
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/25/06 |
| By linking a trio of telescopes, astronomers have obtained unprecedented detail of old red giant stars. The stars had an unexplained patchy brightness that could be caused by orbiting planets. |
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Dust Clues to Planet
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
07/01/06 |
| 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. |
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Donuts and Banana Splits
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/30/06 |
| Recent discoveries add yet more variety to the bewildering diversity of protoplanetary disk shapes -- ranging from donuts to spirals -- that astronomers are finding as they study the birthing grounds of planets around other stars. |
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The Ratio of the Spheres
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/16/06 |
| Each of our Solar System's outer gaseous planets hosts a system of multiple satellites, and these objects include Jupiter's volcanic Io and Europa with its believed subsurface ocean, as well as Titan with its dense and organic-rich atmosphere at Saturn. |
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The Aromatic World
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/15/06 |
| In a paper soon to be published in the journal Astrobiology, Pascale Ehrenfreund and colleagues suggest that polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), organic molecules found throughout space, may have been important multi-taskers in the origin of life on Earth. |
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Red Dwarfs and Super-Earths
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/13/06 |
| A new explanation for forming super-Earths suggests that they are likely to be found orbiting red dwarf stars- the most abundant star than gas giant planets. The theory by Dr. Alan Boss, describes mechanism whereby UV radiation from nearby massive star strips off a planet's gaseous envelope, exposing a super-Earth. |
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'Planemo' Spawn
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| Topic: Cosmic Evolution |
06/10/06 |
| Forget our traditional ideas of where a planetary system forms - new research led by a University of Toronto astronomer reveals that planetary nurseries can exist not only around stars but also around objects that are themselves not much heftier than Jupiter. It suggests that miniature versions of solar system may circle objects 100 times less massive than sun. |
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