New Drake-like equation to quantify a habitat's potential for hosting lifeSeptember 17th, 2009 LONDON - Researchers from the Open University, UK, are laying the groundwork for a new equation that could mathematically quantify a habitat's potential for hosting life, in a similar way to how the Drake equation estimates the number of intelligent extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way. Dr. Axel Hagermann will be proposing a method to find this 'habitability index' at the European Planetary Science Congress in Potsdam, Germany.
Meteor shower August 2009 time: at a glanceAugust 12th, 2009 According to Patric Wiggins NASA Solar System Ambassador page, Meteors and Meteorite falls are often spellbinding, producing spectacular visual and audible effects when they occur. Good news for the residents of Utah , the best show of the Perseid Meteor Shower will be in Utah right above your head tonight.
Astronomers say to expect dazzling sky show during annual meteor showerAugust 12th, 2009 Skywatchers to see streaking meteorsLOS ANGELES — The annual Perseid meteor shower is expected to put on a dazzling sky show. Astronomers say up to 100 meteors per hour are expected to streak across the sky during the shower's peak.
Perseid meteor shower may yield 80 'space rocks' an hourAugust 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Reports indicate that the Perseid meteor shower, which will be visible on August 11 and 12, would yield more than 80 meteors an hour streak across the sky during the best viewing time. Meteors are bits of dust or rock that collide with Earth's atmosphere and heat up gas particles to produce a glowing trail.
Perseid meteor shower to be best viewed on August 12August 7th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Reports indicate that this year's best viewing of the Perseid meteor shower will be before dawn on August 12, with a second chance after sunset that night. At its peak, this year's shower could produce up to 100 meteors per hour.
Comets, not asteroids, scarred Moon's face about 4 billion years agoJuly 28th, 2009 LONDON - A new study of ancient rocks in Greenland has suggested that icy comets - not rocky asteroids - launched a dramatic assault on the Earth and moon around 3.85 billion years ago, thus causing the lunar surface to become scarred. "We can see craters on the moon's surface with the naked eye, but nobody actually knew what caused them - was it rocks, was it iron, was it ice?" Uffe Grae Jorgensen, an astronomer at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, told New Scientist.
Snapshot of Earth's chemical fingerprint may help search for life in the universeJune 12th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, a group of international scientists took the help of a lunar eclipse to take a snapshot of earth's chemical fingerprint, which could help to identify planets most similar to earth where life may be thriving. The team used some of the world's largest optical and infrared telescopes located at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) to observe light reflected from the moon toward the earth during a lunar eclipse on August 16, 2008.
Meteor bombardment may have made earth more habitableJune 2nd, 2009 LONDON - Large bombardments of meteorites nearly four billion years ago probably made earth and mars more habitable by modifying their atmosphere. When a meteorite enters a planet's atmosphere, extreme heat causes some of the minerals and organic matter on its outer crust to be released as water and carbon dioxide before it breaks up and hits the ground.
New technique will detect water on earth-like planetsMay 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Since the early 1990s, astronomers have discovered more than 300 planets orbiting far away stars, nearly all of them being gas giants like Jupiter. Now, powerful telescopes, similar to NASA's recently launched Kepler Mission, will help spot much smaller rocky extrasolar planets, or exoplanets with water, more similar to earth.
Earth might be ultimately inhospitable to lifeMay 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A paleontologist has suggested that the Earth might be ultimately inhospitable to life, and that life itself might be the primary reason for shutting down Earth as a habitable planet. In the past 50 years, it has become commonplace to think of Earth as a nurturing place, straining mightily to maintain equilibrium so that life might continue and flourish.
New technique could find water and life on Earth-like planetsMay 26th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Using instruments aboard the Deep Impact spacecraft, a team of astronomers and astrobiologists has devised a technique to tell whether an Earth-like exoplanet harbors liquid water, which in turn could tell whether it might be able to support life. "Liquid water on the surface of a planet is the gold standard that people are looking for," said Nicolas Cowan, a University of Washington doctoral student in astronomy and lead author of a paper explaining the new technique.
Asteroids may have boosted life on Earth 3.9 billion years agoMay 21st, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has indicated that the bombardment of Earth by asteroids 3.9 billion years ago may have enhanced early life rather then wipe it out. The study, by University of Colorado at Boulder researchers, determined that the bombardment of Earth nearly 4 billion years ago by asteroids as large as the US state of Kansas would not have had the firepower to extinguish potential early life on the planet and may even have given it a boost.
Most Earthlike planet yet found may have water and lifeApril 22nd, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new research, an astronomer has suggested that the most Earthlike planet yet found has conditions right for liquid water, and life as we know it. According to a report in National Geographic News, the planet, known as Gliese 581d, has a lot more in common with Earth than astronomers first thought.
Scientists unveil "extraordinary" discovery: Earth-sized planet outside our solar systemApril 21st, 2009 Scientists discover a nearly Earth-sized planetHATFIELD, England — In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size.
NASA's Kepler mission begins hunt for planets like EarthApril 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - NASA's Kepler mission has taken its first images of the star-rich sky where it will soon begin hunting for planets like Earth. The new images show the mission's target patch of sky, a vast starry field in the Cygnus-Lyra region of our Milky Way galaxy.
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