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    K2 mission tagged posts

    A One-of-a-kind Star found to Change over Decades

    September 14, 2017, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    AR Scorpii

    AR Scorpii

    Astronomers studying the unique binary star system AR Scorpii have discovered the brightness of the system has changed over the past decade. The new evidence lends support to an existing theory of how the unusual star emits energy. AR Scorpii consists of a rapidly spinning, magnetized white dwarf star that mysteriously interacts with its companion star. The system was recently found to more than double in brightness on timescales of minutes and hours, but research recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters found variability on a timescale of decades.

    Researchers at the University of Notre Dame analyzed data on the unique system from the Kepler Space Telescope’s K2 mission taken in 2014 before the star was known to be unusual...

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    NASA’s Kepler Confirms 100+ Exoplanets during its K2 mission

    July 19, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Image montage showing the Maunakea Observatories, Kepler Space Telescope, and night sky with K2 Fields and discovered planetary systems (dots) overlaid. An international team of scientists discovered more than 100 planets based on images from Kepler operating in the 'K2 Mission'. The team confirmed and characterized the planets using a suite of telescopes worldwide, including four on Maunakea (the twin telescopes of Keck Observatory, the Gemini­North Telescope, and the Infrared Telescope Facility). The planet image on the right is an artist's impression of a representative planet. Credit: Karen Teramura (UHIfA) based on night sky image of the ecliptic plane by Miloslav Druckmüller and Shadia Habbal, and Kepler Telescope and planet images by NASA.

    Image montage showing the Maunakea Observatories, Kepler Space Telescope, and night sky with K2 Fields and discovered planetary systems (dots) overlaid. An international team of scientists discovered more than 100 planets based on images from Kepler operating in the ‘K2 Mission’. The team confirmed and characterized the planets using a suite of telescopes worldwide, including four on Maunakea (the twin telescopes of Keck Observatory, the Gemini­North Telescope, and the Infrared Telescope Facility). The planet image on the right is an artist’s impression of a representative planet. Credit: Karen Teramura (UHIfA) based on night sky image of the ecliptic plane by Miloslav Druckmüller and Shadia Habbal, and Kepler Telescope and planet images by NASA.

    An international team has discovered and ...

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    1st time measurement of Rotation Periods of Stars in Cluster nearly as old as the Sun

    May 17, 2016, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    False-colour image of the stellar open cluster M67. Red, green, blue composite based on Johnson B, V and G bandpass images. Captured with WiFSIP/STELLA on Tenerife. Credit: AIP

    False-colour image of the stellar open cluster M67. Red, green, blue composite based on Johnson B, V and G bandpass images. Captured with WiFSIP/STELLA on Tenerife. Credit: AIP

    It turns out these stars spin around once in ~26 days – just like our Sun. This discovery significantly strengthens what is known as the solar-stellar connection, a fundamental principle that guides much of modern solar and stellar astrophysics. This principle – that the Sun is a star – was only proved in the 19th century when distances to the nearest stars were measured. It enables us to use the Sun, the only star we can observe in detail, to study processes occurring on other stars, and conversely, to use other stars to infer the past and future of our Sun...

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    Hot Jupiter-like planet: Discovery of 2 close-in Planet companions sheds new light on Planet Formation

    October 17, 2015, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The basic chemistry for life has been detected in a second hot gas planet, HD 209458b, depicted in this artist's concept. Two of NASA's Great Observatories - the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, yielded spectral observations that revealed molecules of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the planet's atmosphere. HD 209458b, bigger than Jupiter, occupies a tight, 3.5-day orbit around a sun-like star about 150 light years away in the constellation Pegasus. Planets like this one, which circle stars beyond our sun, are called exoplanets. The new finding follows the detection of these same organic molecules in the atmosphere of another hot, giant planet, called HD 189733b, by astronomers using Hubble and Spitzer data. Astronomers can now begin comparing the chemistry and dynamics of these two planets, and search for similar measurements of other candidate exoplanets, advancing toward the goal of being able to characterize planets where life could exist. Neither of the two planets studied is habitable, but they display the same molecules that, if found around a rocky planet in the future, could potentially indicate the presence of life. The new findings pave the way for future work that will help astronomers shortlist any promising rocky Earth-like planets where the signatures of organic chemicals might indicate the presence of life. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle (SSC)

    The basic chemistry for life has been detected in a second hot gas planet, HD 209458b, depicted in this artist’s concept. Two of NASA’s Great Observatories – the Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, yielded spectral observations that revealed molecules of carbon dioxide, methane and water vapor in the planet’s atmosphere. HD 209458b, bigger than Jupiter, occupies a tight, 3.5-day orbit around a sun-like star about 150 light years away in the constellation Pegasus. Planets like this one, which circle stars beyond our sun, are called exoplanets. The new finding follows the detection of these same organic molecules in the atmosphere of another hot, giant planet, called HD 189733b, by astronomers using Hubble and Spitzer data...

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