runaway greenhouse effect tagged posts

Astronomer Searches for Signs of Life on Wolf 1061 Exoplanet

An artist's rendering of an exoplanet is shown. An exoplanet is a planet that exists outside Earth's solar system. Credit: Illustration credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

An artist’s rendering of an exoplanet is shown. An exoplanet is a planet that exists outside Earth’s solar system. Credit: Illustration credit: NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

As one of the world’s leading “planet hunters,” SF State University astronomer Stephen Kane focuses on finding “habitable zones,” areas where water could exist in a liquid state on a planet’s surface if there’s sufficient atmospheric pressure. Kane and his team, including former undergraduate student Miranda Waters, examined the habitable zone on a planetary system 14 light years away.

“The Wolf 1061 system is important because it is so close and that gives other opportunities to do follow-up studies to see if it does indeed have life,” Kane said...

Read More