NASA's Kepler mission has discovered two new planetary systems that include three super-Earth-size planets in the "habitable zone," the range of distance from a star where the surface temperature of an orbiting planet might be suitable for liquid water.

NASA's Kepler space telescope has witnessed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion star. The findings are among the first detections of this phenomenon -- a result of Einstein's theory of general relativity -- in binary, or double, star systems.

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered 11 new planetary systems hosting 26 confirmed planets. These discoveries nearly double the number of verified planets and triple the number of stars known to have more than one planet that transits, or passes in front of, the star. Such systems will help astronomers better understand how planets form.

Astronomers using data from NASA's Kepler mission have discovered the three smallest planets yet detected orbiting a star beyond our sun. The planets orbit a single star, called KOI-961, and are 0.78, 0.73 and 0.57 times the radius of Earth. The smallest is about the size of Mars.

NASA's Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system.

The Kepler team has discovered Kepler-22b, a planet 2.4 times the size of Earth that orbits a sun-like star in 289 days. It the smallest planet yet found to orbit in the middle of its star's habitable zone, which is the region around a star where temperatures are just right for liquid water, a key ingredient for life.

ESA, NASA, the Planck Collaboration, and IRSA announce the first release of all sky temperature maps, foreground component maps and cosmology results from the Planck mission. The NASA Planck Archive is hosted at IRSA within IPAC.

Information about NASA's 2009 Decadal Process.

A number of IPAC projects, teams and individuals were honored today with NASA Achievement Awards. These recognitions reflect the dedication and creativity of these individuals and teams as well as the support and contributions by many others at IPAC that make each success possible.

This conference aims to explore the formation and evolution of galaxies using mostly gas tracers. Infrared and submillimeter observations gauge not only the quantity and distribution of gas in galaxies, but also the thermal and dynamical state of its various phases. Star formation and feedback involve physics that can be constrained with long wavelength observations: photoelectric heating, UV excitation, turbulence, cosmic rays, shock waves, atomic and molecular line emission, and thermal emission from dust. The conference will begin with what we know about the physical conditions of gas in the nearby universe out to z = 1, and then push outwards to earlier epochs when galaxies were forming most of their stars.

The National Reconnaissance Observatory (NRO) has recently transferred to NASA optical hardware the equivalent of two Hubble-class optical telescopes. This Notice of Intent is to alert the astrophysical community that the Astrophysics Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA HQ intends to release a “Dear Colleague” letter to solicit applications from interested individuals for the formation of a study group for the possible scientific use(s) of the ex- NRO telescope assets for advancing the science priorities of the 2010 Decadal Survey.

The Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech announces the availability of six-month graduate student fellowships beginning in the Spring of 2013. The program is designed to allow students from other institutions to visit IPAC-Caltech and perform astronomical research in close association with an IPAC staff member during Spring 2013.