Project News

Kepler Discovers its Smallest Habitable Zone Planets

Kepler • April 18th, 2013

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...

Astronomers Discover Massive Star Factory in Early Universe

Herschel • April 17th, 2013

Busy-bee galaxy seen churning out stars when our universe was just a baby.

Planetarium-Friendly Versions of Planck All-Sky Maps Available

Planck • April 15th, 2013

Planck's all sky maps showing the oldest light in our universe, as well as the calculated distribution of mass of the universe, are now available in a format suitable for use in...

Retired Star Found with Planets and Debris Disk

Herschel • April 9th, 2013

The Herschel Space Observatory has provided the first images of a dust belt - produced by colliding comets or asteroids - orbiting a subgiant star known to host a planetary system

Gravity-Bending Find Leads to Kepler Meeting Einstein

Kepler • April 4th, 2013

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 --...

Hunting Massive Stars with Herschel

Herschel • March 28th, 2013

In a new view of a vast star-forming cloud called W3, the Herschel space observatory tells the story of how massive stars are born.

Planck Mission Brings Universe Into Sharp Focus

Planck • March 21st, 2013

The Planck space mission has released the most accurate and detailed map ever made of the oldest light in the universe, revealing new information about its age, contents and...

Herschel Discovers Some of the Youngest Stars Ever Seen

Herschel • March 19th, 2013

The 15 newly observed protostars turned up by surprise in a survey of the biggest site of star formation near our solar system, located in the constellation Orion.

Herschel to Complete Its Mission Soon

Herschel • March 5th, 2013

The Herschel space observatory is expected to exhaust its supply of liquid helium coolant in the coming weeks, after spending more than three years studying the cool universe...

A Cool Discovery About the Sun's Next-door Twin

Herschel • February 20th, 2013

The Herschel Space Observatory has detected a cool layer in the atmosphere of Alpha Centauri A, the first time this has been seen in a star beyond our own Sun. The finding is...