Project News

Discovery of Kepler-17b

Kepler • November 4th, 2011

This is a hot Jupiter-class planet orbiting an active star, with dark spots that are frequently occulted by the planet. From this we find the star rotates in about 12 days, only...

Discovery of Kepler-18b, c, and d

Kepler • October 4th, 2011

A team of Kepler researchers led by Bill Cochran of The University of Texas at Austin has announced the discovery three planets: a super-Earth and two Neptune-sized planets.

NASA Space Telescope Finds Fewer Asteroids Near Earth

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • September 29th, 2011

New observations by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, show there are significantly fewer near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought....

NASA's WISE Mission Captures Black Hole's Wildly Flaring Jet

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • September 20th, 2011

Astronomers using NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have captured rare data of a flaring black hole, revealing new details about these powerful objects and their...

Origin of Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Remains a Mystery

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • September 19th, 2011

Observations from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission indicate the family of asteroids some believed was responsible for the demise of the dinosaurs is not...

NASA’s Kepler Mission Discovers a World Orbiting Two Stars

Kepler • September 15th, 2011

NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

The turbulent lives of stars

Kepler • September 14th, 2011

The stars are boiling! The reason is the energy generated in the center of the star that wants to escape. If this does not happen quickly enough, the star starts to ‘boil’ in...

Invisible World Discovered

Kepler • September 8th, 2011

Kepler-19b transits its star every 9 days and 7 hours. It orbits the star at a distance of 8.4 million miles, where it is heated to a temperature of about 900 degrees Fahrenheit.

NASA'S Wise Mission Discovers Coolest Class of Stars

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer • August 23rd, 2011

Scientists using data from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) have discovered the coldest class of star-like bodies, with temperatures as cool as the human body.

Alien World is Blacker than Coal

Kepler • August 11th, 2011

A Press Release from Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, MA announcing that astronomers have discovered the darkest known exoplanet: Jupiter-sized gas...