Techdirt. Stories filed under "kepler" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "kepler"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 5 Mar 2012 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: The Rest Of The Universe Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120225/02042417880/dailydirt-rest-universe.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120225/02042417880/dailydirt-rest-universe.shtml
  • Nomad planets could be floating around our galaxy without orbiting a star in surprisingly large numbers. Based on some new estimates, there might be 100,000 times more nomad planets in the Milky Way than stars. [url]
  • The Hubble telescope has found a totally new class of planet that is made of an enormous amount of water. Given the density of this waterworld, GJ1214b has more water than Earth and much less rockiness. [url]
  • The Kepler Space Telescope has discovered over a thousand planets outside our solar system, and a few other star systems have interesting planetary orbit patterns. One "Kepler Object of Interest" (KOI) is a system in which there are planets that share the same orbit. In another KOI, all the planets circle their star in under a week. Strange, new worlds, indeed. [url]
  • To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120225/02042417880     Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Strange New Worlds Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100418/2350319063/dailydirt-strange-new-worlds.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100418/2350319063/dailydirt-strange-new-worlds.shtml
  • Kepler 16b isn't the lecture hall for your astronomy exam. It's the un-trademarked name of Tatooine. This is the first planet that's been observed orbiting a binary star system. [url]
  • The Kepler telescope has been a busy bee. It's found two planets sharing the same orbit. These two co-orbiting planets, in the KOI-730 system, are always 120 degrees apart, so they don't collide. [url]
  • The planet TrES-2b is so dark. How dark is it? It reflects less than 1 percent of the incident light from its parent star, and so it's darker than coal. (sorry, no joke here.) [url]
  • Apparently, there are lots of "free agent" planets floating around the universe without a star to orbit. Expect a disaster movie where one of these lonely planets is headed straight for Earth (nevermind the statistical improbabilities). [url]
  • To discover more links on space exploration, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
    • By the way, StumbleUpon can also recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100418/2350319063     Tue, 24 May 2011 17:00:00 PDT DailyDirt: Satellites Measure All Sorts Of Stuff... Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110215/17261113117/dailydirt-satellites-measure-all-sorts-stuff.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110215/17261113117/dailydirt-satellites-measure-all-sorts-stuff.shtml
  • Satellite measurements of the upper atmosphere could lead to forecasting models for earthquakes. Days before a massive earthquake, detectable ionization and heat buildup in the atmosphere can be seen -- but it's still uncertain exactly what the mechanism for this is. [url]
  • The Kepler telescope has taken stellar photo­metry to the next level -- and needs help to analyze all the data it's gathering. It sounds like amateur astronomers could have a decent chance at making some interesting discoveries... [url]
  • Telescopes need to be calibrated, so there's a proposal to put a light bulb in orbit as a standard reference for light sources. Hubble and other space-based satellites already have internal references, but an orbiting light bulb could serve the same purpose for other telescopes and ground-based telescopes. [url]
  • To discover more stuff on research & research tools, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20110215/17261113117     Tue, 8 Feb 2011 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Distant Discoveries Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100822/22562010720/dailydirt-distant-discoveries.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100822/22562010720/dailydirt-distant-discoveries.shtml
  • A tiny blob of light named UDFj-39546284 is tentatively dubbed the most distant galaxy seen so far. The James Webb Telescope will confirm the classification, and until then there's a 20%(!) chance that this thing isn't a galaxy at all. [url]
  • The Kepler telescope has found 54 planets in a "habitable zone" around their respective stars -- and 5 of those are approximately Earth-sized. There are plenty more to find still, too. [url]
  • According to statistical analysis, the cosmos is at least 250 times bigger than what we can see. So you can't believe everything you see.. and there's lies, damn lies and statistics to back that up. [url]
  • In a not-so-distant court, astrology has been re-affirmed as a "trusted science" in India. Apparently, India's Supreme Court had already ruled astrology as a science in 2004. [url]
  • To discover more astronomy-related links, check out what's floating around in StumbleUpon universe. [url]  
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    ]]>     urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100822/22562010720     Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:00:00 PST DailyDirt: Astronomy Makes Astrology Kinda Complicated Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110111/11284312603/dailydirt-astronomy-makes-astrology-kinda-complicated.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110111/11284312603/dailydirt-astronomy-makes-astrology-kinda-complicated.shtml looot of movements to take into account.... Still, there are plenty of folks who are wondering what their new astrology sign might mean. But however the stars move, astrologers probably enjoy all these new astronomical discoveries, if only because it makes their jobs more interesting. So, here are a few cool observations.
  • The Hubble is looking at a green gas cloud called Hanny’s Voorwerp. The object was discovered in 2007 by Dutch schoolteacher, Hanny van Arkel. [url]
  • The Kepler telescope found a solid planet about 40% bigger than Earth. That planet is more than a bit too hot for our biology, but there are at least a few hundred more planets in Kepler's sights. [url]
  • Mars might have giant caves! Or at least, it has big dark craters of some kind. [url]
  • Here's a "mysteries of space" timeline. Seriously not drawn to scale... especially a googol years in the future. [url]


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