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Astronomers find super-Earth using amateur, off-the-shelf technology

Astronomers announced today that they have discovered a "super-Earth" orbiting a red dwarf star 40 light-years from Earth. They found the distant planet with a small fleet of ground-based telescopes no larger than those many amateur astronomers have in their backyards. Although the super-Earth is too hot to sustain life, the discovery shows that current, ground-based technologies are capable of finding almost-Earth-sized planets in warm, life-friendly orbits.

The discovery is being published in the December 17 issue of the journal Nature.

Astronomers find world with thick, inhospitable atmosphere and an icy heart

In this week's issue of Nature, astronomers announce the discovery of a planet around the nearby, low-mass star GJ1214 [2]. It is the second time a transiting super-Earth has been detected, after the recent discovery of the planet Corot-7b [3]. A transit occurs when the planet's orbit is aligned so that we see it crossing the face of its parent star. The newly discovered planet has a mass about six times that of our terrestrial home and 2.7 times its radius, falling in size between the Earth and the ice giants of the Solar System, Uranus and Neptune.

Inside the dark heart of the Eagle

Herschel has peered inside an unseen stellar nursery and revealed surprising amounts of activity. Some 700 newly-forming stars are estimated to be crowded into filaments of dust stretching through the image. The image is the first new release of 'OSHI', ESA's Online Showcase of Herschel Images.

NASA's AIM satellite and models are unlocking the secrets of mysterious 'night-shining' clouds

GREENBELT, Md. -- NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite has captured five complete polar seasons of noctilucent (NLC) or "night-shining" clouds with an unprecedented horizontal resolution of 3 miles by 3 miles. Results show that the cloud season turns on and off like a "geophysical light bulb" and they reveal evidence that high altitude mesospheric "weather" may follow similar patterns as our ever-changing weather near the Earth's surface. These findings were unveiled today at the Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union today in San Francisco.

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter yields crucial insights about the moon

GREENBELT, Md. – NASA's current mission in orbit around the moon, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, has been providing crucial insights about our nearest celestial neighbor since its launch in June. At a scientific meeting today, researchers unveiled the latest findings from three instruments of the powerful suite of seven aboard the satellite. LRO is expected to return more data about the moon than all previous orbital missions combined.

Scientists shed light on a mysterious neutrinos

Starting from the end of November, Queen Mary's Particle Physics Research Centre is the sole recipient of the T2K experiment data. The T2K Collaboration is a 500-strong alliance of scientists in 12 countries, who have come together to investigate the ghostly neutrino.

Laurence made landfall in Western Australia

Tropical Cyclone Laurence made landfall in Northwestern Australia this morning (Eastern Time) December 15, 2009. NASA's Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Laurence just before the center of the storm made landfall at 0503 UTC (12:03 a.m. ET). The Moderate Resolution Image Spectroradiometer instrument on Aqua captured the image.

Close-up look at dying star show our sun's fate

For the first time, astronomers have photographed these dramatic changes in detail. They reported their work in the December 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal.

"We have essentially created an animation of a pulsating star using real images," stated Lacour. "Our observations show that the pulsation is not only radial, but comes with inhomogeneities, like the giant hotspot that appeared at minimum radius."

While shepherds watched their flocks on 'Ilkely Moor'

'While shepherds watched' was the first carol to cross over to the Church of England from the secular, folk tradition and carol singers might be surprised to hear that it used to be commonly sung to the tune 'Cranbrook', better known as 'Ilkley Moor' ('On Ilkla Moor baht 'at'') according to research by a hymn expert from Durham University.

The tune used in most church services today is one of many variations used over the 300-year history of this much-loved carol according to Professor Jeremy Dibble a hymnologist in the Department of Music at Durham University.

TRMM sees 05B winding down off the Sri Lanka coast

Tropical Depression 05B is dissipating on the east coast of Sri Lanka today and over the next couple of days, but not before bringing some moderate and heavy rain over the next couple of days to some areas in Sri Lanka and the southeast coast of India, from Chennai, southward.

Tropical Cyclone Mick forms quickly, hits Fiji in the southwestern Pacific

Tropical Cyclone Mick formed over the weekend in the southwestern Pacific Ocean and made a quick landfall over Fiji's main island of Viti Levu earlier today, December 14. Mick made landfall as a Category 2 Cyclone and brought heavy rains and gusty winds to the island.

Viti Levu authorities reported torrential rainfall and gale force winds that caused power outages. Fortunately, there were no casualties. The Fiji Times reported tourists were safe on both the Yasawa and Mamanuca groups of islands. However, the city of Lautoka is dealing with power outages.

Extended drought taking toll on California's water supply

Irvine, Calif., Dec. 14, 2009 – New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California's primary agricultural region – the Central Valley – and its major mountain water source – the Sierra Nevada – have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America's largest reservoir. The findings, based on satellite data, reflect California's extended drought and increased pumping of groundwater for human uses such as irrigation.

Theorists propose a new way to shine -- and a new kind of star

Dying, for stars, has just gotten more complicated.

For some stellar objects, the final phase before or instead of collapsing into a black hole may be what a group of physicists is calling an electroweak star.

Born in beauty: Proplyds in the Orion Nebula

Looking like a graceful watercolour painting, the Orion Nebula is one of the most photogenic objects in space and one of the Hubble Space Telescope's favourite targets. As newborn stars emerge from the nebula's mixture of gas and dust, protoplanetary discs, also known as proplyds, form around them: the centre of the spinning disc heats up and becomes a new star, but remnants around the outskirts of the disc attract other bits of dust and clump together. Proplyds are thought to be young planetary systems in the making.

Nearby stars harbor 'super-earths,' researchers say

Washington, D.C. — Two nearby stars have been found to harbor "super-Earths"― rocky planets larger than the Earth but smaller than ice giants such as Uranus and Neptune. Unlike previously discovered stars with super-Earths, both of the stars are similar to the Sun, suggesting to scientists that low-mass planets may be common around nearby stars.