... 2007 February 27 . Atmospheres Detected for Two Extrasolar Planets . ... Explanation: Do extrasolar planets have water? In an attempt to find out, the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope made detailed observations of the atmospheres of two planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. ... Although no water vapor was detected this time, the techniques of measuring exoplanet atmospheres are quite promising, and the search for distant water and other biomarkers is just beginning. ... About APOD | ...

... 26.02.2007 . ... In an attempt to find out, the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope made detailed observations of the atmospheres of two planets that orbit stars other than our Sun. ... It's not an astronomical nebula -- those appear to stay put. ... APOD: 2007 February 24- X rays and the Eagle Nebula . ... The premier Chandra X-ray Observatory images of M16, the Eagle Nebula, show many bright x-ray sources in the region. ... APOD: 2007 February 23- Dust and the Helix Nebula . ... February 2014 . ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

... Planets . ... Earth Satellites . ... Looking in the direction of the constellation Cygnus the Swan and launched by NASA in 2009 is the Kepler Space Observatory.Many previous missions searching for exoplanets mainly detected large giant planets, like large hot Jupiters (it is easier to detect larger planets).However KeplerтАЩs main objective is to search for much smaller planets located in a habitable zone which is not too close nor too far from their star; planets which may be just like our Earth. ...

Lunar Libration . Articles | ... Actually, a slight rocking motion, called libration,* makes about 59% of the Moon's surface visible from our planet Earth -- though only 50% at any one time. ... Add to that, the approximate 1.5 degree tilt of the Moon's equator to the ecliptic, and you have the inclination of the Moon's equator to the plane of its orbit around Earth at some 6.5 degrees (5 + 1.5 = 6.5). ... Re-published on Astronomy Net with permission of the author. ... www.astronomy.net . ...

Geotimes -- November 2005 -- Two more moons for "planet" Pluto http://www.geotimes.org/nov05/WebExtra110305.html Web Extra Thursday, November 3, 2005 Two more moons for Pluto When the New Horizons spacecraft finally reaches Pluto in July 2015, researchers will have more objects to study than previously thought. In addition to Pluto's confirmed moon Charon, astronomers have detected two more orbiting celestial bodies, which could help reveal how the planet and moon system formed. ...

Browse the articles below for new ideas for your classroom. Mercury September/October 2005: Astronomy Education and Public Outreach: Steps and Missteps Toward an Emerging Profession (pdf) . Focus on Education articles as they appeared in Mercury: . ... March/April 2000: . ... Education Newswire articles as they appeared in Mercury, by issue. ... January/February 2000 . November/December 1999 . ... March/April 1999 . ... November/December 1998 . ... November/December 1997 . ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... Observing . ... Sky this Month . ... Astronomy for Kids . ... Can you explain Mercury's retrograde motion? Do other planets appear to do this also? ... When astronomers talk about retrograde motion, generally they refer to the apparent motion outer planets make as Earth passes them while orbiting the Sun. ... Get instant access to subscriber content on Astronomy.com! ... Receive news, sky-event information, observing tips, and more from Astronomy's weekly email newsletter. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . On Friday 15th February the recently discovered Apollo-class near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will make a close pass by the Earth. The asteroid will come within about 34,000 km (21,000 miles) of the centre of our planet at 7.26 p.m. That is, within the ring of geostationary communication satellites which orbit at some 35,800 km above the surface of the Earth. ... Last Revised: 2013 February 11th . ...

Lectures . ... Home Lectures Lecture Series 2011-2012 Lecture Series 2011-2012 ? тАЬSearching for Earthlike WorldsтАЭ ? Debra Fischer . ... Lecture Series 2014-2015 . Lecture Series 2013-2014 . ... Lecture Series 2011-2012 . ... Observing Resources for Amateur Astronomers - Part 1: Beginning Observers . ... A History of the First Forty Years of the Amateur Astronomers Association . ... 2016 Amateur Astronomers Association of New York Designed by Press Customizr Powered by . ...

From a bird's eye view of the ecliptic, it is clear that Pluto's orbit is more eccentric than any other planet's. Pluto's orbit appears to intersect Neptune's, and for a period of about 20 years Pluto is slightly closer to the sun than Neptune. ... The libration of Pluto's orbit is due to an exchange of angular momentum with Neptune. When Pluto is "catching up" to Neptune, it gains angular momentum at Neptune's expense. ...

The basic problems of the Laboratory are connected with researches of dynamics of minor planets and comets. ... THE ORBIT IMPROVEMENT of minor planets from optical and radar observations, . the utilization of minor planet observations for THE DETERMINATION OF ORIENTATION OF STAR CATALOGUES and DETERMINATION OF MASSES OF MINOR PLANETS BY DYNAMICAL METHOD, . THE ESTIMATION OF COLLISION PROBABILITY of minor planets with other bodies and with each other, . ...

... Aurora from Space . ... Magnetic Storms . ... Solar fast Particles . ... Currently more than 200 communication satellites circle the Earth in synchronous orbit . ... Another effect of magnetic storms (and to lesser extent, of substorms) is a greater intensity of the electric currents circulating between Earth and distant space. ... One spacecraft would orbit near Earth, the other would be stationed elsewhere in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, capturing a sideways view of solar eruptions. ...

... The study of extra solar planets will be one of the most important areas of research in astronomy in this century. ... The first planets outside the solar system were found in 1992 around the millisecond pulsar PSR B1257+12 by Alex Wolszczan at the Arecibo Observatory . ... Three space missions based on this principle (MOST, COROT and Kepler ) have already been launched or approved, and have the last one at least has the potential to find Earth-sized planets. ... SIM ( NASA ) is one of such missions...

... Five years ago, the giant radio telescopes in outback West Australia detected radio signals, apparently coming from a planet orbiting the obscure star HD666123, in the constellation Carina. ... The "Dot" HD666123 The radio signals are coming from the dot of light marked in the above (negative) telescope image, which was taken at a wavelength of 500nm. ... The "Planet" 360 AU HD666123 You've been tracking the dot, from which the radio waves are coming, for four days now. and it appears to be moving. ...

Comets necessarily obey the same physical laws as every other object. ... If one considers only two bodies -- either the Sun and a planet, or the Sun and a comet -- the smaller body appears to follow an elliptical path or orbit about the Sun, which is at one focus of the ellipse. ... Another quantity that is conserved is called angular momentum. ... Comets simply are bodies which in general have more angular momentum per unit mass than do planets and therefore move in more elongated orbits. ...

... Solar System . ... European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of the Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system тАФ the nearest to Earth. ... Alpha Centauri is one of the brightest stars in the southern skies and is the nearest stellar system to our Solar System тАФ only 4.3 light-years away. ... The European team detected the planet by picking up the tiny wobbles in the motion of the star Alpha Centauri B created by the gravitational pull of the orbiting planet [2] . ...

... Laboratory for Spectroscopy of Molecular Structures . ... News . ... A new article entitled Description of optical properties of cholesteric photonic liquid crystals based on Maxwell equations and Kramers-Kronig relations has appeared in Physical Review E. Congratulations to Grigoriy Ksyonz on his first publication! . 25 th February 2013 . ... 22 nd November 2012 . ... 22 nd February 2012 . 4 th Workshop on Liquid Crystals for Photonics 2012 will take place in Hong Kong December 9-11, 2012. ...

The Earth. ... The middle raiding of the Earth is 6371,032 km, the pole 6356,777 km equatorial - 6378,160 km. The Earth surface area is 510,2 mln km^2, 70,8% of which is the World ocean. ... According to the modern cosmogonical views the Earth was formed 4,6 - 4,7 billions years ago from the protoplanet cloud captured by the Sun. ... The Earth is conditionally divided into 3 parts: a bark a cloak and a core (in the centre). The external layer - the bark is 35 km thick. ... Above the Earth. ...

... More on 51 Peg: . The discovery of a Jupiter--mass planet in orbit around the solar--type star 51Peg has been reported by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz (Geneva Observatory) on October 6th at the 9th Cambridge workshop on "cool stars, stellar systems, and the sun" held at Florence (Italy). ... Recall that the measurements of radial velocity only yield v sin i which in turn gives us M sin i. For most values of i, sin i will be greater than 0.5 and this gives a mass estimate of 0.5 Jupiter masses. ...