... 55 Cancri: Familiar Planet Discovered . ... Is our Solar System unique? The discovery of a Jupiter-like planet in a Jupiter-like orbit around nearby Sun-like star 55 Cancri, announced yesterday, gives a new indication that planetary systems similar to our Solar System likely exist elsewhere. ... Part of the Sun disappeared behind the Moon earlier this week. Previously, the waning Moon was best visible from all places on Earth during the early morning hours because it trailed the Sun. ...

The apparent path of the Sun across the sky. ... The path of the Sun across the celestial sphere is very close to that of the planets and the moon. ... In one year, as the Earth completes a full circuit around the Sun (drawing above), the Earth-Sun line and its continuation past Earth sweep the entire plane. ... Since the Sun and Earth are in the plane of the ecliptic, the line is automatically in that plane too; if the moon is also on the same line, it must be in the plane of the ecliptic as well. ...

... The apparent path of the Sun across the sky. ... Like the planets, the Sun, too, moves around the zodiac, making one complete circuit each year. ... In one year, as the Earth completes a full circuit around the Sun (drawing above), the Earth-Sun line and its continuation past Earth sweep the entire plane. ... Since the Sun and Earth are in the plane of the ecliptic, the line is automatically in that plane too; if the moon is also on the same line, it must be in the plane of the ecliptic as well. ...

Discover the cosmos! ... 2002 June 14 . 55 Cancri: Familiar Planet Discovered . ... The discovery of a Jupiter -like planet in a Jupiter-like orbit around nearby Sun -like star 55 Cancri , announced yesterday, gives a new indication that planetary systems similar to our Solar System likely exist elsewhere. The planet, discovered by G. Marcy ( UC Berkeley ) and collaborators, is one of two new planets found around 55 Cancri -- in 1997 a Jupiter-massed planet was found orbiting very close in. ...

My research efforts have focused on three areas which are: . More than 200 extrasolar planets have been discovered around relatively nearby stars, primarily through the Doppler line shifts owing to the reflex motions of their host stars, and more recently through transits of some planets across the face of the host stars. ... Gravitational microlensing provides a novel technique to look for planets around lens stars, and this is the only technique currently capable of detecting Earth-mass planets. ...

... Planets . ... Stars . Exoplanets . ... Most exoplanets so far discovered fall into the category of тАШhot JupitersтАЩ, these are giant planets orbiting very close to their parent star. ... Note that we have discovered so many hot Jupiters because they are the easiest type of planet to find, they are not necessarily particularly common in the galaxy. ... Subsequently several similar hot and€а fuzzy worlds have been discovered the same way, proving this that this planet is not a one-off oddball. ...

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... Like the night sky on the Earth, the martian sky hosts a plethora of astronomical phenomena occurring around the clock in a neverending space opera played out for the benefit of robotic and future human observers alike. ... Moons . Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos . ... Under the same conditions, Deimos would be as bright as -5, somewhat brighter than the planet Venus appears in Earth's sky. ... The moons are also eclipsed by Mars itself (a situation analogous to lunar eclipses at the Earth). ...

... This year's eclipse is unique in duration. ... Although, at the present time, there are 6 solar observatories belonging to leading space agencies in orbit around the Earth, the eclipse of 22 July, 2009, will only be seen by two of them: the Russian CORONAS-PHOTON satellite equipped with TESIS telescopes and Japan's HINODE satellite fitted with an XRT space telescope. ... TESIS will be the first of the two devices (and the very first on Earth) to witness the solar eclipse. ...

. Go Here for Hubble Ultra Deep Field . ___________________________________________________________________ The Electronic Universe Project e-mail: nuts@moo.uoregon.edu

... Bringing news from across the Universe to children all around the world . ... Astronomers have captured this amazing new space photograph showing the birth of a Solar System! Earth and the other seven planets of our Solar System are not alone in the Universe. Over 1800 planets have been discovered around distant stars so far, and this number is rising! Stars and planets form when a giant cloud of cosmic dust in space collapses in on itself. ...

... 8, ``Celestial Mechanics'', 2002 Precession and free core nutation of neutron stars A. Gusev, I. Kitiashvili Kazan University, Russia In 1992 Wolszczan and Frail discovered a planetary system around the pulsar PSR 1257+12 [1]. ... Third case: the most likely possibility is the free precession of the pulsar with a rigid 81 neutron star. ... It is known that rotation of the terrestrial planets having rigid mantle and elliptical liquid core is characterized by Free Core Nutation (FCN). ...

... On the morning of Thursday, 26 February, amid the Gal pagos Islands, the Sun will fade from view. Not the culmination of ancient prophecy, but none less mystical, Earth's small Moon will be executing a slow slide past the enormous Sun. ... And anyone living in southern North America, Central America, northern South America, or on islands and cruise ships in the Caribbean Sea will, weather permitting, have the opportunity to experience the wonder of a solar eclipse. ...

In ancient times the solar system was thought to be the whole Universe, so the study of planetary motions was cosmology. ... The planets other than the Moon and Sun generally move West to East through the stars, but occasionally stop and move in the opposite direction ( retrograde motion). In order to explain the retrograde motion of the planets, the geocentric model of the Solar System shown above puts the planets on small circles called epicycles . ...

... 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...

... 2001 January 18 . 2001: A Total Lunar Eclipse . ... Explanation: The first and only total lunar eclipse for the year 2001 occured on the evening of January 9/10 as the full Moon glided through Earth's shadow. ... The fact that the northern (top) portion of the eclipsed Moon is clearly brighter, even near mid-totality, demonstrates that Earth's shadow is not uniformly dark. Tomorrow's picture: Black Holes Are Black . ... About APOD | ...

Signs Constellations Of The Zodiac . Articles | ... The band of the zodiac is some sixteen degrees wide, extending about eight degrees north and south of what's called the ecliptic -- the Sun's path through the stars. ... Since that time, the March equinox Sun has shifted about thirty degrees westward through the constellations of the zodiac. ... While signs neatly extend eight degrees north and south of the ecliptic, aligning with the borders of the zodiac, constellations do no such thing. ...

Supernova 2009js in NGC 918 . This page is devoted to information on Supernova 2009js in NGC 918 . Basic information on this SN, including the last reported brightness, on this Supernova can be found on the main page . Information on the original web pages for many of these images can be found on the updates and links web pages. Discovered independently by Lick Observatory Supernova Search (USA) and Koichi Itagaki (Japan). ... 2009/10/11.44 . 17.2 . ... Joseph Brimacombe . ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... This first Snack of the year 2000 (yes, I am one of those who says the Millennium begins in 2001) will talk a little about a wonderful event: a total lunar eclipse. On the evening of Thursday, January 20 (or the early morning Friday, January 21 if you lives east of England) the Moon will go undergo one of the best eclipses it can. ... The Moon stays in the Earth's shadow in a lunar eclipse longer the Earth stays in the Moon's shadow during a solar eclipse. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

Aristarch is Copernic of Classic World. ... First Aristarch determined the fact for how many times the Sun was father then the Moon and then he compared the Sun and the Moon with the Earth. ... Only the Moon rotates around the Earth. ... Gipparch suggested that the Sun turned around the Earth steady and in circumference but the Earth is displaced according its centre. ... The orbit point in which the Sun is nearer to the Earth Gipparch called perigee and the most remote one he called apogee . ...