Into the Universe

The Trapezium open star cluster, at the heart of the Orion...

Tue, 14 May 2013 14:24:31 -0400

The Trapezium open star cluster, at the heart of the Orion Nebula

SNR (Supernova Remnant) 0519, created by an exploding white...

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:36:37 -0400

SNR (Supernova Remnant) 0519, created by an exploding white dwarf star

Colliding galaxies NGC 4485 (right) and NGC 4490 pulling each...

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:48:38 -0400

Colliding galaxies NGC 4485 (right) and NGC 4490 pulling each other apart (both were once spiral galaxies)

cosmoon: Quasar | Tadp0l3

Mon, 13 May 2013 23:10:20 -0400

cosmoon: Quasar | Tadp0l3

Star cluster NGC 3603, surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas...

Mon, 13 May 2013 19:12:41 -0400

Star cluster NGC 3603, surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust.

Storm on Saturn, taken by NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:46:50 -0400

Storm on Saturn, taken by NASA’s Cassini Spacecraft

NGC 6559

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:35:59 -0400

NGC 6559

ikenbot: Amateur Team Finds ‘Tatooine’ Planet with 2 Suns in...

Tue, 07 May 2013 17:23:13 -0400

ikenbot:

Amateur Team Finds ‘Tatooine’ Planet with 2 Suns in 4-Star System

Image 1: In this family portrait of the PH1 planetary system, the newly discovered planet is depicted in this artist’s rendition transiting the larger of the two eclipsing stars it orbits. Off in the distance, well beyond the planet orbit, resides a second pair of stars bound to the planetary system. Released Oct. 15, 2012. Credit: Haven Giguere/Yale

Amateur astronomers have helped discover an alien planet with two suns and a twinkling twist: The entire twin-sun setup, a real-life version of Tatooine from “Star Wars,” is orbited by two more stars — a solar system that is the first of its kind known.

Image 2: An artist’s illustration of PH1, a circumbinary planet with two parent stars and two more stars orbiting the entire system; PH1 was discovered by volunteers from the Planet Hunters citizen science project. Image released on Oct. 15, 2012. Credit: Haven Giguere/Yale

The alien planet, called PH1, is a gas giant planet slightly bigger than Neptune. Its discovery in the midst of a strange, four-star planetary system is the first confirmed world discovered as part of the Yale University-led Planet Hunters project, in which armchair astronomers work with professional scientists to find evidence of new worlds in the bountiful data collected by NASA’s Kepler space telescope.

“Planet Hunters is a symbiotic project, pairing the discovery power of the people with follow-up by a team of astronomers,” said Debra Fischer, a professor of astronomy at Yale and planet expert who helped launch Planet Hunters in 2010, in a statement. “This unique system might have been entirely missed if not for the sharp eyes of the public.”

Since its March 2009 launch, Kepler has found evidence of more than 2,300 candidate alien worlds.

Finding a strange, new world

Since its initial discovery via Planet Hunters, the existence of PH1 has been confirmed by a team of professional astronomers, who will present their work today (Oct. 15) at the annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Reno, Nev.

With a radius about 6.2 times that of Earth’s, PH1 is a smidge bigger than Neptune. The gassy planet spends 138 days completing a single orbit around its two parent stars, which have masses about 1.5 and 0.41 times that of the sun. The stars circle each other once every 20 days.

The two other stars orbiting the PH1’s twin suns are about 1,000 astronomical units (AU) from the parent stars. (One AU is about the distance between the Earth and sun, about 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers.)

source

Horsehead Nebula, embedded in Orion Nebula (M42)

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:59:55 -0400

Horsehead Nebula, embedded in Orion Nebula (M42)

Supernova remnant SN 1006

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:54:19 -0400

Supernova remnant SN 1006

n-a-s-a: Star factories in the distant Universe Credit: ESO/M....

Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:18:06 -0400

n-a-s-a:

Star factories in the distant Universe

Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser/M. Swinbank et al.

M42: Orion Nebula (Great Nebula in Orion), which contains the...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:21:24 -0400

M42: Orion Nebula (Great Nebula in Orion), which contains the Trapezium star cluster and many stellar nurseries

NGC 2736: The Pencil Nebula, part of the Vela supernova remnant

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:16:34 -0400

NGC 2736: The Pencil Nebula, part of the Vela supernova remnant

Dust Pillar in the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372 with Herbig-Haro...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:12:23 -0400

Dust Pillar in the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372 with Herbig-Haro objects)

IC 4592: Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 18:04:09 -0400

IC 4592: Blue Horsehead Reflection Nebula

M64: Black Eye Galaxy or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:20:03 -0400

M64: Black Eye Galaxy or Sleeping Beauty Galaxy

NGC 3132: Southern Ring Nebula - a planetary nebula, also known...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:15:49 -0400

NGC 3132: Southern Ring Nebula - a planetary nebula, also known as the Eight-Burst Nebula

IC 1848: The Soul Nebula

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:49:08 -0400

IC 1848: The Soul Nebula

Spiral galaxy M81 and Arc’s Loop Also: M81’s dwarf...

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:46:10 -0400

Spiral galaxy M81 and Arc’s Loop

Also: M81’s dwarf companion galaxy Holmberg IX (top)

Star Factory M17 (aka Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula)

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 11:27:25 -0400

Star Factory M17 (aka Omega Nebula or Swan Nebula)