Fifty new alien worlds revealed

Always something new and exciting in space.

Cosmic Log/MSNBC
European astronomers have announced the discovery of more than 50 new planets beyond our solar system, including 16 that are just a notch above our own planet in mass. They say their record-breaking findings suggest that more than half of the stars like our sun possess planets, and that many of those worlds are less massive than Saturn.
The pick of the litter is a planet that's already been in the spotlight: HD 85512 b, a world at least 3.6 times as massive as Earth that's located 36 light-years away in the constellation Vela. HD 85512 b is the only one of the 16 super-Earths on today's list that is located in its star system's habitable zone. That's the area around a star where scientists believe water could exist in liquid form, which would make a rocky planet potentially livable.
HD 85512 b's status came to light a couple of weeks ago in a paper submitted to the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, but the team behind the discovery provided more details about that super-Earth and the dozens of other worlds in papers presented today at the Extreme Solar Systems II conference in Wyoming.
The findings came from the team behind the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS, which is installed at the European Southern Observatory's 11.8-foot (3.6-meter) La Silla Observatory in Chile.

Best Ways to Watch Perseid Meteor Shower, Despite Full Moon Interference

Last year they were phenomenal, this year not so good maybe.
But well worth getting up a bit early for.

IBTimes
While the several nights before the peak give you better chances to observe the beauty of meteors on the dark sky, it is too early to give up on the full moon-lit sky this weekend.

Turn your back on the bright moon, and look mainly to the northwest, below the summer triangle of Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Space.com also advised stargazers to look away from the radiant, because the longest and brightest meteors will be about 90 degrees away. The radiant is now located in the constellation Cassiopeia, not Perseus, with its characteristic "W" shape.

The best hours for the meteor shower to monopolize the night sky is after the moon has set and before the sun rises. Following the best viewing nights on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday night will also see a window of dark skies, while it's shorter. The meteor will be best seen from 3:29 a.m. to 3:56 a.m. in Boston, and 4:02 a.m. to 4:32 a.m. in Washington D.C. on Thursday, according to a table provided by Space.com.

On the very night of Friday to Saturday, 2 a.m. will be the peak of the Perseids, when over 100 meteors per hour will light up the sky.

First Oxygen Molecules Found in Orion Nebula

Have you ever checked out the Orion Nebula through a Telescope?
It is one of the most amazing objects to check out, and now that Oxygen has been confirmed there it is even more amazing.




International Business Times
Astronomers have found the first ever molecules of oxygen deep in space in a region of the Orion nebula with the Herschel Space Observatory, prompting searches to ensue in other star-forming regions.

Herschel, a mission under the European Space Agency (ESA) using infrared technology, is the first to confirm the existence of molecular oxygen, or two bonded oxygen atoms, rarely found in space though the Swedish Odin telescope spotted an unconfirmed molecule in 2007. This finding marks certainty regarding oxygen molecules in outer space, a phenomenon, though predicted, continued to puzzle astronomers.

'Trojan' asteroid shares Earth's orbit

Amazing things are always found in space, not that asteroids are just amazing; but finding one in the same orbit as Earth in 2011, thats amazing.

With all the technology floating out in space, 2010 TK7 (the new Asteroids official name) is only just discovered.

AFP
PARIS — Earth is not alone in its orbit around the Sun - a small 'Trojan' asteroid sits in front of our planet and leads it, according to British science revue Nature, which published the discovery Thursday.

This diminutive asteroid has a diameter of just 300 metres but is called a Trojan because of its particular position in a stable spot either in front of a planet or behind it. Because the asteroid and planet are constantly on the same orbit, they can never collide.

Jupiter, Mars and Neptune also have Trojan asteroids accompanying them, as do two of Saturn's moons.

NASA scientists discovered the asteroid, which lies 80 million kilometres (50 million miles) from Earth, using its Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope.

Astronomers have long thought that Earth did have some Trojans but their discovery has proved elusive because of the difficulty of seeing them in daylight.

Exoplanet spotted in motion around its 'sun'

Always something new being found out in the field of Astronomy .



Beta Pictoris b, a gas giant about nine times the mass of Jupiter, is one of only a few to be detected by direct imaging.

BBC

Astronomers say they have followed, for the first time, an extra-solar planet in orbit around a young white star.

The team used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to track the motion of a gas giant Beta Pictoris b.

The planet's "sun" is also believed to be the youngest star to host a planet.

The find shows that Jupiter-like giants can form near stars in much shorter time-spans than previously thought, the scientists report in Science journal.

Astronomers have so far spotted some 450 extra-solar planets (exoplanets).

32 New Planets Found Outside Our Solar System

And speaking of all things Alien , 32 more exoplanets discovered !
That is just amazing , This is the biggest field of Astronomy their is right now , it will not be long and we will start seeing Images of Exoplanets !

....National Geographic

Astronomers have added 32 new planets to the list of planets found orbiting stars outside our solar system.

The discoveries, announced today at a press briefing in Portugal, increase to more than 400 the number of known extrasolar planets, or "exoplanets."
The 32 previously unseen planets range from five times the mass of Earth up to eight times the mass of Jupiter, scientists said.

In addition, the new planets were found around different types of stars, challenging existing theories for where and how planets form.

Overall, the research suggests that 40 to 60 percent of all planetary systems in the universe contain low-mass planets.

Since lower masses most likely mean Earthlike sizes, such planets are considered to be the best candidates in the search for extraterrestrial life. (Related pictures: "3 Worlds Most Likely to Harbor Life Named.")

"The models are predicting even larger numbers of low-mass planets like Earth, so I am pretty confident that there are Earth-type planets everywhere," said team member Stephane Udry of the Observatory of Geneva in Switzerland.

"Nature doesn't like a vacuum," he added, "so if there is space to put a planet, it will put the planet there.