Space news and Exploration II

[ScienceRocks]

Ten Multi-planet Systems from K2 Campaigns 1 & 2 and the Masses of Two Hot Super-Earths

[1511.09213] Ten Multi-planet Systems from K2 Campaigns 1 & 2 and the Masses of Two Hot Super-Earths

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1511.09213v1.pdf
Evan Sinukoff, Andrew W. Howard, Erik A. Petigura, Joshua E. Schlieder, Ian J. M. Crossfield, David R. Ciardi, Benjamin J. Fulton, Howard Isaacson, Kimberly M. Aller, Christoph Baranec, Charles A. Beichman, Brad M. S. Hansen, Heather A. Knutson, Nicholas M. Law, Michael C. Liu, Reed Riddle
(Submitted on 30 Nov 2015)
We present a catalog of 10 multi-planet systems from Campaigns 1 and 2 of the K2 mission. We report the sizes and orbits of 24 planets split between six 2-planet systems and four 3-planet systems. These planets stem from a systematic search of the K2 photometry for all dwarf stars observed by K2 in these fields. We precisely characterized the host stars with adaptive optics imaging and analysis of high-resolution optical spectra from Keck/HIRES and medium-resolution spectra from IRTF/SpeX. The planets are mostly smaller than Neptune (19/24 planets) as in the Kepler mission and all have short periods (P<50 d) due to the duration of the K2 photometry. The host stars are relatively bright (most have Kp<12.5 mag) and are amenable to follow-up planet characterization. For EPIC 204221263, we measured precise radial velocities using Keck/HIRES and provide initial estimates of the planet masses. EPIC 204221263b is a short-period super-Earth with a radius of 1.55±0.16R⊕, a mass of 12.0±2.9M⊕, and a high density consistent with an iron-rich composition. The outer planet EPIC 204221263c is a lower density sub-Neptune-size planet with a radius of 2.42±0.29R⊕ and a mass of 9.9±4.6M⊕ that likely has a substantial envelope. This new planet sample demonstrates the capability of K2 to discover numerous planetary systems around bright stars.


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The Kepler-454 System: A Small, Not-rocky Inner Planet, a Jovian World, and a Distant Companion
[1511.09097] The Kepler-454 System: A Small, Not-rocky Inner Planet, a Jovian World, and a Distant Companion

(Submitted on 29 Nov 2015)

Kepler-454 (KOI-273) is a relatively bright (V = 11.69 mag), Sun-like starthat hosts a transiting planet candidate in a 10.6 d orbit. From spectroscopy, we estimate the stellar temperature to be 5687 +/- 50 K, its metallicity to be [m/H] = 0.32 +/- 0.08, and the projected rotational velocity to be v sin i <2.4 km s-1. We combine these values with a study of the asteroseismic frequencies from short cadence Kepler data to estimate the stellar mass to be 1.028+0:04-0:03 M_Sun, the radius to be 1.066 +/- 0.012 R_Sun and the age to be 5.25+1:41-1:39 Gyr. We estimate the radius of the 10.6 d planet as 2.37 +/- 0.13 R_Earth. Using 63 radial velocity observations obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and 36 observations made with the HIRES spectrograph at Keck Observatory, we measure the mass of this planet to be 6.8 +/- 1.4M_Earth. We also detect two additional non-transiting companions, a planet with a minimum mass of 4.46 +/- 0.12 M_J in a nearly circular 524 d orbit and a massive companion with a period >10 years and mass >12.1M_J . The twelve exoplanets with radii <2.7 R_Earth and precise mass measurements appear to fall into two populations, with those <1.6 R_Earth following an Earth-like composition curve and larger planets requiring a significant fraction of volatiles. With a density of 2.76 +/- 0.73 g cm-3, Kepler-454b lies near the mass transition between these two populations and requires the presence of volatiles and/or H/He gas.

Detection of an atmosphere around the super-Earth 55 Cancri e
A. Tsiaras, M. Rocchetto, I. P. Waldmann, O. Venot, R. Varley, G. Morello, G. Tinetti, E. J. Barton, S. N. Yurchenko, J. Tennyson
(Submitted on 28 Nov 2015)

Before the discovery of extrasolar planets, super-Earths belonged in the realm of science fiction. However, they appear to constitute the most common planetary type in our galaxy. We know very little about these planets beyond very basic planetary and orbital parameters. The WFC3 camera onboard the HST has enabled the spectroscopic observations of the atmospheres of two super-Earths, GJ1214b and HD97658b, with unprecedented precision; but the published spectra of these two objects are featureless, suggesting an atmosphere covered by thick clouds or made of molecular species much heavier than hydrogen. We report here the analysis of the observations performed with the WFC3 of a third, very hot, super-Earth, 55 Cancri e. Given the brightness of 55 Cancri, the observations were obtained in scanning mode, adopting a very long scanning length and a very high scanning speed. These observational parameters are coupled with the geometrical distortions of the instrument, so we have developed a specialized pipeline to de-correlate the signal from the systematics. We measure the transit depth per wavelength channel with an average relative uncertainty of 21 ppm and find a spectral modulation of about 100 ppm. These results suggest that 55 Cancri e is surrounded by an atmosphere, which is hydrogen-rich. Our fully Bayesian spectral retrieval code, TauREx, has identified HCN to be one of the possible trace gases in the atmosphere. While additional observations in a broader wavelength range will be needed to confirm the HCN detection, we discuss here the implications of such result. We adopt a chemical scheme developed with combustion specialists and validated by a wide range of experiments. Our chemical model indicates that a relatively high mixing ratio of HCN would reveal a high C/O ratio, suggesting the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e is a carbon-rich environment.

[1511.08901] Detection of an atmosphere around the super-Earth 55 Cancri e

 

[ScienceRocks]

SpaceX May Try Land-Based Rocket Landing This Month, NASA Official Says

SpaceX May Try Land-Based Rocket Landing This Month, NASA Official Says

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — SpaceX may try to make history with its next launch later this month, returning its rocket to a landing pad rather than an ocean-based platform, a NASA official said today (Dec. 1).

Carol Scott, who works technical integration for SpaceX within NASA's Commercial Crew Program, told reporters here at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station today that SpaceX's first attempt at a land-based rocket landing may be coming sooner than the public expects.

The First Cold Neptune Analog Exoplanet: MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb
[1512.00134] The First Cold Neptune Analog Exoplanet: MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb
(Submitted on 1 Dec 2015)

We present the discovery of the first Neptune analog exoplanet, MOA-2013-BLG-605Lb. This planet has a mass similar to that of Neptune or a super-Earth and it orbits at 9∼14 times the expected position of the snow-line, asnow, which is similar to Neptune's separation of 11asnow from the Sun. The planet/host-star mass ratio is q=(3.6±0.7)×10−4 and the projected separation normalized by the Einstein radius is s=2.39±0.05. There are three degenerate physical solutions and two of these are due to a new type of degeneracy in the microlensing parallax parameters, which we designate "the wide degeneracy". The three models have (i) a Neptune-mass planet with a mass of Mp=21+6−7Mearth orbiting a low-mass M-dwarf with a mass of Mh=0.19+0.05−0.06M⊙, (ii) a mini-Neptune with Mp=7.9+1.8−1.2Mearth orbiting a brown dwarf host with Mh=0.068+0.019−0.011M⊙ and (iii) a super-Earth with Mp=3.2+0.5−0.3Mearth orbiting a low-mass brown dwarf host with Mh=0.025+0.005−0.004M⊙. The 3-D planet-host separations are 4.6+4.7−1.2 AU, 2.1+1.0−0.2 AU and 0.94+0.67−0.02 AU, which are 8.9+10.5−1.4, 12+7−1 or 14+11−1 times larger than asnow for these models, respectively. The Keck AO observation confirm that the lens is faint. This discovery suggests that Neptune-like planets orbiting at ∼11asnow are quite common. They may be as common as planets at ∼3asnow, where microlensing is most sensitive, so processes similar to the one that formed Uranus and Neptune in our own Solar System may be quite common in other solar systems.

 

[ScienceRocks]

NASA space telescopes see magnified image of the faintest galaxy from the early universe

Astronomers harnessing the combined power of NASA's Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes have found the faintest object ever seen in the early universe. It existed about 400 million years after...

Exiled exoplanet likely kicked out of star's neighborhood

A planet discovered last year sitting at an unusually large distance from its star - 16 times farther than Pluto is from the sun - may have been kicked out...

Evidence that our Sun could release ‘superflares’ 1000x greater than previously recorded
Could release energy equivalent to a billion megaton bombs, potentially disastrous for life on Earth
December 2, 2015

Astrophysicists have discovered a stellar “superflare” on a star observed by NASA’s Kepler space telescope with wave patterns similar to those that have been observed in the Sun’s solar flares. (Superflares are flares that are thousands of times more powerful than those ever recorded on the Sun, and are frequently observed on some stars.)

The scientists found the evidence in the star KIC9655129 in the Milky Way. They suggest…

read more

 

[ScienceRocks]

Cosmic Girl: 747 becomes Virgin Galactic's new mothership

• David Szondy
• December 3, 2015
• 6 PICTURES

Virgin Galactic has a new mothership for its small satellite launch service. "Cosmic Girl" is a 747- 400 commercial jet aircraft that once served with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Airlines and has now been seconded to act as the an aerial platform for sending small payloads into orbit using the LauncherOne orbital vehicle.

 

[ScienceRocks]

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New Horizons returns first of the best images of Pluto
NASA's New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the first in a series of the sharpest views of Pluto it obtained during its July flyby – and the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades.

ALMA spots monstrous baby galaxies cradled in dark matter
Astronomers discovered a nest of monstrous baby galaxies 11.5 billion light-years away using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The young galaxies seem to reside at the junction of gigantic filaments ...

A new technique to gauge the distant universe
Scientists have developed a technique to use quasars – powerful sources driven by supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies – to study the universe's history and composition. To demonstrate the new method, based ...

LRO finds Apollo 16 booster rocket impact site
After decades of uncertainty, the Apollo 16 S-IVB impact site on the lunar surface has been identified. S-IVBs were portions of the Saturn V rockets that brought astronauts to the moon. The site was identified in imagery ..

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MinXSS CubeSat launches to ISS to study Sun's soft X-rays
December 4, 2015 by Sarah Frazier

The NASA-funded MinXSS CubeSat will launch December 2015 to study soft X-rays from the sun. There have not yet been long-term studies of these soft X-rays, but observations show they may be important clues to understanding what heats the …more

On Dec. 4, the bread loaf-sized Miniature X-Ray Solar Spectrometer, or MinXSS, CubeSat is scheduled to rocket to space alongside thousands of pounds of supplies and science experiments destined for the International Space Station. MinXSS will study the spectroscopy of soft x-rays, a particular type of light from the sun. This light is highly variable and can impact Earth's upper atmosphere, which can in turn affect communications such as GPS and radio.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-minxss-cubesat-iss-sun-soft.html#jCp

 

[longknife]

Space Exploration

‘False positives:’ More than half of NASA’s Kepler exoplanets aren’t actually planets

A five-year study of exoplanet data captured by the Kepler space observatory found that half the exoplanet candidates aren’t planets at all. They are either too small (brown dwarfs) or eclipsing binary stars (failed stars).

More @ ‘False positives:’ More than half of NASA’s Kepler exoplanets aren’t actually planets

 

[ScienceRocks]

That's a crock.

It is the BIG Jupiter suspected worlds that are 50% false positives. They're mostly brown dwarfs or stars...Small earth, Neptune and worlds smaller then 7 earth radius's are about 90% real.


Rt.com really needs to hire some real reporters.


An international team1 led by Alexandre Santerne from Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA2), made a 5-year radial velocity3 campaign of Kepler’s giant exoplanet candidates, using the SOPHIE4 spectrograph (Observatory of Haute-Provence, France), and found that 52,3% were actually eclipsing binaries5, while 2,3% were brown dwarfs6. Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço

 

[ScienceRocks]

New Horizons Returns First of the Best Images of Pluto

NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft has sent back the first in a series of the sharpest views of Pluto it obtained during its July flyby – and the best close-ups of Pluto that humans may see for decades.

Each week the piano-sized New Horizons spacecraft transmits data stored on its digital recorders from its flight through the Pluto system on July 14. These latest pictures are part of a sequence taken near New Horizons’ closest approach to Pluto, with resolutions of about 250-280 feet (77-85 meters) per pixel – revealing features less than half the size of a city block on Pluto’s diverse surface. In these new images, New Horizons captured a wide variety of cratered, mountainous and glacial terrains.

“These close-up images, showing the diversity of terrain on Pluto, demonstrate the power of our robotic planetary explorers to return intriguing data to scientists back here on planet Earth,” said John Grunsfeld, former astronaut and associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “New Horizons thrilled us during the July flyby with the first close images of Pluto, and as the spacecraft transmits the treasure trove of images in its onboard memory back to us, we continue to be amazed by what we see."

These latest images form a strip 50 miles (80 kilometers) wide on a world 3 billion miles away. The pictures trend from Pluto’s jagged horizon about 500 miles (800 kilometers) northwest of the informally named Sputnik Planum, across the al-Idrisi mountains, over the shoreline of Sputnik, and across its icy plains. (To view the strip in the highest resolution possible, click here and zoom in.)

New Horizons Returns First, Best Images of Pluto

For the first time, astronomers have measured the radius of a black hole

http://phys.org/news/2012-09-astronomers-radius-black-hole.html#nRlv

Now, an international team, led by researchers at MIT's Haystack Observatory, has for the first time measured the radius of a black hole at the center of a distant galaxy—the closest distance at which matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole.

The scientists linked together radio dishes in Hawaii, Arizona and California to create a telescope array called the "Event Horizon Telescope" (EHT) that can see details 2,000 times finer than what's visible to the Hubble Space Telescope. These radio dishes were trained on M87, a galaxy some 50 million light years from the Milky Way. M87 harbors a black hole 6 billion times more massive than our sun; using this array, the team observed the glow of matter near the edge of this black hole—a region known as the "event horizon."

"Once objects fall through the event horizon, they're lost forever," says Shep Doeleman, assistant director at the MIT Haystack Observatory and research associate at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. "It's an exit door from our universe. You walk through that door, you're not coming back."

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Caught up in this spiraling flow are magnetic fields, which accelerate hot material along powerful beams above the accretion disk The resulting high-speed jet, launched by the black hole and the disk, shoots out across the galaxy, extending for hundreds of thousands of light-years. These jets can influence many galactic processes, including how fast stars form.

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According to Einstein's theory, a black hole's mass and its spin determine how closely material can orbit before becoming unstable and falling in toward the event horizon. Because M87's jet is magnetically launched from this smallest orbit, astronomers can estimate the black hole's spin through careful measurement of the jet's size as it leaves the black hole. Until now, no telescope has had the magnifying power required for this kind of observation.

(more)


Jet-Launching Structure Resolved Near the Supermassive Black Hole in M87 - ScienceAbstract

Approximately 10% of active galactic nuclei exhibit relativistic jets, which are powered by the accretion of matter onto supermassive black holes. Although the measured width profiles of such jets on large scales agree with theories of magnetic collimation, the predicted structure on accretion disk scales at the jet launch point has not been detected. We report radio interferometry observations, at a wavelength of 1.3 millimeters, of the elliptical galaxy M87 that spatially resolve the base of the jet in this source. The derived size of 5.5 ± 0.4 Schwarzschild radii is significantly smaller than the innermost edge of a retrograde accretion disk, suggesting that the M87 jet is powered by an accretion disk in a prograde orbit around a spinning black hole.

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Another Lava earth found within k2-19...This one will be D.
EPIC 201505350 d 1.14 earth radi. Calculated temperature 1252.0 K

Probably a ocean of lava as big as the fucking pacific on this baby!

It's not all bad as k2-3d seems to be a super earth within the habitual zone!

The Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia — K2-3 d

1.51 earth radi and 11.1 times our mass...This works out to a density close to iron! This world would be tropical in nature if it has water on its surface.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Three's a charm as Cygnus CRS-4 mission lifts off

• David Szondy
• December 6, 2015
• 5 PICTURES

It was third time lucky today as the unmanned Orbital Sciences/ATK Cygnus CRS-4 mission lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Following two previous delays due to bad weather, the privately owned and operated Cygnus spacecraft set off atop an Atlas V rocket at 4:44 pm EST to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Akatsuki probe enters orbit around Venus

• David Szondy
• December 6, 2015
• 3 PICTURES

Space exploration rarely gives second chances, but the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) took advantage of a big one today. The Agency has confirmed that its Akatsuki space probe has successfully made it into orbit around the planet Venus on its second attempt. The first try was way back on December 7, 2010, when a malfunction of the main engine sent the spacecraft back into orbit around the Sun.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Second team with verified launch contract kicks off XPRIZE space race

• Stu Robarts
• December 8, 2015

Having previously announced that it had signed a launch contract in pursuit of the Google Lunar XPRIZE, Moon Express has now received official verification of the contract from XPRIZE. It is the second team receive verification, after SpaceIL. The news kicks off a new space race.

Astronomers trace the magnetic field of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy

• Anthony Wood
• December 8, 2015

A team of astronomers has successfully detected magnetic fields present around the event horizon of the supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy. It is thought that these magnetic fields are the driving factor behind a mechanism that sends intense pulses of galaxy sculpting radiation blasting thousands of light-years into space from the event horizon of a spinning black hole.

Rare mergers of binary neutron stars found as the source of radioactive plutonium-244 in nature

In a letter published in the prestigious journal Nature Physics, a team of scientists from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem suggests a solution to the Galactic radioactive plutonium puzzle.

New US space mining law to spark interplanetary gold rush

Flashing some interplanetary gold bling and sipping "space water" might sound far-fetched, but both could soon be reality, thanks to a new US law that legalizes cosmic mining.

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Peering through Titan's haze
This composite image shows an infrared view of Saturn's moon Titan from NASA's Cassini spacecraft, acquired during the mission's "T-114" flyby on Nov. 13, 2015.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Planet Hunters. VIII. Characterization of 41 Long-Period Exoplanet Candidates from Kepler Archival Data

[1512.02559] Planet Hunters. VIII. Characterization of 41 Long-Period Exoplanet Candidates from Kepler Archival Data
(Submitted on 8 Dec 2015)

The census of exoplanets is incomplete for orbital distances larger than 1 AU. Here, we present 41 long-period planet candidates in 38 systems identified by Planet Hunters based on Kepler archival data (Q0-Q17). Among them, 17 exhibit only one transit, 14 have two visible transits and 10 have more than three visible transits. For planet candidates with only one visible transit, we estimate their orbital periods based on transit duration and host star properties. The majority of the planet candidates in this work (75%) have orbital periods that correspond to distances of 1-3 AU from their host stars. We conduct follow-up imaging and spectroscopic observations to validate and characterize planet host stars. In total, we obtain adaptive optics images for 33 stars to search for possible blending sources. Six stars have stellar companions within 4". We obtain high-resolution spectra for 6 stars to determine their physical properties. Stellar properties for other stars are obtained from the NASA Exoplanet Archive and the Kepler Stellar Catalog by Huber et al. (2014). We validate 7 planet candidates that have planet confidence over 0.997 (3-{\sigma} level). These validated planets include 3 single-transit planets (KIC-3558849c, KIC-5951458b, and KIC-8540376d), 3 planets with double transits (KIC-8540376c, KIC-9663113c, and KIC-10525077b), and 1 planet with 4 transits (KIC-5437945c). This work provides assessment regarding the existence of planets at wide separations and the associated false positive rate for transiting observation (17%-33%). More than half of the long-period planets with at least three transits in this paper exhibit transit timing variations up to 41 hours, which suggest additional components that dynamically interact with the transiting planet candidates. The nature of these components can be determined by follow-up radial velocity and transit observations.

A Multiple Scattering Polarized Radiative Transfer Model: Application to HD 189733b
[1512.02308] A Multiple Scattering Polarized Radiative Transfer Model: Application to HD 189733b
Pushkar Kopparla, Vijay Natraj, Xi Zhang, Mark R. Swain, Sloane J. Wiktorowicz, Yuk L. Yung
(Submitted on 8 Dec 2015)

We present a multiple scattering vector radiative transfer model which produces disk integrated, full phase polarized light curves for reflected light from an exoplanetary atmosphere. We validate our model against results from published analytical and computational models and discuss a small number of cases relevant to the existing and possible near-future observations of the exoplanet HD 189733b. HD 189733b is arguably the most well observed exoplanet to date and the only exoplanet to be observed in polarized light, yet it is debated if the planet's atmosphere is cloudy or clear. We model reflected light from clear atmospheres with Rayleigh scattering, and cloudy or hazy atmospheres with Mie and fractal aggregate particles. We show that clear and cloudy atmospheres have large differences in polarized light as compared to simple flux measurements, though existing observations are insufficient to make this distinction. Futhermore, we show that atmospheres that are spatially inhomogeneous, such as being partially covered by clouds or hazes, exhibit larger contrasts in polarized light when compared to clear atmospheres. This effect can potentially be used to identify patchy clouds in exoplanets. Given a set of full phase polarimetric measurements, this model can constrain the geometric albedo, properties of scattering particles in the atmosphere and the longitude of the ascending node of the orbit. The model is used to interpret new polarimetric observations of HD 189733b in a companion paper.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New clues to Ceres' bright spots and origins

10 December 2015

Ceres reveals some of its well-kept secrets in two new studies in the journal Nature, thanks to data from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. They include highly anticipated insights about mysterious bright features found all over the dwarf planet's surface. In one study, scientists identify this bright material as a kind of salt. The second study suggests the detection of ammonia-rich clays, raising questions about how Ceres formed.

Ceres has more than 130 bright areas, and most of them are associated with impact craters. Study authors, led by Andreas Nathues at Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Gottingen, Germany, write that the bright material is consistent with a type of magnesium sulfate called hexahydrite. A different type of magnesium sulfate is familiar on Earth as Epsom salt.

http://www.spacedail...rigins_999.html

Two New Long-Period Giant Planets from the McDonald Observatory Planet Search and Two Stars with Long-Period Radial Velocity Signals Related to Stellar Activity Cycles\
[1512.02965] Two New Long-Period Giant Planets from the McDonald Observatory Planet Search and Two Stars with Long-Period Radial Velocity Signals Related to Stellar Activity Cycles

We report the detection of two new long-period giant planets orbiting the stars HD 95872 and HD 162004 (psi1 Draconis B) by the McDonald Observatory planet search. The planet HD 95872b has a minimum mass of 4.6 M_Jup and an orbital semi-major axis of 5.2 AU. The giant planet psi1 Dra Bb has a minimum mass of 1.5 M_Jup and an orbital semi-major axis of 4.4 AU. Both of these planets qualify as Jupiter analogs. These results are based on over one and a half decades of precise radial velocity measurements collected by our program using the McDonald Observatory Tull Coude spectrograph at the 2.7 m Harlan J. Smith telescope. In the case of psi1 Draconis B we also detect a long-term non-linear trend in our data that indicates the presence of an additional giant planet, similar to the Jupiter-Saturn pair. The primary of the binary star system, psi1 Dra A, exhibits a very large amplitude radial velocity variation due to another stellar companion. We detect this additional member using speckle imaging. We also report two cases - HD 10086 and HD 102870 (beta Virginis) - of significant radial velocity variation consistent with the presence of a planet, but that are probably caused by stellar activity, rather than reflexive Keplerian motion. These two cases stress the importance of monitoring the magnetic activity level of a target star, as long-term activity cycles can mimic the presence of a Jupiter-analog planet.

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Barnaby Norris reckons imaging Earths at 1AU might be in reach within the next 10 years! Next-gen ground-based telescopes crucial #5AEW
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There's a little black spot on a star today—storm larger than Earth http://go.nasa.gov/1NkNz8e @NASAKepler @NASAspitzer https://vine.co/v/iZqjj2v6B5Y
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Spitzer and Kepler detect Jupiter-like storm on small star
Astronomers have discovered what appears to be a tiny star with a giant, cloudy storm, using data from NASA's Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes. The dark storm is akin to Jupiter's Great Red Spot: a persistent, raging storm .
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Zooming in on #Pluto's patterns of pits, a newly downloaded image from @NASANewHorizons: http://go.nasa.gov/1Y695mb


#Ceres has more than 130 bright areas! Here are Occator and Oxo in context http://go.nasa.gov/1OVT1B0

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NASA tests ICESat-2's laser aim
Close enough doesn't cut it in the spacecraft assembly cleanroom at NASA Goddard's Space Flight Center, where engineers are building an elevation-measuring instrument to fly on the Ice, Cloud and land Elevation Satellite-2 ...

 

[ScienceRocks]

Spacex scheduled to return to flight on December 19

SpaceX could return its Falcon 9 rocket to flight as soon as next week, a mission that would close out Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's 2015 launch campaign. CEO Elon Musk on Thursday said the company was "aiming" to test-fire a Falcon 9's main engines on Wednesday at Launch Complex 40, then launch "about three days later." The potential Dec. 19 launch would be SpaceX's first since a Falcon 9 broke apart about two minutes..

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[ScienceRocks]

Astronomers Find New Object, Possible Super-Earth In Our Solar System


10 December 2015

Astronomers using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have found a distant object in the direction of Alpha Centauri. The object appears to be in the outer region of our solar system, and depending on its distance could be a hypothesized ”super-Earth.”

ALMA is capable of precise observations at short microwave wavelengths, typically emitted by cold gas and dust. But objects on the edge of our solar system also emit light in this range, and would be too cool and distant to be observed by infrared telescopes. In 2014, ALMA found a faint object in the direction of Alpha Centauri A & B. The object was again observed in May of this year, this time more clearly. Given that the object is within a few arcseconds of the Alpha Centauri system, it would seem reasonable to presume that it could be part of that system, possibly gravitationally bound as Alpha Centauri D. The Centauri system is about 4 light years away, and at that distance (given the object’s brightness at submillimeter wavelengths) it would have to be a red dwarf star. But such a star would also be clearly visible in the infrared, so if this object is Alpha Centauri D we should have seen it long ago.

The new object (labelled U) as seen by ALMA. Credit: R. Liseau, et al.

Another possibility (which seems more likely to the object’s discoverers) is that it is about 300 AU away and about 1.5 times the size of Earth, making it the first “super-Earth” found in our solar system. Observations of trans-Neptunian objects have led to some speculation that one or two super-Earth’s could lurk in the outer solar system, so it’s not out of the question. There’s reason to be cautious of this idea, however, because of its location. Alpha Centauri is about 42 degrees away from the ecliptic. Most large solar system lay within a few degrees of the ecliptic, and even Sedna’s orbit is only inclined about 12 degrees from it. The chances of a super-Earth with such a highly inclined orbit seems very unlikely.

http://www.forbes.co...r-solar-system/

 

[ScienceRocks]

Orbital Architectures of Planet-Hosting Binaries: I. Forming Five Small Planets in the Truncated Disk of Kepler-444A
Trent J. Dupuy, Kaitlin M. Kratter, Adam L. Kraus, Howard Isaacson, Andrew W. Mann, Michael J. Ireland, Andrew W. Howard, Daniel Huber
[1512.03428] Orbital Architectures of Planet-Hosting Binaries: I. Forming Five Small Planets in the Truncated Disk of Kepler-444A

http://arxiv.org/pdf/1512.03428v1.pdf
(Submitted on 10 Dec 2015)

We present the first results from our Keck program investigating the orbital architectures of planet-hosting multiple star systems. Kepler-444 is a metal-poor triple star system that hosts five sub-Earth-sized planets orbiting the primary star (Kepler-444A), as well as a spatially unresolved pair of M dwarfs (Kepler-444BC) at a projected distance of 1.8" (66 AU). We combine our Keck/NIRC2 adaptive optics astrometry with multi-epoch Keck/HIRES RVs of all three stars to determine a precise orbit for the BC pair around A, given their empirically constrained masses. We measure minimal astrometric motion (1.0±0.6 mas yr−1, or 0.17±0.10 km s−1), but our RVs reveal significant orbital velocity (1.7±0.2 km s−1) and acceleration (7.8±0.5 m s−1 yr−1). We determine a highly eccentric stellar orbit (e=0.864±0.023) that brings the tight M dwarf pair within 5.0+0.9−1.0 AU of the planetary system. We validate that the system is dynamically stable in its present configuration via n-body simulations. We find that the A−BC orbit and planetary orbits are likely aligned (98%) given that they both have edge-on orbits and misalignment induces precession of the planets out of transit. We conclude that the stars were likely on their current orbits during the epoch of planet formation, truncating the protoplanetary disk at ≈2 AU. This truncated disk would have been severely depleted of solid material from which to form the total ≈1.5 MEarth of planets. We thereby strongly constrain the efficiency of the conversion of dust into planets and suggest that the Kepler-444 system is consistent with models that explain the formation of more typical close-in Kepler planets in normal, not truncated, disks.

Single Transit Candidates from K2: Detection and Period Estimation
[1512.03722] Single Transit Candidates from K2: Detection and Period Estimation
H.P. Osborn, D.J. Armstrong, D.J.A. Brown, J. McCormac, A.P. Doyle, T.M. Louden, J. Kirk, J.J. Spake, K.W.F. Lam, S.R. Walker, F. Faedi, D.L. Pollacco
(Submitted on 11 Dec 2015)

Photometric surveys such as Kepler have the precision to identify exoplanet and eclipsing binary candidates from only a single transit. K2, with its 75d campaign duration, is ideally suited to detect significant numbers of single-eclipsing objects. Here we develop a Bayesian transit-fitting tool ("Namaste: An Mcmc Analysis of Single Transit Exoplanets") to extract orbital information from single transit events. We achieve favourable results testing this technique on known Kepler planets, and apply the technique to 7 candidates identified from a targeted search of K2 campaigns 1, 2 and 3. We find EPIC203311200 to host an excellent exoplanet candidate with a period, assuming zero eccentricity, of 540+410−230 days and a radius of 0.51±0.05RJup. We also find six further transit candidates for which more follow-up is required to determine a planetary origin. Such a technique could be used in the future with TESS, PLATO and ground-based photometric surveys such as NGTS, potentially allowing the detection of planets in reach of confirmation by Gaia.

 

[ScienceRocks]

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Hubble reveals diversity of exoplanet atmosphere: Largest ever comparative study solves missing water mystery
Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope to study the atmospheres of ten hot, Jupiter-sized exoplanets in detail, the largest number of such planets ever studied.

This image shows an artist’s impression of the ten hot Jupiter exoplanets studied by David Sing and his colleagues. The images are to scale with each other. HAT-P-12b, the smallest of them, is approximately the size of Jupiter, while …more


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-hubble-reveals-diversity-exoplanet-atmosphere.html#jCp---------------------

A new spin on star-forming galaxies
Australian researchers have discovered why some galaxies are "clumpy" rather than spiral in shape—and it appears low spin is to blame.
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Study finds evidence for more recent clay formation on Mars
Recent orbital and rover missions to Mars have turned up ample evidence of clays and other hydrated minerals formed when rocks are altered by the presence of water. Most of that alteration is thought to have happened during ...
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FEATURE ARTICLE: Soyuz TMA-19M set to launch in landmark moment for UK spaceflight - http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2015/12/soyuz-tma-19m-launch-landmark-uk-spaceflight/…
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F9 FT preparing for a Static Fire on the East Coast this week. F9 v1.1 mating on the West Coast today!

Chris B - NSF added,


NASA_LSP @NASA_LSP
At Vandenberg Air Force Base in Ca. the Jason-3 spacecraft is being mated to the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket today. More: Engineers Attaching Jason-3 Spacecraft to Falcon 9 Rocket | Kennedy Space Center

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[ScienceRocks]

3 planets around Wolf 1061 at 14 l.y (one in HZ)

by Led_Zep Today at 10:32 am

Discovery: Nearby star hosts closest alien planet in the “habitable zone” - UNSW Science for society

UNSW Australia astronomers have discovered the closest potentially habitable planet found outside our solar system so far, orbiting a star just 14 light years away.
The planet, more than four times the mass of the Earth, is one of three that the team detected around a red dwarf star called Wolf 1061.

“It is a particularly exciting find because all three planets are of low enough mass to be potentially rocky and have a solid surface, and the middle planet, Wolf 1061c, sits within the ‘Goldilocks’ zone where it might be possible for liquid water – and maybe even life — to exist,” says lead study author UNSW’s Dr Duncan Wright.

“It is fascinating to look out at the vastness of space and think a star so very close to us – a near neighbour – could host a habitable planet.

“While a few other planets have been found that orbit stars closer to us than Wolf 1061, those planets are not considered to be remotely habitable,” Dr Wright says.

The three newly detected planets orbit the small, relatively cool and stable star about every 5, 18 and 67 days. Their masses are at least 1.4, 4.3 and 5.2 times that of Earth, respectively.

The larger outer planet falls just outside the outer boundary of the habitable zone and is also likely to be rocky, while the smaller inner planet is too close to the star to be habitable.

The discovery will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The UNSW team made the discovery using observations of Wolf 1061 collected by the HARPS spectrograph on the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6 metre telescope in La Silla in Chile.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Tentative planetary orbital constraints of some scenarios for the possible new Solar System object recently discovered with ALMA
[1512.05288] Tentative planetary orbital constraints of some scenarios for the possible new Solar System object recently discovered with ALMA
Lorenzo Iorio
(Submitted on 16 Dec 2015)

Some of the scenarios envisaged for the possible new Solar System object, whose discovery with the ALMA facility has been recently claimed in the literature, are preliminarily put to the test by means of the orbital motions of some planets of the Solar System. It turns out that the current ranges of admissible values for any anomalous secular precession of the perihelion of Saturn, determined in the recent past with either the EPM2011 and the INPOP10a planetary ephemerides without modeling the action of such a potential new member of the Solar System, do not rule out the existence of a putative Neptune-like pointlike perturber at about 2500 au. Instead, both a super-Earth at some hundreds of au and a Jovian-type planet up to 4000 au are strongly disfavored. An Earth-sized body at 100 au would have a density as little as ∼0.1−0.01gcm−3, while an unusually large Centaur or (Extreme) Trans Neptunian Object with linear size of 220−880km at 12−25au would have density much larger than ∼1gcm−3.

Three planets orbiting Wolf 1061
D.J. Wright, R.A. Wittenmyer, C.G. Tinney, J.S. Bentley, Jinglin Zhao
(Submitted on 16 Dec 2015)
[1512.05154] Three planets orbiting Wolf 1061

We use archival HARPS spectra to detect three planets orbiting the M3 dwarf Wolf1061 (GJ 628). We detect a 1.36 Mearth minimum-mass planet with an orbital period P = 4.888d (Wolf1061b), a 4.25 Mearth minimum-mass planet with orbital period P = 17.867d (Wolf1061c), and a likely 5.21 Mearth minimum-mass planet with orbital period P = 67.274d (Wolf1061d). All of the planets are of sufficiently low mass that they may be rocky in nature. The 17.867d planet falls within the habitable zone for Wolf 1061 and the 67.274d planet falls just outside the outer boundary of the habitable zone. There are no signs of activity observed in the bisector spans, cross-correlation full-width-half-maxima, Calcium H & K indices, NaD indices, or H-alpha indices near the planetary periods. We use custom methods to generate a cross-correlation template tailored to the star. The resulting velocities do not suffer the strong annual variation observed in the HARPS DRS velocities. This differential technique should deliver better exploitation of the archival HARPS data for the detection of planets at extremely low amplitudes.

Rotation and winds of exoplanet HD 189733 b measured with high-dispersion transmission spectroscopy
[1512.05175] Rotation and winds of exoplanet HD 189733 b measured with high-dispersion transmission spectroscopy
M. Brogi, R. J. de Kok, S. Albrecht, I. A. G. Snellen, J. L. Birkby, H. Schwarz
(Submitted on 16 Dec 2015)

Giant exoplanets orbiting very close to their parent star (hot Jupiters) are subject to tidal forces expected to synchronize their rotational and orbital periods on short timescales (tidal locking). However, spin rotation has never been measured directly for hot Jupiters. Furthermore, their atmospheres can show equatorial super-rotation via strong eastward jet streams, and/or high-altitude winds flowing from the day- to the night-side hemisphere. Planet rotation and atmospheric circulation broaden and distort the planet spectral lines to an extent that is detectable with measurements at high spectral resolution. We observed a transit of the hot Jupiter HD 189733 b around 2.3 {\mu}m and at a spectral resolution of R~105 with CRIRES at the ESO Very Large Telescope. After correcting for the stellar absorption lines and their distortion during transit (the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect), we detect the absorption of carbon monoxide and water vapor in the planet transmission spectrum by cross-correlating with model spectra. The signal is maximized (7.6{\sigma}) for a planet rotational velocity of (3.4+1.3−2.1) km/s, corresponding to a rotational period of (1.7+2.9−0.4) days. This is consistent with the planet orbital period of 2.2 days and therefore with tidal locking. We find that the rotation of HD 189733 b is longer than 1 day (3{\sigma}). The data only marginally (1.5{\sigma}) prefer models with rotation versus models without rotation. We measure a small day- to night-side wind speed of (−1.7+1.1−1.2) km/s. Compared to the recent detection of sodium blue-shifted by (8±2) km/s, this likely implies a strong vertical wind shear between the pressures probed by near-infrared and optical transmission spectroscopy.

Monster planet is 'dancing with the stars'
December 16, 2015

A team made up almost entirely of current and former Carnegie scientists has discovered a highly unusual planetary system comprised of a Sun-like star, a dwarf star, and an enormous planet sandwiched in between.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-monster-planet-stars.html#jCp

 

[ScienceRocks]

ESA's Euclid dark matter mission moves one step closer to planned 2020 launch

• Chris Wood
• December 17, 2015

The European Space Agency's (ESA) planned Euclid mission, which aims to study dark matter and dark energy, has reached a key pre-flight milestone. The endeavour has now passed its preliminary design review, allowing the team to actually start building the spacecraft.

James Webb Space Telescope set to be lifted into orbit atop an Ariane 5 launch vehicle

• Anthony Wood
• December 17, 2015

ESA has announced the finalization of a contract with Arianespace that will see its next generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) lift off into Earth orbit atop an Ariane 5 launch vehicle. The ascent will take place from the agency's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana in Oct. 2018.

I know I already posted about this twice but I'll do so again as it is important news!
Closest potentially habitable planet found just 14 light years away

• David Szondy
• December 17, 2015
• 3 PICTURES

Our nearest cosmic neighbors may be closer than we think. A team of astronomers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) have announced the discovery of what could be the closest habitable planet beyond the Solar System. Orbiting the red dwarf star Wolf 1061 in the constellation of Ophiuchus, the planet is only 14 light years from Earth, which is closer than the exoplanet Gliese 667Cc's 22 light years.

Cassini closes in on Enceladus, one last time

A thrilling chapter in the exploration of the solar system will soon conclude, as NASA's Saturn-orbiting Cassini spacecraft makes its final close flyby of the ocean-bearing moon Enceladus. Cassini is scheduled to fly past ...