planets

Europe's PLATO will hunt for habitable Earth-like planets

Posted in Hardware on 22nd Feb, 2014
by Alex Muller

Unlike Kepler, the European astronomers are looking for something very specific and more exciting: Earth-like rocky planets in their Sun-like stars habitable zones.

Kepler demonstrates that it can still detect planets

Posted in Hardware on 20th Feb, 2014
by Alex Muller

Last year, it looked as though the Kepler space probe had nothing to look forward to but the scrap heap.

Rogue asteroids may be the norm

Posted in Science on 3rd Feb, 2014
by Alex Muller

The new asteroid map suggests that the early solar system may have undergone dramatic changes before the planets assumed their current alignment.