Tag Archives: telescope

Why Older Planets Are More Likely to Harbor Life

To date, the Kepler space telescope has found more than 1,200 likely planets orbiting stars beyond the sun — quite a haul for a satellite that’s been flying for just over two years. The true prize Kepler is hunting for, of course, is not just any planet, but one that’s a twin of Earth — about the size of our world, orbiting in a zone where the temperature range is like ours

Hubble reawakens, snaps image of Jupiter scar

In an unusual step, NASA scientists interrupted testing of the refurbished Hubble Space Telescope to aim the orbiter’s camera at Jupiter and capture an image of the planet’s mysterious new scar. The resulting picture, taken Thursday, is the sharpest visible-light photo of the dark spot and Hubble’s first science observation since astronauts repaired and upgraded it in May, NASA said. Earth-based telescopes have been trained on Jupiter since an amateur astronomer in Australia noticed the new mark, probably created when a small comet or asteroid plunged into Jupiter’s atmosphere and disintegrated, early Monday