Media inquiries regarding the missions, science or technology covered in this Web site should be directed to
Jane Platt,
media relations specialist.
(818) 354-0880
ESO scientists recently announced that they had recorded the first direct spectrum of light from an exoplanet using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The find has gained considerable attention in the astronomical community, but to the casual observer, the news may be a bit confusing. After all, hasn't this been done before?
NASA astronomers have successfully demonstrated that a David of a telescope can tackle Goliath-size questions in the quest to study Earth-like planets around other stars. Their work, reported today in the journal Nature, provides a new tool for ground-based observatories, promising to accelerate by years the search for prebiotic, or life-related, molecules on planets orbiting stars beyond our solar system.
By studying a triple planetary system that resembles a scaled-up version of our own Sun's family of planets, astronomers have been able to obtain the first direct spectrum - the "chemical fingerprint" - of a planet orbiting a distant star, thus bringing new insights into the planet's formation and composition.
Planet hunters using Keck Observatory have detected an extrasolar planet that is only four times the mass of Earth. The planet is the second smallest exoplanet ever discovered and adds to astronomers' growing cadre of low mass planets called super-Earths.
The most earthlike planet yet found around another star may be the rocky remains of a Saturn-sized gas giant, according to research presented today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington.
NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system.
