Blog Archive

Caution: Spacecraft Under Construction
Visiting JPL's high bay clean room with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden

Posted by Mat Kaplan on 2013/08/20 10:39 CDT | 1 comments

Join Emily Lakdawalla and Mat Kaplan inside JPL's High Bay 1, where two Earth-revealing missions are being readied for launch.

Planetary Society Weekly Hangout, Thu Feb 14 1200PT/2000UT: Courtney Dressing

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2013/02/14 01:40 CST | 3 comments

Emily Lakdawalla and Courtney Dressing talked about just how common Earth-sized exoplanets may be in our neighborhood. Watch the replay here.

The raw data behind an Earth-like exoplanet

Posted by Jason Davis on 2013/01/11 03:29 CST | 14 comments

Taking a closer look at KOI 172.02, a super-Earth exoplanet sitting in its solar system's habitable zone.

Can you find a new planet?

Posted by Martin Still on 2013/01/07 12:35 CST | 1 comments

A change in the Kepler data delivery process provides both scientists and the public to get involved in planet discovery.

DPS 2012, Monday: Icy moons and a four-star exoplanet

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2012/10/15 11:31 CDT | 1 comments

In the first full day of the annual meeting of the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society, I listened to scientific sessions on icy worlds and on an exoplanet in a four-star system.

Separating fact from speculation about Kepler-20's Earth-sized planets

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/12/20 04:53 CST

A large team of researchers has announced in a Nature article the discovery of not one, but two, Earth-sized planets orbiting a star named Kepler-20. This article separates the observational facts from the quite-likely-to-be-true inferences from the downstream speculations.

SETI@home Following Up on Kepler Discoveries

Posted by Charlene Anderson on 2011/05/13 06:15 CDT

Remember SETI@home? The ground-breaking computing project is now taking a look at candidate Earth-like planets that have been detected by NASA's Kepler space telescope.

More on Kepler exoplanet discoveries

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/04 12:17 CST

Here's some links to some good followup stories on Wednesday's Kepler press briefing.

Kepler announcement today: More than a thousand exoplanets including one 6-planet system

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/02/02 12:26 CST

I wasn't able to watch the Kepler press briefing today so I will give you links to some of my favorite blogs for information on today's announcement, which follows a major data release last night as well as the publication of a paper in Nature.

Planet Kepler-10b transiting its host star (artist's depiction)

Grab bag: "Rocky" exoplanet, molten lunar core, Rhea close encounter

Posted by Emily Lakdawalla on 2011/01/10 02:12 CST

The Kepler exoplanet hunting mission has made news today with a report of "its first rocky planet."

Bruce Betts: Kepler discovers its first five exoplanets

Posted by Bruce Betts on 2010/01/04 12:06 CST

Congratulations to NASA's Kepler mission team on their announcement of the discovery of its first five exoplanets (planets around other stars). All five are "hot Jupiters," meaning that they are the sizes of the gas giants in our solar system, but are extremely close to their parent stars.