Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




EXO WORLDS
Hubble in 'Oh Planet, What Art Thou?' 25th Anniversary Video
by Staff Writers
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jun 09, 2015


Watch the 25th Anniversary Video here.

When Hubble was launched in 1990, the only planets we knew about were those orbiting our own sun. Since then, astronomers using both space-based telescopes such as NASA's Kepler observatory and ground-based telescopes, have discovered a rapidly-growing number of so-called exoplanets around other stars.

"One main way we have found planets is by the transit technique," said Sara Seager, Professor of Planetary Science and Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts.

"That is when a planet goes in front of its parent star as seen from the telescope. The observed starlight drops by a tiny amount, by 1 percent or even less. And by measuring a star's brightness. Minute-by-minute or hour-by-hour or day by day, we are able to spot a planet transit."

With Hubble, scientists can go beyond measuring basic properties of transiting planets, like their mass and their size, to actually studying their atmospheric composition.

They do that using spectroscopy. The light from a star with a transiting planet is spread out by Hubble's spectrographs into its constituent colors, or wavelengths. Some of this starlight will have passed through the outer atmosphere of the exoplanet. Scientists look for places in the color spectrum where light is missing, absorbed by gases in the atmosphere.

Each gas has its own distinct set of lines it removes from the starlight spectrum, so particular gases in the planet's atmosphere can be identified. With this technique, astronomers have identified sodium, nitrogen, hydrogen, and even water vapor in various exoplanetary systems.

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is being used to study abundance of water vapor in the atmosphere of exoplanets. WFC3 is also used to study how temperatures change in the profile (different heights) of an exoplanet's atmosphere.

Studying the chemical makeup of an exoplanet may help find answers to the question of where life could exist elsewhere in the cosmos.

"I'd say my dream is to start my career as an astronomer and end it as a biologist," said Dave Charbonneau, Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. "So what I would really like to do is get at the question of life in the universe."

The "Hubble 25th Anniversary" video series is produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), Baltimore, which manages Hubble on behalf of NASA.


Thanks for being here;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once


credit card or paypal
SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5 Billed Monthly


paypal only


.


Related Links
NASA Hubble website
Lands Beyond Beyond - extra solar planets - news and science
Life Beyond Earth






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








EXO WORLDS
Astronomers discover a young solar system around a nearby star
Tokyo, Japan (SPX) Jun 04, 2015
An international team led by Thayne Currie of the Subaru Telescope and using the Gemini South telescope, has discovered a young planetary system that shares remarkable similarities to our own early solar system. Their images reveal a ring-like disk of debris surrounding a Sun-like star, in a birth environment similar to the Sun's. The disk appears to be sculpted by at least one unseen sola ... read more


EXO WORLDS
Crashing comets may explain mysterious lunar swirls

Google Lunar X-Prize meets Yoda

China, Russia plan joint landing on the Moon

NASA's LRO Moves Closer to the Lunar Surface

EXO WORLDS
Supersonic NASA parachute torn to pieces in latest test

Rover Ready for Solar Conjunction and Period of Curtailed Operations

NASA Spacecraft Detects Impact Glass on Surface of Mars

Building a Smarter Rover

EXO WORLDS
Spacecraft glitch shifts orbiting ISS: Russia

XCOR Selects Matrix Composites to Develop Lynx Chines

NASA's LDSD Project Completes Second Experimental Test Flight

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti returning home

EXO WORLDS
Electric thruster propels China's interstellar ambitions

China Plans First Ever Landing On The Lunar Far Side

China ranked 4th among world space powers

3D printer making Chinese space suit parts

EXO WORLDS
Russia aims for launch of next manned flight to ISS in July

Russian Space Agency Reschedules 6 Flights to ISS for 2015

Crewmembers From ISS to Return to Earth June 11

Historic handshake between space and Earth

EXO WORLDS
Angara to launch first manned rocket from Vostochny in 2023

Airbus developing reusable space rocket launcher

Recent Proton loss to push up launch costs warns manufacturer

Air Force Certifies SpaceX for National Security Space Missions

EXO WORLDS
Astronomers discover a young solar system around a nearby star

Hubble in 'Oh Planet, What Art Thou?' 25th Anniversary Video

Astronomers Discover a Young Solar System Around a Nearby Star

Circular orbits identified for small exoplanets

EXO WORLDS
China launches space junk monitoring center

New tunable laser diode for high-frequency efficiency

Lockheed completesc assembly of next-gen weather satellite for NOAA

How natural channel proteins move in artificial membranes




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.