Search for Habitable Exoplanets Orbiting Very Cool Red Dwarf Stars
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/201...stars.html
EXCERPT: Promising new calibration tools, called laser frequency combs, could allow astronomers to take a major step in discovering and characterizing earthlike planets around other stars. These devices generate evenly spaced lines of light, much like the teeth on a comb for styling hair or the tick marks on a ruler—hence their nickname of "optical rulers." The tick marks serve as stable reference points when making precision measurements such as those of the small shifts in starlight caused by planets pulling gravitationally on their parent stars....
Search for mysterious ninth planet narrowed down
http://www.zmescience.com/space/planet-nine-search/
EXCERPT: A couple of weeks ago, two astronomers made waves after they predicted that there’s a ninth planet orbiting the sun somewhere beyond the Kuiper Belt. Mathematical models and computer simulations made by Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown suggest this mysterious satellite, dubbed Planet Nine, is about 10 times more massive than Earth. Now, researchers from France have lend a hand in the search for Planet Nine. Their research narrowed down Planet Nine’s orbit and confirmed there indeed seems to be a massive planet in the far reaches of our Solar System, “but not just anywhere”....
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/201...stars.html
EXCERPT: Promising new calibration tools, called laser frequency combs, could allow astronomers to take a major step in discovering and characterizing earthlike planets around other stars. These devices generate evenly spaced lines of light, much like the teeth on a comb for styling hair or the tick marks on a ruler—hence their nickname of "optical rulers." The tick marks serve as stable reference points when making precision measurements such as those of the small shifts in starlight caused by planets pulling gravitationally on their parent stars....
Search for mysterious ninth planet narrowed down
http://www.zmescience.com/space/planet-nine-search/
EXCERPT: A couple of weeks ago, two astronomers made waves after they predicted that there’s a ninth planet orbiting the sun somewhere beyond the Kuiper Belt. Mathematical models and computer simulations made by Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown suggest this mysterious satellite, dubbed Planet Nine, is about 10 times more massive than Earth. Now, researchers from France have lend a hand in the search for Planet Nine. Their research narrowed down Planet Nine’s orbit and confirmed there indeed seems to be a massive planet in the far reaches of our Solar System, “but not just anywhere”....