If you are interested in Exoplanets – then there are TWO good PDFs for free download from Nature this week – they are both must read documents:
Exoplanets on the cheap
The search for planets outside our Solar System will always be pricey. But creative solutions are proving that it no longer has to break the bank. Astronomers searching for planets around stars other than the Sun have had much to celebrate over the past decade. The number of confirmed ‘exoplanets’ has soared from about 50 to more than 500 in that time. And although none of these planets closely resembles Earth, NASA’s Kepler space telescope, launched in 2009, is now delivering candidates from distant stars by the hundreds — some of which may prove to be very Earth-like indeed
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110202/pdf/470027a.pdf
The search for planets outside our Solar System will always be pricey. But creative solutions are proving that it no longer has to break the bank.
Lee Billings
_______________________________________________________________
BEYOND THE STARS
Launched in 2009 to seek out worlds beyond the Solar System, the Kepler mission is exceeding expectations. Is it closing in on another Earth? The Kepler space telescope is exploring a sliver of the Milky Way some 900 parsecs (about 3,000 light years) deep.
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110202/pdf/470024a.pdf
Launched in 2009 to seek out worlds beyond the Solar System, the Kepler mission is exceeding expectations. Is it closing in on another Earth?
Eugenie Samuel Reich
