April 2009 Top Stories
»» Hubble Finds Hidden Exoplanet in Archival Data
[Friday, April 3, 2009] A powerful, newly refined image-processing technique may allow astronomers to discover extrasolar planets that are possibly lurking in over a decade's worth of Hubble Space Telescope archival data.
»» Titan may have subsurface ocean of hydrocarbons, says Stanford researcher
[Tuesday, April 7, 2009] Saturn's largest moon, Titan, may have a subterranean ocean of hydrocarbons and some topsy-turvy topography in which the summits of its mountains lie lower than its average surface elevation, according to new research.
»» Dust Cover Jettisoned From NASA's Kepler Telescope
[Wednesday, April 8, 2009] Engineers have successfully ejected the dust cover from NASA's Kepler telescope, a spaceborne mission soon to begin searching for worlds like Earth.
»» McGill High Arctic Research Station Photo Report - Dale Andersen: 8 April 2009 Colour Peak Springs
[Wednesday, April 8, 2009] Several regions on Earth where annual temperatures are well below freezing and yet liquid water persists. Such polar regions provide analogs to study the hydrological cycle under conditions that have prevailed in the polar desert environment of Mars.
»» Is there Life on Earth-Like Planets?
[Wednesday, April 15, 2009] Astronomers are on the threshold of discovering the Holy Grail of
planetary sciences, new Earth-like planets. The next challenge will be
to determine whether or not these worlds have life on them, especially intelligent life that we can communicate with
»» Researchers Detect Most Complex Molecules yet Discovered in Interstellar Space
[Monday, April 20, 2009] Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
in Bonn, Germany, Cornell University, USA, and the University of
Cologne, Germany, have detected two of the most complex molecules yet
discovered in interstellar space.
»» Primitive Dust Samples Provide Pre-Solar Time Capsules
[Monday, April 20, 2009] An international team of scientists has found some of the most primitive matter containing abundant interstellar material analyzed to
date amongst dust particles collected from the upper atmosphere by
NASA aircraft.
»» Mass Loss Leaves Close-In Exoplanets Exposed to the Core
[Monday, April 20, 2009] An international team of scientists has found that giant exoplanets
orbiting very close to their stars could lose a quarter of their mass
during their lifetime.
»» Exoplanet Twice the Mass of Earth Discovered - Could it be a Water World?
[Tuesday, April 21, 2009] Well-known exoplanet researcher Michel Mayor today announced the
discovery of the lightest exoplanet found so far. The planet, "e", in
the famous system Gliese 581, is only about twice the mass of our
Earth.
»» We Are Go for Launch to Repair the Hubble Telescope
[Thursday, April 30, 2009] NASA managers completed a review Thursday of space shuttle Atlantis' readiness for flight and selected an official launch date for the STS-125 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope.
