drew@drewexmachina.com
One of the objectives of NASA’s Kepler mission, as well as one of the important drivers of its design, was to detect Earth-size planets in Earth-like […]
The news this week has been filled with stories about Kepler reaching its milestone of 1,000 confirmed planetary discoveries with eight of those newfound planets advertised […]
NASA’s Kepler mission has now reached a new milestone with 1,000 confirmed planets to its credit. In addition, another 554 candidate planets requiring follow-up study have […]
One of the primary motivations of NASA’s Kepler mission was to find Earth-size planets in Earth-like orbits around Sun-like stars by observing the transits of these […]
In the first part of “The Search for Planets Around Alpha Centauri”, general information about the α Centauri system (also known by the ancient name, Rigil […]
The planets Earth and Venus would seem alike to a distant observer looking at our solar system. They have similar radii, masses, bulk compositions and distances […]
According to an old adage, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. For some time now, it has been claimed that a […]
One of the earliest television shows I clearly recall watching as a young child was the original run of the scifi classic, Lost in Space. As […]
Among the lay public, probably one of the most misunderstood astronomical terms that has recently come into common use has to be “super-Earth”. All too often, […]
During the past few days, word has started to spread about the latest study that has resulted in the “disappearance” of a pair of planets that […]
I readily admit that one of my pet peeves going back almost 20 years to the discovery of the first extrasolar planets has been overblown claims […]
The original motivation behind NASA’s Kepler mission (and, indeed, the primary driver of the design of its hardware) was to detect Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars […]
