Discover the cosmos! ... 2003 July 9 . HD70642: A Star with Similar Planets . ... Explanation: Astronomers have discovered a planetary system more similar to our own Solar System than any known previously . The bright star HD70642 , visible with binoculars toward the constellation of Puppis , was already known to be a star like our Sun. ... At only 90 light years distant , extremely faint early radio broadcasts from Earth are now passing this planetary system. ... About APOD | ...

... 55 Cancri: Familiar Planet Discovered . ... The discovery of a Jupiter -like planet in a Jupiter-like orbit around nearby Sun-like star 55 Cancri , announced yesterday, gives a new indication that planetary systems similar to our Solar System likely exist elsewhere. The planet, discovered by G. Marcy ( UC Berkeley ) and collaborators, is one of two new planets found around 55 Cancri -- in 1997 a Jupiter-massed planet was found orbiting very close in. ... 30 1995 1996 1997 1998 . ...

... Planets . ... Earth Satellites . ... Looking in the direction of the constellation Cygnus the Swan and launched by NASA in 2009 is the Kepler Space Observatory.Many previous missions searching for exoplanets mainly detected large giant planets, like large hot Jupiters (it is easier to detect larger planets).However KeplerтАЩs main objective is to search for much smaller planets located in a habitable zone which is not too close nor too far from their star; planets which may be just like our Earth. ...

... Armagh Observatory, College Hill, Armagh BT61 9DG, +44 (0)28 3752 2928 . Asteroid 2010 SO16 and the Earth follow similar orbits around . the Sun. ... out a horseshoe shape in space, taking 175 years to go from . ... Asteroid 2010 SO16 takes 175 years to make the trip from one end of the horseshoe to the other. ... Currently, three other horseshoe companions of the Earth are known to exist but, unlike 2010 SO16, these linger for a few thousand years at most before moving on to different orbits. ...

. Go Here for Hubble Ultra Deep Field . ___________________________________________________________________ The Electronic Universe Project e-mail: nuts@moo.uoregon.edu

... Bad Astronomy . ... Mad Science . ... Site Info . ... Public Talks . ... Keep Bad Astronomy close to your heart, and help make me filthy rich. ... Who is this guy who calls himself "The Bad Astronomer?" ... First, yes, I am a real live astronomer (when people ask me what astronomers do, I tell them "They astronom !" ... These are emitted by powerful objects like black holes, exploding stars, and super-dense neutrons stars. ... Finally, am I really a bad astronomer? ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

The small solids. Asteroids or the small planetes . ... The comets. ... Ceneca the Young.Procuring about the nature.63 y. The comet is a celestial body of a great size, but a rare one... transparent. Sometimes there seen a core and the medium forms a kind of a tail, beard or dishevelled looks. ... The core is an ice body - conglomeration of frosted gas and dust. ... The comet state is variable: ones have the con tails, others the dust tails, and the third have both. ... Meteors and meteorites. ...

... The apparent path of the Sun across the sky. ... Like the planets, the Sun, too, moves around the zodiac, making one complete circuit each year. ... In one year, as the Earth completes a full circuit around the Sun (drawing above), the Earth-Sun line and its continuation past Earth sweep the entire plane. ... Since the Sun and Earth are in the plane of the ecliptic, the line is automatically in that plane too; if the moon is also on the same line, it must be in the plane of the ecliptic as well. ...

... 2000 March 20 . Mercury on the Horizon . ... Explanation: Have you ever seen the planet Mercury? Because Mercury orbits so close to the Sun, it is never seen far from the Sun, and so is only visible near sunrise or sunset . If trailing the Sun, Mercury will be visible for several minutes before it follows the Sun behind the Earth . ... An informed skygazer can usually pick Mercury out of a dark horizon glow with little more than determination. ... About APOD | ...

The apparent path of the Sun across the sky. ... The path of the Sun across the celestial sphere is very close to that of the planets and the moon. ... In one year, as the Earth completes a full circuit around the Sun (drawing above), the Earth-Sun line and its continuation past Earth sweep the entire plane. ... Since the Sun and Earth are in the plane of the ecliptic, the line is automatically in that plane too; if the moon is also on the same line, it must be in the plane of the ecliptic as well. ...