Important Innovations

New World Being Created in a Swirling Orange Disc Source:  European Space Agency  Creation of a Planet Deep in Space Astronomers have discovered a new planet being born inside a swirling orange disc surrounding a distant young star.  And, the team of international astronomers who discovered it say this is the first time that humanity has witnessed the birth of a planet.  They add this discovery will help them to better understand how planets come to exist around stars. Celestial Creation As you can see in the picture, the new planet is forming in the very bright yellow twist in the inner region of the orange, swirling disc that surrounds the young star AV Aurigae.  It was spotted by the European Space Agency's European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in northern Chile. 520 Light Years Away The birth of the new planet is taking place 520 light years from Earth.  Lead astronomer Anthony Boccaletti of the Observatoire de Paris in France says the image shows

Discovery Accelerates Question  of Life Beyond Earth Source:  NASA Illustration Planet Kepler-1649c Have astronomers found another Earth?  A team of  international astronomers have discovered a planet the same size as the Earth.  Like the Earth, the planet orbits its Sun Star. This exoplanet is called Kepler-1649c. Habitable The planet seems to have habitable regions.  It is  orbiting in its star's habitable zone.  That is a region around the star where a rocky planet could support water. Remarkable Discovery The scientists discovered the Earth-like planet while using reanalyzed data from NASA's Kepler space telescope. Kepler was retired in 2018.  Previous scans of the data with a computer algorithm misidentified the space object.  Astronomers taking a hard look recognized it to be a planet. Space Specifics The planet is 300 light years away from the Earth.  Of all the exoplanets discovered by

Discovered by International Astronomers Using Powerful Ground Telescopes Source:  NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center May Have "Earth Like" Conditions Astronomers have discovered what they're calling a Super Earth 31 light years away from our solar system.  They say it is "potentially habitable".  The planet is named GJ 357d.  It is six times larger than the Earth and it orbits a sun that is much smaller than ours, every 55 days.  An international team of scientists discovered it using powerful ground telescopes and following up on data first relayed by NASA's planet hunting satellite TESS.  The astronomers believe that it could provide "Earth like conditions" for life.  If so it could answer the question that goes back a thousand years:  Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? Looking for Signs of Life In the next several years, highly advanced telescopes will be going on line that will be able to detect any signs of lif