Word: cygnus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Hawaii, which is equipped with a new, state-of-the art planet detector, astronomers from Japan, the U.S. and Germany snapped pictures of an object they're calling GJ 758 B orbiting a sunlike star called GJ 758, about 50 light-years from Earth and between the constellations Cygnus and Lyra. Scientists have narrowed their estimate of the mass of GJ 758 B to only about 10 to 40 times the mass of Jupiter. If it were more than 13 Jupiter masses, it would probably be considered a brown dwarf, which is a kind of failed star. "We're calling...
...lights on a lot of porches. With perhaps 70 sextillion stars in the universe (that's 7 followed by 22 zeros), the spacecraft can't possibly survey them all. Instead, it will sample about 100,000 in a region of our solar system known as Cygnus-Lyra. That spot was chosen both because it's rich in stars and because it lies above our own orbital plane. Kepler - which will be launched into not an Earth orbit but a solar orbit - can thus simply train its gaze up and never have to worry about any bodies in the home solar...
...unblinking look at Cygnus-Lyra is important because even if Kepler were to detect any telltale fluctuations in stellar light, that wouldn't be proof of a planet. The telescope would have to keep looking and see if the flickering is repeated roughly once a year, or about the time it would take an Earth-like planet to circle around its star and pass in front again. Record three or four such passes, and you can be pretty sure you've got a planet - hence the 3½-year mission...
...opener, “Cygnus…Vismund Cygnus,” opens with acoustic strumming before the band flicks the switch to “high” and reaches a melodious, manic cacophony—racing guitars and almost tribal drums framed with all kinds of bells and whistles. In between the lyrically accompanied parts, the listener is treated to a variety of sounds: Rodriguez’s grating guitar squeals and jabs, sounds of cars speeding by, and electronic dance beats, to name a few. The novelty wears off quickly with this hodge-podge, a marked drop...