Word: planet
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Back in the mid-1990s, when astronomers were just beginning to find new planets around distant stars, nearly every new discovery got front-page headlines. Today, with the extrasolar-planet count up to about 400, it takes something extraordinary to make news...
...extraordinary may be too understated a descriptor for the discovery reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature: an international team led by Harvard astronomer David Charbonneau has spotted a "super-Earth," a planet 2.7 times bigger than Earth, circling a dim red star called GJ 1214, just 40 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. "It's spectacular," says Geoffrey Marcy of the University of California, Berkeley, who is the world's most prolific planet hunter and is credited with discovering 70 of the first 100 exoplanets. "It's a top-of-the-top discovery in the quest for Earth...
While the new planet, dubbed GJ 1214b, is too big to be considered Earth-like, it comes pretty close. But GJ 1214b's relatively compact size - smaller than the vast majority of planets identified so far - is only one reason for astronomers' enthusiasm. Another is GJ 1214b's likelihood of bearing the stuff of life: water...
...looking for a world where life might thrive, a planet must be at the right temperature for water to exist in liquid form. So it needs to orbit its star in the so-called habitable zone, a "Goldilocks" location that allows a planet to be neither too hot nor too cold. In that respect, GJ 1214b is again a near miss. Its surface temperature hovers at a sweltering 190°C (374°F), which is well above the boiling point of water, at least in Earth's atmospheric pressure. Fortunately, GJ 1214b's atmosphere makes the pressure...
...reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. He plans to do this by investing heavily in the development of alternative fuel resources. While many speculate that this is an unattainable goal, no one can argue that we need to take better care of our planet. Go “green” this year and give presents that give back to the environment. Help cut down on fuel consumption by forgoing plastic water bottles—it takes 1.5 billion barrels of oil per year to meet America’s demands for plastic water bottles...