Word: planetful
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Call it one giant leap for mankind's search for life on other planets. Researchers now have the first conclusive evidence of water on a planet outside our solar system, according to a paper in today's issue of the journal Nature...
...planet, called HD 189733b, revolves around a bright star 64 light years from Earth. Scientists refer to the planet as a "hot Jupiter" (it's similar to but slightly larger than Jupiter - and keeps a much tighter orbit around its sun, ensuring a scorching climate). And they have examined it for water before. But earlier tests of the planet's atmosphere yielded uncertain results, so this time, astrophysicists tried something slightly different. When HD 189733b was passing in front of its sun, they observed the way electromagnetic radiation was absorbed by the planet's atmosphere. The authors of the current...
...most of us back on Earth, the real significance will come when the technique is applied to other planets. "I agree we all have in the back of our brains that water is equivalent to life," says Tinetti. She doesn't believe HD 189733b itself will harbor life. That planet's surface temperature is an estimated 1,000 degrees K (more than 700 degrees C and 1,300 degrees F) on its sunny side, and scientists suspect it has very high winds - a hostile environment indeed. But if the technique to find water works on HD 189733b, then researchers...
...wouldn't know that from the tone of the campaigns. Real debates-such as whether to raise the consumption tax to reduce public debt-are postponed until after the election, while the media feeds on the latest political scandal. "It's like the campaign is happening on another planet," says Akihiko Matsutani, a pension expert with GRIPS. "These discussions need to take place...
Like a fraternal twin on a planet with a slightly slower orbit, the fifth Harry Potter film arrives in theaters July 11, 10 days before J.K. Rowling's seventh and final Potter novel hits the bookstores. Readers will soon discover their young hero's destiny, but for now, in movies, Harry is still trying to figure out the scheme the evil Lord Voldemort has hatched and wondering if a teenage boy is up to thwarting...