Word: starlight
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...were further able to estimate the planet's makeup by calculating its size, based on the amount of light that GJ 1214b blocked when it passed in front of its star, as well as its mass (6.6 times Earth's mass), based on the wobble in the wavelength of starlight caused by GJ 1214b's gravitational pull on its star. That analysis revealed the new planet's density: about one-third of Earth's. Because water has a much lower density than rock, astronomers figured that the "most plausible scenario is a planet made mostly of water, with a significant...
...dwarfs are so small, moreover, that an Earth-size planet casts a relatively big silhouette as it passes in front of it, making the telltale dimming of starlight easy to spot. It's so easy, in fact, that Charbonneau didn't even need a giant telescope to see it. Instead, he got away with the kind of scope a serious backyard amateur might use. In other words, says Charbonneau, "we did it on the cheap...
...summit of the extinct volcano Mauna Kea and is by itself one of the world's biggest and sharpest telescopes; second, the adaptive optics with which the telescope is equipped, which largely cancel out atmospheric blurring; third, the telescope's top-notch coronagraph filter, which blots out most starlight to remove the glare. And finally, the whole thing operates in infrared light, a type of light that renders planets especially bright and sunlike stars relatively dim. In short, says McElwain, "We're using state-of-the-art instruments on a state-of-the-art telescope." (See TIME's video...
Although it was too American for audiences in China (where it performed abysmally), Disney's Mulan was a smash hit in the rest of the world, where it reeled in $300 million. That didn't sit well with some Chinese, including Guo Shu, executive president of Starlight International Media Group, an entertainment company based in Beijing. "We commit ourselves to be a media with a sense of national responsibility," she told the state-run People's Daily. "Now that foreigners can produce a popular movie out of the story Hua Mulan, why can't we Chinese present...
...this Chinese attempt to take back its own. The Russian entertainer Vitas plays the role of a singer from a distant land held hostage by the nomadic and militant Rouran tribe, which is set on invading Chinese territory. The casting choice, Ma explained, was a simple marketing decision. Starlight International represents Vitas in China. And, who knows, the Russian actor could be key to the new Mulan's conquest of foreign audiences. Take that, Disney...