A team of scientists has discovered two Earth-like planets in the habitable orbit of a sun-like star. Their work is published in Science Express. Using observations gathered by NASA’s Kepler Mission, the team found five planets orbiting a sun-like star called Kepler-62. Four of these planets are so-called super-Earths, larger than our own planet, but smaller than…
Monster Planet Is ‘Dancing With The Stars’
A team made up almost entirely of current and former Carnegie scientists has discovered a highly unusual planetary system comprised of a Sun-like star, a dwarf star, and an enormous planet sandwiched in between. The planet, first discovered in 2011 orbiting a star called HD 7449, is about eight times the mass of Jupiter and…
What Kinds Of Stars Form Rocky Planets?
As astronomers continue to find more and more planets around stars beyond our own Sun, they are trying to discover patterns and features that indicate what types of planets are likely to form around different kinds of stars. This will hopefully inform and make more efficient the ongoing planet hunting process, and also help us…
Solar System Formation Don’t Mean a Thing Without that Spin
New work from Carnegie’s Alan Boss and Sandra Keiser provides surprising new details about the trigger that may have started the earliest phases of planet formation in our solar system. It is published by The Astrophysical Journal. For decades, it’s been hypothesized that our Solar System’s genesis was initiated by a shock wave from a…
Linking Superconductivity & Structure
Superconductivity is a rare physical state in which matter is able to conduct electricity–maintain a flow of electrons–without any resistance. It can only be found in certain materials, and even then it can only be achieved under controlled conditions of low temperatures and high pressures. New research from a team including Carnegie’s Elissaios Stavrou, Xiao-Jia…