Kepler being prepared in the clean room at Astrotech prior to launch on March 6, 2009.    Credit: nasatech.net Nasa’s Kepler space telescope has discovered over 1200 extra-solar planet candidates, it was revealed at a press function yesterday.  The telescope only scans a small area, about 0.25% of the sky, which suggests that our galaxy is absolutely packed to the gills with planets.  Of these candidates, 54 are found in the so-called ‘Habitable Zone’, the distance from a star at which … Continue reading →

Powers of Ten One of the most famous and effective tools to try and explain the scale of our universe is the series of images of something (usually a picnic in a park), each taken ten times further away than the one before.  The final pictures usually shows the entire universe.  This idea has been used by Carl Sagan in Cosmos, as the opening sequence of the movie contact, in astronomy textbooks and more.  The first film version was called … Continue reading →

New work based on data returned from the Cassini mission suggests that Enceladus, one of Saturn’s moons, could have vast geysers of water and ice, powered by a sub-surface “perrier ocean” of fizzy water, bubbling up to the surface.  Enceladus (left) is known for it’s characteristic tiger stripes, and has a surface composed of water ice.  Tidal forces from Saturn flex the moon repeatedly, causing it to heat up internally which keeps the oceans liquid.  Water surges up through fissures … Continue reading →