ëNASA'S Spitzer Marks Beginning of New Age of Planetary Science û
ëNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has for the first time captured the light from two known planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. The findings mark the beginning of a new age of planetary science, in which "extrasolar" planets can be directly measured and compared. ... So far, all confirmed extrasolar planets, including the two recently observed by Spitzer, have been discovered indirectly, mainly by the "wobble" technique and more recently, the "transit" technique. ââ¬Â¦ In the new studies, Spitzer has directly observed the warm infrared glows of two previously detected "hot Jupiter" planets, designated HD 209458b and TrES-1.û
A Differential technique is used, in the infrared spectrum.
- Spitzer Space Telescope Control at CalTech has extra visuals and also Harvard-Smithsonian via SpaceRef ----
ëPeculiar outbursts of X-rays coming from a black hole have provided evidence that it has a mass of about 10,000 Suns, which would place it in a possible new class of black holes. The timing and regularity of these outbursts, observed with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, make the object one of the best candidates yet for a so-called intermediate-mass black holeû
- Chandra X-ray CenterPress Release, via Eureka ----
ëUsing telescopes from the European Southern Observatory, astronomers have found that the cluster Westerlund 1, hidden behind a large cloud of dust and gas, is the most massive compact young cluster yet identified in the Milky Way Galaxy. It contains hundreds of very massive and most exotic stars, some shining with a brilliance of almost one million suns and some two-thousand times larger than the Sun (i.e. as large as the orbit of Saturn)!û
- European Southern Observatory (ESO), via Eureka ----
