Small planets breathe life into old quest
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The universe looked a little more familiar and friendlier. The roll call of planets beyond the solar system swelled significantly with the announcement of a trio of newly-discovered worlds much smaller than any previously discovered around other stars.
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A small newly found object, temporarily designated S/2004 S 3, has been seen orbiting Saturn&#39;s outer F ring. The tiny object, seen in this movie centered in a green box, orbits the planet at a distance of
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More than 30 years ago, when NASAâs two Viking landers looked for signs of life on Mars, the results were ambiguous.
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An international team of scientists has found life on a Norwegian island.  No surprises there, but the successful field test of a collection of life-detection instruments may be a stepping stone for future endeavors to sniff out life on Mars.
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New observations of dust around young stars suggests collisions of large asteroid-like objects and fledgling planets are frequent.
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A nearby star thought to harbor comets and asteroids now appears to be home to planets, too. The presumed worlds are smaller than Jupiter and could be as tiny as Pluto, new observations suggest.
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Two separate teams of astronomers find Neptune-size planets beyond our solar system. Earth-like planets are just around the corner, they say. By Amit Asaravala.
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New infrared observations of the disks of dust and rock around young stars reveal that many planets apparently form in an environment more violent and chaotic over a longer period of
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More than one-third of the giant planet systems recently detected outside our solar system may harbor Earth-like planets covered in deep global oceans that offer abundant potential for life, according to a new study by scientists associated with NASA's Astrobiology Institute.
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Rocky planets with conditions suitable for life may be more common than previously thought, a study finds
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Astronomers find a strange new world that has them pondering again the essential properties of a planet.
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Comment is free: Johnjoe McFadden: The location of a newly discovered planet is good news in the search for extraterrestrials.
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Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have photographed one of the smallest objects ever seen around a normal star beyond our Sun. Weighing in at 12 times the mass of Jupiter, the object is small enough to be a planet.
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A tiny telescope has spotted a giant planet circling a faraway star, using a technique that could open a new phase of planetary discovery, according to scientists.
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It may take much longer than scientists have thought for violent turbulence to turn grains of space dust into new planets.
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small-mass planets soon,&quot; said Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, the co-discoverer of one of the new planets.
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A tiny telescope has spotted a giant planet circling a faraway star, using a technique that could open a new phase of planetary discovery, scientists say.