Wednesday 26 February 2014

NASA Found 715 NEW Planets

This handout artist conception provided by NASA depicts multiple-transiting planet systems, which are stars with more than one planet. The planets eclipse or transit their host star from the vantage point of the observer. This angle is called edge-on. Our galaxy is looking far more crowded as NASA Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets circling stars other than our sun. Four of those new planets are in the habitable zones where it is not too hot or not cold. NASA’s Kepler planet-hunting telescope nearly doubled the number of planets scientists have discovered in the galaxy, pushing the figure to about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets outside our solar system.
Our galaxy is looking far more crowded and hospitable. NASA on Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside our solar system.
Scientists using the planet-hunting Kepler telescope pushed the number of planets discovered in the galaxy to about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets circling stars other than the ones revolving around our sun.
"We almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity," NASA planetary scientist Jack Lissauer said in a Wednesday teleconference, calling it "the big mother lode."
Astronomers used a new confirmation technique to come up with the largest single announcement of a batch of exoplanets — what planets outside our solar system are called.
While Wednesday's announcements were about big numbers, they also were about implications for life behind those big numbers.
All the new planets are in systems like ours where multiple planets circle a star. The 715 planets came from looking at just 305 stars. They were nearly all in size closer to Earth than gigantic Jupiter.
And four of those new exoplanets orbit their stars in "habitable zones" where it is not too hot or not too cold for liquid water which is crucial for life to exist.
Douglas Hudgins, NASA's exoplanet exploration program scientist, called Wednesday's announcement a major step toward Kepler's ultimate goal: "finding Earth 2.0."
It's a big step in not just finding other Earths, but "the possibility of life elsewhere," said Lisa Kaltenegger, a Harvard and Max Planck Institute astronomer who wasn't part of the discovery team.
The four new habitable zone planets are all at least twice as big as Earth so that makes them more likely to be gas planets instead of rocky ones like Earth — and less likely to harbor life.
So far Kepler has found nine exoplanets in the habitable zone, NASA said. Astronomers expect to find more when they look at all four years of data collected by the now-crippled Kepler; so far they have looked at two years.
Planets in the habitable zone are likely to be farther out from their stars because it is hot close in. And planets farther out take more time orbiting, so Kepler has to wait longer to see it again.
Another of Kepler's latest discoveries indicates that "small planets are extremely common in our galaxy," said MIT astronomer Sara Seagar, who wasn't part of the discovery team. "Nature wants to make small planets."
And, in general, smaller planets are more likely to be able to harbor life than big ones, Kaltenegger said.

NASA's Kepler telescope finds 715 new planets

NASA planet systems
This handout artist conception provided by NASA depicts multiple-transiting planet systems, which are stars with more than one planet. (AP Photo/NASA)
The Associated Press 
Published Wednesday, February 26, 2014 2:39PM EST 
Last Updated Wednesday, February 26, 2014 7:48PM EST
WASHINGTON -- The Earth's galaxy is looking far more crowded and hospitable. NASA on Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside the solar system.
Douglas Hudgins, NASA's exoplanet exploration program scientist, called the announcement a major step toward the planet-hunting Kepler telescope's ultimate goal: "finding Earth 2.0."
It's a big step in not just finding other Earths, but "the possibility of life elsewhere," said Lisa Kaltenegger, a Harvard and Max Planck Institute astronomer who wasn't part of the discovery team.
Scientists using the Kepler telescope pushed the number of planets discovered in the galaxy to about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets circling stars other than the ones revolving around the sun.
"We almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity," NASA planetary scientist Jack Lissauer said in a teleconference.
Astronomers used a new confirmation technique to come up with the largest single announcement of a batch of exoplanets -- what planets outside our solar system are called.
Wednesday's announcements also were about implications for life behind those big numbers.
All the new planets are in systems like ours where multiple planets circle a star. The 715 planets came from looking at just 305 stars. They were nearly all in size closer to Earth than gigantic Jupiter.
And four of those new exoplanets orbit their stars in "habitable zones" where it is not too hot or not too cold for liquid water which is crucial for life to exist.
The four new habitable zone planets are all at least twice as big as Earth so that makes them more likely to be gas planets instead of rocky ones like Earth -- and less likely to harbour life.
So far Kepler has found nine exoplanets in the habitable zone, NASA said. Astronomers expect to find more when they look at all four years of data collected by the now-crippled Kepler; so far they have looked at two years.
Planets in the habitable zone are likely to be farther out from their stars because it is hot close in. And planets farther out take more time orbiting, so Kepler has to wait longer to see it again.
Another of Kepler's latest discoveries indicates that "small planets are extremely common in our galaxy," said MIT astronomer Sara Seagar, who wasn't part of the discovery team. "Nature wants to make small planets."
And, in general, smaller planets are more likely to be able to harbour life than big ones, Kaltenegger said.

715 new planets discovered by NASA

Planet Bonanza
NASA Wednesday confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets circling stars other than our sun. NASA'ss Kepler planet-hunting telescope nearly doubled the number of planets scientists have discovered in the galaxy. (NASA/Associated Press)
The Earth's galaxy is looking far more crowded. NASA has confirmed a bonanza of 715 newly discovered planets outside the solar system.
Scientists using the planet-hunting Kepler telescope have nearly doubled the number of planets discovered in the galaxy. The figure is now about 1,700. Twenty years ago, astronomers had not found any planets circling stars other than the sun.
Astronomers used a new confirmation technique to come up with the largest batch of planets announced at one time. NASA made the announcement Wednesday.
All the new planets are in systems like ours where multiple planets circle a star. Four of those new planets are in habitable zones where it is not too hot or not cold.

NASA announces mother lode of new planets: 715

Nasa announces mother lode of new planets: 715
The latest announcement brings the number of known planets to nearly 1,700.
WASHINGTON: Nasa on Wednesday announced a torrent of new planet discoveries, hailing a "bonanza" of 715 worlds now known outside the solar system thanks to the Keplerspace telescope's planet-hunting mission.

A new method for verifying potential planets led to the volume of new discoveries from Kepler, which aims to help humans search for other worlds that may be like Earth.

"What we have been able to do with this is strike the mother lode, get a veritable exoplanet bonanza," Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist at Nasa, told reporters.

"We have almost doubled just today the number of planets known to humanity," he said.

The 715 newly verified planets are orbiting 305 different stars.

The latest announcement brings the number of known planets to nearly 1,700.

Not much is known about the composition of these distant planets and whether they would truly have the conditions that would support life, such as a rocky surface, water and a distance from their stars that leaves them neither too hot nor too cold.

Four of them are potentially in the habitable zone of their stars and are about the size of Earth, Nasa said.

Most of the new discoveries are in "multiple-planet systems much like our own solar system," and 95 percent are between the size of Earth and Neptune, which is four times larger than our planet, said the US space agency.

Most are also very close to their stars. "The Kepler team continues to amaze and excite us with their planet hunting results," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for Nasa's Science Mission Directorate.

The new method for verifying planets relies on a statistical technique that can be applied to multiple planets at once.

Before, scientists confirmed each planet individually based on recording the number of times it passed in front of its star. Three of these transits were enough to confirm a planet.

The discoveries announced on Wednesday were all initially detected in the first two years of Kepler's observations, from 2009 to 2011, and confirmed with the new statistical method.

The Kepler space telescope observes some 150,000 stars, more than 3,600 of which are presumed to be planetary candidates.

Until now, 961 of Kepler's planet candidates had been confirmed.

Kepler was launched in March 2009, and last year lost the use of two of its reaction wheels that helped keep it precisely oriented. Scaled down plans for the telescope, called K2, have been drawn up and submitted to reviewers at Nasa.

The latest findings are to be published March 10 in the Astrophysical Journal.

715 New Planets Found (You Read That Number Right)

Kepler 16b, one of the many planets discovered by the Kepler Space telescope, is one of the few with two suns
Fort Worth Star-Telegram / MCT via Getty Images
Kepler 16b, one of the many planets discovered by the Kepler Space telescope, is one of the few with two suns
There’s a rule of thumb that can come in handy when you hear about new planet discoveries from the Kepler space mission. If they’re talking about a handful of new worlds orbiting distant stars, it’s an actual discovery. If they’re talking about hundreds, it’s not actual planets but “planet candidates,” which haven’t yet been independently verified — a key step before scientists can claim they’ve genuinely found something.
But the latest announcement from the Kepler science team has just turned that reliable rule on its head. As of yesterday, astronomers knew of about a thousand verified planets beyond our solar system, the majority of them found with telescopes other than Kepler. Today, Kepler added an unprecedented 715 new ones to the list, nearly doubling the count of bona fide exoplanets known to science. “For years, I’ve trained myself to say ‘planet candidate’ rather than ‘planet’ most of the time,” said SETI Institute and Kepler scientist Jason Rowe in a press conference. “I have to change that.”
Of these new worlds, none is what NASA scientist Jack Lissauer calls “Earth 2.0,” meaning an Earth-size planet in an Earth-like orbit around a sun-like star. Just four of the planets, in fact, sit in their stars’ so-called habitable zones, where water could plausibly exist in liquid form on the surface. And in these cases, the stars are smaller and dimmer than the sun, while the planets are bulkier than Earth. But most of the new planets are between Neptune and Earth in size, confirming a trend of moderate-size planets that astronomers have been seeing for several years now — and giving them good reason to think that true twins of Earth aren’t at all uncommon.
The reason for such a huge leap in planet verifications is based on another trend astronomers have noticed: most of the planets they’re finding come not singly but in solar systems containing two, three, four or more planets. That’s not a huge surprise, given our solar system’s eight (formerly nine).
Lissauer and other theorists realized, however, that that fact gave them a way to vet planet candidates in wholesale fashion. The reason you need a double check at all is that Kepler finds new worlds by looking for a slight dimming as a planet passes in front of its star, blocking a tiny bit of the star’s light. Other astronomical phenomena can mimic that effect, though — most notably a pair of stars that orbit each other, with one passing in front of the other. So astronomers confirm candidates using other techniques — looking for the gravitational wobble the planet imposes on the star, for example — which have to be done one candidate at a time.
It would be much less likely, however, for something to mimic a swarm of planets passing in front of a star and dimming it, each with its own rhythm based on orbital distance. The risk of a false positive, in other words, is exceedingly low. All of the planets just announced are indeed multiples, with 715 worlds distributed among just 305 stars.
Verifying a huge number of new planets all in one shot is a big enough deal, but what makes it especially interesting is that so many of them are clustered very tightly near their stars — multiple worlds bigger than Earth but huddled in packs with orbits smaller than Venus’, or even Mercury’s. “So why isn’t Earth crammed close to the sun?” asked MIT astronomer Sara Seager, who joined the press conference as an independent commenter. One possible answer: these planets formed from a primordial disk of gas and dust much denser than the one from which we emerged. But that’s just speculation at this point. What’s clear, she said, “This just reminds us that planetary systems can be very different from ours.”
The fact that so many exoplanets are like mini-Neptunes in size is also a surprise that astronomers have been coming to grips with over the past few years. “We have none of these in our solar system,” said Seager, “so we don’t really know for sure what they’re made of.”
Much of that could become clearer with a new generation of space telescopes scheduled to go into orbit later in the decade. One is the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which will look for planet-induced dimming in bright stars, mostly close to Earth; another is the James Webb Space Telescope, whose huge mirror and powerful infrared-sensitive cameras will look for chemical signatures of life in the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets.
Kepler, meanwhile, will keep finding planets — not so much through new observations, since a malfunction last spring has left it crippled, but via the backlog of observations that still haven’t been analyzed. The new planets, said Lissauer, come from the first two years’ worth of Kepler data. That means a lot of planets are yet to come, including some with longer, more Earth-like orbits.
“Kepler,” said Seager, “is the gift that keeps on giving.”

Texas same-sex marriage ban overruled by federal judge

On Wednesday, February 26, 2014, a federal judgeoverruled the Texas ban of same-sex marriages, deeming it unconstitutional. Orlando Garcia, a Republican federal judge, argued that the prohibition violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which protects a plaintiff's due process and equal protection(Walters, 2014). The ruling was challenged by Attorney General Greg Abbott. His fellow defendant, Governor Rick Perry, insisted on the traditional Christian conception of marriage, consisting of union between a man and a woman, as affirmed in the Constitution of Texas, according to which 76 percent of Texans voted in favor of defining marriage as solely between a man and a woman(Walters, 2014). A great deal of the controversy surrounds the definition of marriage, as codified in the constitution of Texas:
In both federal and state court, activists are seeking to increase legal protections for gay and lesbian Texans by challenging the state's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and by pushing the state to recognize gay marriages granted in other states, including in instances of divorce. Opponents of gay marriage, meanwhile, are defending the state's constitutional ban and challenging the city of Houston's recent expansion of partner benefits to cover same-sex spouses of city employees. Challenges to Texas gay rights' laws come amid a national effort by activists to end restrictions on their ability to marry. And a win in Texas would be a major coup for either side of the debate(Walters, 2014).
The decision comes on the heels of other federal rulings, also in favor of same-sex marriage, with several others currently pending(Walters, 2014). Garcia's controversial decision is destined for appeal to a higher court, Abbott affirmed, and it appears that the case might find its way to the U.S. Supreme court, with potential far-reaching political implications for how we understand the relation of federal authority to state rights(Walters, 2014).

Federal Judge Rules Texas Gay Marriage Ban Unconstitutional

Image AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Couples Cleopatra De Leon, left, and partner, Nicole Dimetman, second from left, and Victor Holmes and partner Mark Phariss, right, talk with the media after as they leave the U.S. Federal Courthouse, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014, in San Antonio. The two homosexual couples are challenging Texas' ban on same-sex marriage and have taken their case to federal court. (AP PHOTO/ERIC GAY))
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia ruled in San Antonio on Wednesday that Texas' ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, a first-of-its-kind ruling in the conservative 5th Circuit. Garcia writes
This Court holds that Texas' prohibition on same-sex marriage conflicts with the United States Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and due process. Texas' current marriage laws deny homosexual couples the right to marry, and in doing so, demean their dignity for no legitimate reason.
"No offense, Texas," he added
Today’s court decision is not made in defiance of the great people of Texas or the Texas Legislature, but in compliance with the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent... Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our U.S. Constitution.
The ruling won't take effect until it is reviewed and appealed, which means that same-sex Texans won't be allowed to get married in the state just yet. Attorney General Greg Abbott, who has maintained a record of opposing gay marriage, is expected to appeal the decision. The case is expected to reach the Supreme Court before any tangible changes are made, especially considering deep opposition to legalizing gay marriage on the part of local lawmakers. The Dallas Morning Newsreports: 
Abbott strongly opposes legalizing gay marriage, as do four of his fellow Republicans in next week’s GOP primary for lieutenant governor. So do three GOP candidates in the race to succeed Abbott as attorney general. It’s been 20 years since a Democrat won a statewide race. The GOP controls the Legislature. In November’s elections, it’s expected to easily retain control. Arguing the case before Garcia, Mike Murphy, an assistant solicitor general in Abbott’s office, said the four plaintiffs were trying to “rewrite over 150 years of Texas law” by asking courts to intervene in the democratic process.
Garcia made his decision in reviewing a case brought by two Plano men who want to get married, and two Austin women who are seeking recognition by the state of their marriage. Two other federal lawsuits challenge the state ban. 
Recently Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia courts have ruled similarly, marking a wave of triumphant court decisions for the pro-LGBT community. Twenty-two other states are also reviewing cases challenging gay marriage bans. Same-sex marriage is already legal in 17 states.

Federal judge voids Texas’ gay marriage ban


Mark Phariss of Plano, left, held the hand of partner Victor Holmes, center, as they left the U.S. Federal Courthouse in San Antonio after a hearing earlier this month. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Orlando Garcia ruled Texas' gay marriage ban is unconstitutional. He ruled after the two men from Plano filed a civil rights lawsuit seeking permission to marry, and a lesbian couple sued to have their marriage recognized. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Update at 2:47 p.m.: NOTE: The post has been revised to add Attorney General Greg Abbott’s statement, the reactions of the two couples who sued and some other Texas political leaders, as well as a mention of recent rulings in other states.
Original item at 1:20 p.m.: A federal judge in San Antonio ruled Wednesday that Texas’ ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutionally deprives some citizens of due process and equal protection under the law by stigmatizing their relationships and treating them differently from opposite-sex couples.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia cited recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings as having trumped Texas’ moves to ban gay marriage.
“Today’s court decision is not made in defiance of the great people of Texas or the Texas Legislature, but in compliance with the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedent,” he said in his order. “Without a rational relation to a legitimate governmental purpose, state-imposed inequality can find no refuge in our U.S. Constitution.”
But Garcia’s ruling, while a major victory for groups seeking to make marriage legal for gay and lesbian couples nationwide, will not win them Texas marriage licenses anytime soon.
Although Garcia issued a preliminary injunction against the state’s enforcing its 2003 law and 2005 constitutional amendment that limit marriage to opposite-sex couples, he stayed it from taking effect until his ruling can be reviewed on appeal.
Attorney General Greg Abbott said the state would appeal.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled over and over again that states have the authority to define and regulate marriage,” said Abbott, a Republican who is running for governor. “The Texas Constitution defines marriage as between one man and one woman. If the 5th [U.S.] Circuit [Court of Appeals] honors those precedents, then today’s decision should be overturned and the Texas Constitution will be upheld.”
Most legal experts expect Garcia’s ruling, or similar ones by federal judges in other states, to eventually reach the Supreme Court. The case he ruled on was brought by two gay men from Plano who want to get married and two Austin lesbians who want Texas to recognize their out-of-state marriage.
“We are extremely happy — happy beyond words,” the Plano couple, lawyer Mark Phariss and physician assistant Victor Holmes, said in a statement.
The case is one of three federal lawsuits challenging the Texas ban — and the furthest along. Nationally, similar battles are underway in federal courts in 24 states.
Garcia handed gay rights activists their latest in a series of victories, following similar decisions in Utah, Oklahoma and Virginia. In Kentucky, a federal judge recently ordered recognition of same-sex marriages performed out of state. In Illinois, another federal judge ruled that even though the legislature there last year repealed a state ban on gay marriage, couples shouldn’t have to wait until the law becomes effective in June.
Reaction from Texas political leaders was swift — and mixed.
Though Abbott called it “an issue on which there are good, well-meaning people on both sides,” his fellow Republican, Gov. Rick Perry, said “it is not the role of the federal government to overturn the will of our citizens.”
Perry called Garcia’s ruling “yet another attempt to achieve via the courts what couldn’t be achieved at the ballot box.”
Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples, who as a state senator was chief author of the 2005 state constitutional ban, also flashed with emotion.
“I am disappointed that judicial activism is once again trying to trump the will of the people,” said Staples, who is locked in a tough four-way fight for lieutenant governor in Tuesday’s GOP primary. “This ruling is the poster child of the culture war occurring in America today. We will fight this all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Texas Senate Democratic Caucus Chairman Kirk Watson of Austin welcomed the judge’s order.
“Those in control of this state need to stop fighting the future,” Watson said. “They must stop governing by fear. They must stop pretending there’s some security blanket in laws that treat others unfairly.”
State Democratic Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said, “Today, all Texans can celebrate that we are one step closer to justice and equality for all.”
After a hearing earlier this month, Garcia, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, acknowledged that his ruling would be far from the final say on the matter. He predicted the case, or one of dozens of similar ones in other states, “will make its way to the Supreme Court.”
In June, the justices ruled, 5-4, that married same-sex couples are entitled to federal benefits.
Seventeen states have broadened the definition of marriage to include gay couples. On Monday, a group called Freedom to Marry announced it has begun a new $1 million campaign to win support for similar measures in the South.
But the region offers entrenched resistance, especially in Texas.
Abbott strongly opposes legalizing gay marriage, as do four of his fellow Republicans in next week’s GOP primary for lieutenant governor. So do three GOP candidates in the race to succeed Abbott as attorney general. It’s been 20 years since a Democrat won a statewide race. The GOP controls the Legislature. In November’s elections, it’s expected to easily retain control.
Arguing the case before Garcia, Mike Murphy, an assistant solicitor general in Abbott’s office, said the four plaintiffs were trying to “rewrite over 150 years of Texas law” by asking courts to intervene in the democratic process.
Voters passed the 2005 amendment banning gay marriage by better than 3-to-1.
In states such as Texas, “legislators and citizens have concluded that the better course is to preserve the traditional definition of marriage,” Murphy told Garcia.
Phariss and Holmes, who’ve been domestic partners for more than 16 years, brought the suit, along with Austin residents Cleopatra De Leon and Nicole Dimetman. De Leon and Dimetman got married in Massachusetts in 2009. They have a young son.
De Leon and Dimetman, in a statement, said they hope their son “will never know how this denial of equal protections demeaned our family and belittled his parents’ relationship.”
Their lawyers, Barry Chasnoff and Neel Lane, argued at the Feb. 12 hearing that it’s only a matter of time before the Supreme Court strikes down gay-marriage bans in Texas and 32 other states.
Chasnoff said the states have violated the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by denying a privilege — the ability to marry — for reasons mostly of hostility or “animus” toward gay men and lesbians.
Nodding at his clients seated behind him, Chasnoff said, “They are honorable, productive members of society. And yet they are here today because the state of Texas chooses to deny them the right to marry the one they love.”
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