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09/08/2006

Jupiter-Sized Transiting Planet Found by Astronomers Using Novel Telescope Network

Robert Tindol

Our home solar system may be down by a planet with the recent demotion of Pluto, but the number of giant planets discovered in orbit around other stars continues to grow steadily. Now, an international team of astronomers has detected a planet slightly larger than Jupiter that orbits a star 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco.

08/24/2006

Xena Awarded "Dwarf Planet" Status, IAU Rules; Solar System Now Has Eight Planets

Robert Tindol

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) today downgraded the status of Pluto to that of a "dwarf planet," a designation that will also be applied to the spherical body discovered last year by California Institute of Technology planetary scientist Mike Brown and his colleagues. The decision means that only the rocky worlds of the inner solar system and the gas giants of the outer system will hereafter be designated as planets.

08/10/2006

NSF-Funded Wireless Network Leads Palomar Observatory Astronomers to Major Discoveries

For the past three years, astronomers at the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory in Southern California have been using the High Performance Wireless Research and Education Network (HPWREN) as the data transfer cyberinfrastructure to further our understanding of the universe. Recent applications include the study of some of the most cataclysmic explosions in the universe, the hunt for extrasolar planets, and the discovery of our solar system's tenth planet. The data for all this research is transferred via HPWREN from the remote mountain observatory to college campuses hundreds of miles away.

08/04/2006

Interdisciplinary Team Demonstrates New Technique for Manipulation of "Light Beams"

Robert Tindol

It may be surprising that a laser beam, when shot to the moon and returned by one of the mirrors the Apollo astronauts left behind, is a couple of miles in diameter at the end of its half-million-mile round trip. This spread is mostly due to atmospheric distortions, but it nonetheless underscores the problems posed to those who wish to keep laser beams from diverging or focusing to a point as light travels through a medium.

06/29/2006

NSF Awards $11.97 Million to Caltech for Distributed Data Analysis of Neutron Scattering

Robert Tindol

The National Science Foundation today awarded $11.97 million to the California Institute of Technology for computer software to analyze neutron-scattering experiments. This work could show how to design new materials for a huge variety of applications in transportation, construction, electronics, and space exploration.

06/12/2006

Physicists Devise New Technique for Detecting Heavy Water

Robert Tindol

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology have created a new method of detecting heavy water that is 30 times more sensitive than any other existing method. The detection method could be helpful in the fight against international nuclear proliferation.

06/01/2006

Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Passes Conceptual Design Review

Robert Tindol

The detailed design for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) developed by a U.S.-Canadian team is capable of delivering on the full promise of its enormous light-collecting area, according to the findings of an independent panel of experts.

05/22/2006

2MASS Team Wins Muhlmann Award from Astronomy Society of the Pacific

Robert Tindol

The team members of the Two Micron All-Sky Survey (2MASS) have been named recipients of the Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award for 2006. The award was announced May 22 by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.

05/12/2006

Palomar Observes Broken Comet

Astronomers have recently been enjoying front-row seats to a spectacular cometary show. Comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3 is in the act of splitting apart as it passes close to Earth. The breakup is providing a firsthand look at the death of a comet.

05/04/2006

CARMA Radio Telescope Array in the Inyo Mountains Dedicated May 5

Robert Tindol

The official dedication of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA) facility was held Friday, May 5, at Cedar Flat in the Inyo Mountains near Bishop.

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