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Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


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"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News


Astronomers detect exoplanet half as massive as the Earth around second closest star system

Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have detected evidence of an exoplanet about half as massive as the Earth orbiting Barnard’s Star, only six light years away and the second closest star system.

Barnard’s Star is a prime target in the search for exoplanets due to its proximity and its status as a red dwarf, a common type of star where low-mass planets are often found. Despite a promising signal detected in 2018, no planet had been definitively confirmed around it until now. The ESPRESSO spectrograph [on VLT] … enabled the astronomers to detect Barnard b, a subterrestrial planet that orbits the star in 3.15 days. The team also identified signals indicating the possible presence of three other candidate exoplanets, which have yet to be confirmed.

Back in the 1960s using the less precise instruments of the time, astronomers thought they had detected an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s Star. That detection however proved false. The detection is real, however, and adds weight to the growing evidence that planets can form around red dwarf stars, the most common stars in the universe with the longest lifespan, predicted to be many tens of billions of years. Having planets around such stars significantly increases the chances of habitable planets, even if those planets do not harbor life of its own.

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4 comments

  • David Eastman

    I once heard, but haven’t seen the math confirmed, that the techniques we are currently using to detect exoplanets are not sufficiently high resolution to detect our own solar system if we were observing from 20 light years or so away. We’re mostly finding planets that orbit very close to their stars with periods measured in days, because even something like Jupiter doesn’t perturb the sun enough for our current techniques to notice, it’s simply too far out and thus moving slowly enough that we’d have to observe a star very precisely for decades to notice.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Mr Eastman,
    HD 118203c found this year.
    It is further than Jupiter from its star, at 6.2 AU, taking over 13.9 years to orbit.
    Estimated radius 1.11 compared to Jupiter, but much higher density, with a mass estimated at 11.1 Jupiters.

    Found using the radial velocity method (Doppler shift).

    The star is in the Ursa Major constellation, approximately 300 LY distant. G0 V star, so a little hotter than Sol, and in the main sequence. Not visible to the naked eye.

  • sippin_bourbon

    The first confirmed exoplanet was was announced 29 years ago, next week.
    In my mind, that would explain why most discoveries are shorter orbital periods. It can take years of data to find these things.

    The smallesr exoplanet found to dat is 2x the size if the Moon, orbiting a pulsar 2300 LY away.

  • Madrocketsci

    Different methods sensitive to different things.

    Direct observation: far far orbiting super jovian planets like fomalhaut b

    Gravitational interactions: close orbiting super jovian

    Transit method: Close orbiting smaller planets

    Frustratingly, earth is sort of in between the range of all these methods. Might be able to pick up with transit method, but would require a long observation time, and the ecliptic plane to just happen to lie on line of sight

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