Strange alien world found to have water vapor and possibly rain clouds
https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/strange-alien-world-found-have-water-vapor-possibly-rain-clouds-ncna1052486
In a major first, scientists have detected water vapor and possibly even liquid water clouds that rain in the atmosphere of a strange exoplanet that lies in the habitable zone of its host star about 110 light-years from Earth.

A new study focuses on K2-18 b, an exoplanet discovered in 2015, orbits a red dwarf star close enough to receive about the same amount of radiation from its star as Earth does from our sun.

---

Where is Scotty with that Warp Drive when we need him?

I am thinking we will be looking at that planet a long time like Martians in War of the Worlds!

---

ᴡᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴇsᴀʏ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀsᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪᴛ ɪs ғɪɴɪᴛᴇ ʏᴇᴛ ᴡᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ ɪs.

The way we are progressing, life will be found (maybe not like us)...

I agree. There is a saying I loved. "The Universe doesn't like One-zies" Meaning that if it happened here it happens everywhere that allows it.

---

ᴡᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴇsᴀʏ ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀsᴛ ᴛʜᴀᴛ ɪᴛ ɪs ғɪɴɪᴛᴇ ʏᴇᴛ ᴡᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ ɪs.

Well, at 110 LY I'm not packing my bags just yet.

---

Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Giant planet around tiny star 'should not exist'
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49855058

Astronomers have discovered a giant planet that, they say, should not exist, according to current theories.

The Jupiter-like world is unusually large compared with its host star, contradicting a widely held idea about the way planets form.

The star, which lies 284 trillion km away, is an M-type red dwarf - the most common type in our galaxy.

---

The Nobel Prize in Physics has been assigned to James Peebles, an American-Canadian, for his cosmological researches. This for one half. The other half has been assigned to two Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz, for the discovery of the first exoplanet in 1995 around the star 51Pegasi.
Tullio

---

The Story for Nobel Prize in Physics.

First exoplanet found around a Sun-like star
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02553-0


Anyone over the age of 35 will remember growing up in a world in which only one planetary system was known — our own. We remember proudly reciting the names of the nine planets (eight before Pluto’s discovery in 1930, and again today with its reclassification as a dwarf planet in 2006) and wondering what other planets might exist around the stars in the night sky. Contemplating life beyond the Solar System was relegated to science fiction. This all changed in 1995 when Mayor and Queloz1 reported the detection of the first exoplanet around a Sun-like star.

Thanks tullio.

---

The research was done using a rather small telescope with a 2 meter mirror in Haute Province, France. It is small compared to giant telescopes in Chile and Hawaii but maybe freer to conduct a research with unlikely results. This demonstrates the utility of smaller observatories which risk closure because of the cost of bigger telescopes. Now the University of Geneva, where the two Nobel laureates teach and do research, enjoys. Switzerland has the fastest European computer, the Piz Daint in Lugano, which is named in a review article, also on "Nature" on the needs of MMA (Multi Messenger Astronomy), which includes optical astronomy, radio astronomy, X and gamma-ray astronomy but also gravitational waves astronomy.
Tullio

---

Not to belittle a first, but who is surprised by this original discovery (verification). I would propose, also, a No-belly peace prize for the confirmation of past (or extant) life on Mars. This would be a truly significant result to our planets way of thinking.

My alter ego awaits word from Sweden himself :

From TESS.

Exoplanet that 'should not exist' discovered by researchers
https://www.foxnews.com/science/exoplanet-should-not-exist-discovered

More than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered by NASA, but researchers recently discovered one alien world that "should not exist" in its current location.

The research looked at data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and found that the planet orbiting star HD 203949 should have been engulfed by the star due to its size, age and how close it is to the star.

---

Hi,

Forbes just published an article about the Habitable Exoplanet Hunting Project:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2019/11/25/inside-the-247-search-for-another-habitable-planet-within-100-light-years-of-earth/#149fbf103442

I hope you find it interesting!

We welcome any type of observatory to join us.

Cheers!

older news interesting.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-51122019
Meet the NASA intern who discovered a new planet on his third day

As far as impressing your potential new boss goes, discovering a planet on day three of your internship at NASA is up there.

That's what happened to 17-year-old Wolf Cukier while helping out at the space agency in the United States.

He was checking images from its super-strength satellite when he noticed something strange.

It turned out to be a new planet, 1,300 light years away from Earth. News just confirmed by NASA.

---

ESA satellite CHEOPS gas started collecting data on exoplanets. It was launched on December 18.
Tullio

---