Themes: Solar System
and exoplanets
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More than 100 stars with orbiting worlds
An IA team selected planets already known to be orbiting other stars (exoplanets) and which are interesting targets to learn more about them. Search in this sky map for their host stars and learn what we have already discovered about them.
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How to discover an exoplanet?
Planets that orbit other stars are tens or even hundreds of light-years from Earth. How can astronomers find them? Explore these interactive infographics that explain some of the concepts and methods.
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Eyes on the sky
What will we see, discover and learn, with the James Webb Space Telescope, about the distant objects at the edges of the Solar System? Nuno Peixinho, of IA and University of Coimbra, talked to Fundação Francisco Manuel do Santos (in Portuguese).
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Stars and planets off the rails, or the odd story of distant worlds
Planets orbit stars, and stars spin, but are these two movements always aligned? Details like this are hidden in the light of the stars, and help astrophysicists to tell the story of distant worlds, writes Charlotte Gehan.
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Planetary quiz: There’s no other home like Earth
There’s nothing better than to discover distant and inhospitable places for us to value something very rare: our own blue planet. Test what you know about some bizarre worlds in the Solar System and beyond, in a quiz conducted by IA young researchers.
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The quest for rings that might dethrone Saturn
Dust, rocks, ices. They form the impressive rings of magnificent Saturn, but the “Lord of the Rings” is not alone. Found in humbler locations and sizes in the Solar System, rings might also exist around worlds orbiting other stars. But how are we going to know?
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Inhabiting other Planets
How will it be possible, in Mars, to do such simple and essential things like breathe or drink a glass of water? Will humans ever visit Venus? Learn the challenges that will need to be overcome before a human colony can succeed in another world.
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“Conquering” the Milky Way, stars and planetary systems
In the series “Future Makers” from Porto University, Tiago Campante, from IA, talks about his professional career, the research in star oscillations, exoplanets and galactic archeology, and about the Portuguese participation in space missions.
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