Themes: Solar System
and exoplanets
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How many Earths are there in the Milky Way?
In a clear night sky, the human eye can see some 3000 stars, all of them in our galactic neighbourhood. What we can’t see is, perhaps, a similar number of planets, outshined by the light of their host star. Is there among them an Earth 2.0?
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Astronomy in Questions and Answers
Discover more about the Universe, in a Q&A session with a panel of five researchers, included in the 30th Encontro Nacional de Astronomia e Astrofísica.
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Searching for another Earth
Learn how astronomers detect planets orbiting other stars, and how they can know, despite the distance, if any of them is similar to Earth, with Pedro Figueira, of ESO and IA (in Portuguese).
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The unveiling of new worlds
In the latest 25 years, thousands of planets have been discovered orbiting other stars in our galaxy. Sérgio Sousa, of IA, writes on National Geographic that we are closer to know if any of these new worlds is like our Earth.
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Water in the Universe: water on exoplanets
Astronomers have already confirmed more than 2000 planets orbiting other stars. In some of the larger planets, similar to Jupiter, water vapour was detected in their atmospheres. For smaller planets, this detection is more difficult.
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Water in the Universe: the plumes of Enceladus
Enceladus wobbles, as it orbits Saturn, and this may be explained by the presence of a liquid layer between the solid core and the crust.
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