Latest Orbit Stories
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Kepler mission has discovered its first Earth-size planet candidates and its first candidates in the habitable zone, a region where liquid water could exist on a planet's surface. Five of the potential planets are near Earth-size and orbit in the habitable zone of smaller, cooler stars than our sun. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Candidates require follow-up observations to verify they are actual...
Scientists using NASA's Kepler, a space telescope, recently discovered six planets made of a mix of rock and gases orbiting a single sun-like star, known as Kepler-11, which is located approximately 2,000 light years from Earth."The Kepler-11 planetary system is amazing," said Jack Lissauer, a planetary scientist and a Kepler science team member at NASA's Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. "It's amazingly compact, it's amazingly flat, there's an amazingly large number...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 10, 2011, /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Kepler mission confirmed the discovery of its first rocky planet, named Kepler-10b. Measuring 1.4 times the size of Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The discovery of this so-called exoplanet is based on more than eight months of data collected by the spacecraft from May 2009 to early January 2010. "All of Kepler's best...
NASA's Kepler mission confirmed the discovery of its first rocky planet, named Kepler-10b. Measuring 1.4 times the size of Earth, it is the smallest planet ever discovered outside our solar system.The discovery of this so-called exoplanet is based on more than eight months of data collected by the spacecraft from May 2009 to early January 2010."All of Kepler's best capabilities have converged to yield the first solid evidence of a rocky planet orbiting a star other than our sun,"...
PARSIPPANY, N.J., Dec. 13, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Trident® sugar free gum, today announced a new addition to the Trident family - Trident Vitality(TM). The new offering includes three blends of sophisticated flavors and inspired ingredients - each with its own twist. Offered in three feel-good flavors - Vigorate(TM), Rejuve(TM) and Awaken(TM) - Trident Vitality adds a little piece of delicious well-being to the gum-chewing experience, with Vitamin C, ginseng or white tea infused into each...
Dr. Michael A. Minovitch, mathematician, physicist, and inventor, is announcing that his Gravity Propelled Interplanetary Space Travel work is available online. Also known as gravity assist, or gravity assist trajectories, this invention launched a new era of exploration and space travel. Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) November 2, 2010 Space travel and exploration would not be the same without the diligent and innovative work of Dr. Michael A. Minovitch. In 1961, Dr. Minovitch invented gravity...
How do astronomers weigh a star that's trillions of miles away and way too big to fit on a bathroom scale? In most cases they can't, although they can get a best estimate using computer models of stellar structure.New work by astrophysicist David Kipping says that in special cases, we can weigh a star directly. If the star has a planet, and that planet has a moon, and both of them cross in front of their star, then we can measure their sizes and orbits to learn about the star."I often...
CHICAGO, Sept. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- With the theme "Healthy Habits are Easier than You Think" for its National Dental Hygiene Month (NDHM) celebration this October, the American Dental Hygienists' Association (ADHA), in collaboration with Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, manufacturer of Orbit® sugarfree gum, promotes the idea that good oral hygiene habits are simple to establish and maintain, even for the person living an active lifestyle. "It is imperative to our overall health to have...
WASHINGTON, Aug. 26 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Kepler spacecraft has discovered the first confirmed planetary system with more than one planet crossing in front of, or transiting, the same star. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The transit signatures of two distinct planets were seen in the data for the sun-like star designated Kepler-9. The planets were named Kepler-9b and 9c. The discovery...
Global Aerospace Corporation (GAC) announced recently that Dr. Kristin L. Gates will present a paper on de-orbiting space junk at the August 2 Artificial and Natural Space Debris session of the AIAA Astrodynamics Specialists Conference in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dr. Gates will describe GAC's Gossamer Orbit Lowering Device (GOLD) for safe and efficient removal from Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of dangerous space objects. The patented GOLD system concept uses a very large ultra thin balloon envelope...
Latest Orbit Reference Libraries
Satellite -- A satellite is an object that orbits another object. With sufficient tangential velocity, the object does not collide with the primary object it orbits, but maintains a distance from that object as the rate at which it falls towards that object is similar to the rate that it travels away, thus the object orbits the primary object and becomes a satellite. In other words: gravitational force serves as the centripetal force needed to make the object circle the primary...
Lagrangian Point -- In Lagrangian mechanics, a Lagrangian point (or L-point) is one of five positions in space where the gravitational fields of two bodies of substantial but differing mass combine to form a point at which a third body of negligible mass would be stationary relative to the two bodies. Bodies at the L-point will not move relative to the parent bodies if they are not perturbed by other gravitational forces. They are sometimes also referred to as libration points. The...
Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion -- The astronomer Johannes Kepler's main contribution to astronomy was his three laws of planetary motion. Kepler found these laws empirically by studying extensive observations recorded by Tycho Brahe. He found the first two laws in 1609 and the third one in 1618. Isaac Newton was later able to derive the laws from his laws of motion and gravity, thereby producing strong evidence in favor of Newton's inverse-square gravitational law. Kepler's First...
Orbit -- An orbit is the path that an object makes around another object under the influence of some force. The classical example is that of the solar system, where the Earth, other planets, asteroids, comets, and smaller pieces of rubble are in orbit around the Sun; and moons are in orbit around planets. These days, many artificial satellites are in orbit around the Earth. Understanding orbits There are a few common ways of understanding orbits. -- As the object moves, it...
Escape Velocity -- An escape velocity is the minimum speed at which an object without propulsion can move away from a source of a gravitational field indefinitely if there is no friction. This definition may need modification for the practical problem of two or more sources in some cases. In any case, the object is assumed to be a point with a mass that is negligible compared with that of the source of the field, usually an excellent approximation. It is commonly described as the speed...
