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Deadly Dance: Giant Planet Found Orbiting Huge Star By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 23 January 2003 A large planet recently found orbiting a distant star serves as a preview for the likely frying fate that awaits our own planet. The star, called HD 47536, is more than 23 times the diameter of our Sun. It is the largest star ever found to harbor a planet. The discovery was announced Wednesday. The planet is five to 10 times heavier than Jupiter and orbits the star more than twice as far as Earth is from...

NASA Chief Outlines New Nuclear, Space Plane Efforts By Leonard David Senior Space Writer posted: 06:40 pm ET24 January 2003 NASA chief, Sean O'Keefe confirmed today White House support for the space agency to accelerate work on space nuclear power and propulsion, as well as grapple with the challenges of extended long-duration human spaceflight. O'Keefe discussed a speed up in several space research areas over NASA Television from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He said that President Bush's release on February 3 of the space agency's Fiscal Year 2004 budget will carry "a number of very...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 August 7 Gomez's Hamburger: A Proto-Planetary Nebula Credit: Arturo Gomez (CTIO/ NOAO), Hubble Heritage Team, NASA Explanation: What, in heaven, is that? Sometimes astronomers see things on the sky they don't immediately understand. In 1985 this happened to Arturo Gomez, and the object became known as Gomez's Hamburger for its distinctive yet familiar shape. After some investigation, the object was identified as a proto-planetary nebula, a gas...