The exhibition is divided into sections around specific planets, like "Mars," "Jupiter" and "Saturn," and a few themes, like "The Inner Solar System".
These dividing lines are statistical trends and do not necessarily apply to specific planets because there are many other factors besides metallicity that affect planet formation, including distance from star – there may be larger rocky planets formed at larger distances.
In the meantime, space.com reports that instead of searching the heavens for other solar systems that might contain ET signals, scientists are scanning 86 specific planets with the world's largest steerable telescope, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Radio Telescope in West Virginia.
Improvements were made to the original planetarium projector over the years, allowing for special effects that could show close-up displays of specific planets, and the Sun and Moon projectors could replicate the experience of a solar or lunar eclipse.
Such a connection allows users to select a specific star or planet and then have the computer direct the telescope to the precise location of that object in the sky.
In the years following the completion of Astronomia Nova, most of Kepler's research was focused on preparations for the Rudolphine Tables and a comprehensive set of ephemerides (specific predictions of planet and star positions) based on the table (though neither would be completed for many years).
Kepler's second and third laws make specific quantitative predictions: planets sweep out equal areas in equal time, and the square of their orbital periods equals a fixed constant times the cube of their semi-major axis.
A team of researchers reported Thursday that the bursts of methane originated from three specific regions in the planet's northern hemisphere, where it was midsummer.
To determine whether a particular gas is biological in origin, astronomers will have to study the chemistry and the specific properties of the planet.
Because one Earth year spans two Mercury solar days, there are two opportunities in the course of MESSENGER's science data-collection campaign to observe any specific location on the planet with a given viewing geometry.
