http://newscenter.berkeley.edu News from the University of California, Berkeley Sat, 18 May 2013 20:48:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/10/17/keck-observations-reveal-complex-face-of-uranus/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/10/17/keck-observations-reveal-complex-face-of-uranus/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:10:16 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=33163 Uranus is so far from Earth that telescopes have typically seen little more than a blue-green blur, but new techniques employed with the Keck II telescope in Hawaii are revealing complex surface detail reminiscent of the solar system's other giant planets, including Saturn and Neptune.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2012/10/17/keck-observations-reveal-complex-face-of-uranus/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/03/reading-the-life-history-of-a-4-5-billion-year-old-meteorite/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/03/reading-the-life-history-of-a-4-5-billion-year-old-meteorite/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:04:10 +0000 Robert Sanders http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=6557 A new, high-resolution analysis of a dust grain from the Allende meteorite documents the widely varying environments the grain wandered through in its 4.5 billion-year travels around the solar system.]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2011/03/03/reading-the-life-history-of-a-4-5-billion-year-old-meteorite/feed/ 0 http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=94 http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=94#comments Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:03:41 +0000 Public Affairs http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=4243 NASA's Kepler mission was launched in 2009 to find exoplanets, and ideally, lots of rocky, Earth-like planets around other stars. Kepler team members, including Berkeley's Geoff Marcy and San Jose State's Natalie Batalha, Class of '89, announced today the discovery of the first such rocky planet, dubbed Kepler-10b.]]> http://kepler.nasa.gov/news/nasakeplernews/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=94/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/11/24/jupiter_stripe/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/11/24/jupiter_stripe/#comments Wed, 24 Nov 2010 23:13:56 +0000 Robert Sanders http://dev-newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=2207 Astronomers using three telescopes atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii have recorded the return of a unique belt on Jupiter that periodically fades from dark brown to white. Its most recent fade-out started earlier this year, but November observations with the Keck, Gemini and Infrared Telescope Facility show the brown returning. It appears that reflected sunlight off high elevation clouds of ammonia ice have been blocking our view of the darker clouds below. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/11/24/jupiter_stripe/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/10/28/sun_earth_solar_system/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/10/28/sun_earth_solar_system/#comments Thu, 28 Oct 2010 22:51:28 +0000 Robert Sanders http://dev-newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=1221 A survey of 166 nearby stars like our sun reveals increasing numbers of smaller planets down to the smallest detectable planets - about three times more massive than the earth. If this trend continues, UC Berkeley astronomers estimate, one of every four sun-like stars may have an earth-like planet. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/10/28/sun_earth_solar_system/feed/ 0 http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/10/07/maven/ http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/10/07/maven/#comments Thu, 07 Oct 2010 23:24:26 +0000 Robert Sanders http://dev-newscenter.berkeley.edu/?p=1636 NASA has approved a mission to Mars called MAVEN that will collect data to understand why and how Mars lost its atmosphere. Half the instruments will be built at UC Berkeley's Space Sciences Laboratory under the direction of physicist Robert Lin. ]]> http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2010/10/07/maven/feed/ 0