What is a NASA Science Update? Major Hubble discoveries on NASA television ... Astronomers explain their Hubble discoveries at a press conference, called a NASA Science Update (NSU), broadcast on NASA television. The NSU includes a question and answer session with members of the media. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered 16 extrasolar planet candidates orbiting a variety of distant stars in the central region of our Milky Way galaxy. The planet bonanza was uncovered during a Hubble survey, called the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). Hubble looked farther than has ever successfully been searched for extrasolar planets. Hubble peered at 180,000 stars in the crowded central bulge of our galaxy 26,000 light-years away or one-quarter the diameter of the Milky Way's spiral disk. The results will appear in the Oct. 5 issue of the journal Nature. Read more: * NASA Press Release [ http://hubblesite.o…]
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Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: SWEEPS fields Object Description: Stellar Field Near the Galactic Bulge Position (J2000): R.A. 17h 59m 00s Dec. -29 ° 12' 00" Constellation: Sagittarius About the Data Data Description: This image was created from HST data from proposal 9750: K. Sahu, and H. Bond (STScI), T. Brown (High Altitude Observatory, Boulder), S. Casertano and M. Livio (STScI), D. Minniti (Catholic University of Chile), N. Panagia (STScI), A. Renzini (Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Italy), R. Rich (University of California, Los Angeles), and M. Zoccali (Catholic University of Chile). The science team also includes J. Valenti, E. Smith, T. Brown, W. Clarkson, and S. Lubow (STScI), and N. Piskunov (Uppsala University, Sweden). Instrument: ACS/WFC Exposure Date(s): February 22 - 29, 2004 Exposure Time: 49 hours Filters: F606W ("R") and F814W ("I") About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Sahu (STScI) Release Date: October 4, 2006 Colors: This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using two different filters. Two filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: F606W V blue F606W+F814W green F814W I red Orientation: SWEEPS ACS/WFC Color Composite [ http://imgsrc.hubbl…]
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*Release Date*:October 4, 2006 01:00 PM (EDT)
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*Title*:Hubble Finds Extrasolar Planets Far Across Galaxy
