2011

James Moran Going the Distance in a unique class of triathlete

November 14, 2012

Read about Harvard Astronomy Professor Jim Moran's successful triathalons featured in the Concord Dispatch.

"Concordian James Moran is strong. He has to be, since his sport of choice for the last decade is competing in triathlons. 


Moran has competed in dozens of triathlons since 2003, when he participated in his first three-event race..."

Concord Dispatch article

NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Announces Two Earth-Size Planets Are Discovered

December 21, 2011

Astronomers from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft announced Tuesday that they had discovered a pair of planets the size of Earth orbiting a distant star. The new planets, one about as big as Earth and the other slightly smaller than Venus, are the smallest yet found beyond the solar system. Harvard Astronomy Professor David Charbonneau was a member of the team that made the observations, led by his colleague Francois Fressin.... Read more about NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Announces Two Earth-Size Planets Are Discovered

Is There a City on Pluto? Before You Answer, Consider: We've Never Looked.

November 10, 2011

Link to Time Magazine article

Before Ed Turner and Avi Loeb tell you about their research, they want to make one thing perfectly clear: they do not claim there's a city on Pluto. But if there were, they say, we could see it. And, as they suggest in a paper they've submitted to the journal Astrobiology, it's worth taking a look, just in case.

... Read more about Is There a City on Pluto? Before You Answer, Consider: We've Never Looked.

Searching for the origins of life... and our future (BBC News)

November 8, 2011

By Karen Weintraub Cambridge, Massachusetts
November 8, 2011

Hollywood is wrong about aliens. They don't have oddly shaped
heads, bulging eyes or even an eery green hue. Dimitar Sasselov is
pretty convinced of that.

He's not even sure we'll know them when we see them. Prof
Sasselov, an astrophysicist, thinks that if life exists elsewhere - and
he believes it does - it will likely be based on different building
blocks than ours, and so may not even be recognizable as life.

A project he's heading at Harvard University, called the Origins of
...

Read more about Searching for the origins of life... and our future (BBC News)