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International team discovers new solar system with scaled-down versions of Jupiter and Saturn

02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!

Harnessing Lawrence Livermore's pioneering work in gravitational microlensing, supercomputer modeling and adaptive optics, scientists have found two planets in a solar system much like our very own.

Keywords: international, team, discovers, solar, system, scaled-down, versions, jupiter, saturn, discover, scaled, down, version

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Astronomers discover scaled-down Jupiter and Saturn in a faraway solar system like our own
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
An international team of astronomers has discovered two planets that resemble smaller versions of Jupiter and Saturn in a solar system nearly 5,000 light years away. The find suggests that our galaxy hosts many planetary systems like our own, said Scott Gaudi, assistant professor of astronomy at Ohio State University.
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A newly discovered solar system contains scaled-down versions of Saturn and Jupiter
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
A team of international astronomers reports in the Feb. 15 issue of Science the discovery of a solar system nearly 5,000 light years away with scaled-down versions of Jupiter and Saturn. Their findings suggest our galaxy could conceivably contain many star systems similar to our own. NSF sponsored the research.
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Astonomers discover Jupiter-Saturn-like planet in distant solar system
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
The simultaneously discovery of two exoplanets smaller than Jupiter and Saturn by an international team of astronomers that includes University of Notre Dame research associate professor of astrophysics David Bennett gives astrophysicists an important clue that solar systems like ours might be quite common.
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Dartmouth researchers part of the team to discover similar planetary system to our solar system
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
Two Dartmouth researchers are part of the team that has discovered a planetary system where the two largest planets are very similar to Jupiter and Saturn, in terms of mass and distance from their host star. The study appears in the Feb. 15 issue of the journal Science.
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Giant planets do not come as lonely hearts
02-14-2008 · EurekAlert!
Scaled versions of Jupiter and Saturn orbiting a star 5000 light-years away, half as massive as the sun, have been revealed from an effort involving a world-wide net of telescopes, including the UK's Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Islands. This marks the first discovery of another system of planets that has striking similarities with our solar system.
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Making waves: How UCL research could minimize the impact of future tsunami
07-02-2007 · EurekAlert!
A team of experts is preparing to create tsunami in a controlled environment in order to study their effects on buildings and coastlines -- ultimately paving the way for the design of new structures better able to withstand their impact. Ahead of today's Coastal Structures 2007 International Conference, Dr. Tiziana Rossetto, UCL Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, unveiled plans to develop an innovative new tsunami generator capable of creating scaled-down versions of the devastating waves.
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Day and night temps measured on an extrasolar planet
10-12-2006 · EurekAlert!
For the first time, astronomers have measured the day and night temperatures of a planet outside our solar system. The team found that a giant Jupiter-like gas planet orbiting very close to its star is blisteringly hot on one side, and frigid on the other.
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Advance in understanding of blood pressure gene could lead to new treatments
02-04-2007 · EurekAlert!
Research by scientists at UCL (University College London) has clearly demonstrated for the first time the structure and function of a gene crucial to the regulation of blood pressure. The discovery could be important in the search for new treatments for illnesses such as heart disease, the UK's biggest killer. In a paper published online today in Nature Medicine, the team, led by Professor Patrick Vallance and Dr James Leiper, UCL Department of Medicine, reveal the role of the human gene dimethylarginine dimethylaminohydrolase (DDAH), showing that loss of DDAH activity disrupts nitric oxide (NO) production. NO is critical in the regulation of blood pressure, nervous system functions and the immune system. The role of DDAH is to break down modified amino acids (Asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA)) that are produced by the body and have been shown to inhibit NO synthase. These molecules accumulate in various disease states including diabetes, renal failure and pulmonary and systemic hypertension, and their concentration in plasma (the fluid component of blood) is strongly predicative of cardiovascular disease and death. In a healthy human body, the majority of ADMA is eliminated through active metabolism by DDAH. Scientists have hypothesised that if DDAH function is impaired, NO production is reduced, and that this could be an important feature of increased cardiovascular risk. To examine this pathway in more detail, the researchers deleted the DDAH gene in mice. These mice went on to develop hypertension, or high blood pressure. They also designed specific inhibitors (small molecules) which bind to the active site of human DDAH. These small molecule inhibitors also induced hypertension in mice, confirming the importance of DDAH in the regulation of blood pressure. Dr Leiper, UCL Medicine, said: “These genetic and chemical approaches to disrupt DDAH showed remarkably consistent results, and provide compelling evidence that loss of DDAH function increases the concentration of ADMA and thereby disrupts vascular NO signalling. “There has been considerable scientific interest in this pathway and the role of ADMA as a novel risk factor, but so far there's been little evidence to support the idea that it's a cause of disease, rather than just a marker. Genes and their pathways are crucial to our understanding of cardiovascular disease and a better understanding of DDAH-1 could lead to important new treatments. “It could help us to establish if genetic variation predisposes certain people to these diseases, or whether environmental factors exert some of their effects through modulation of DDAH activity. “Our research also shows that this pathway could be harnessed therapeutically to limit production of NO in certain situations where too much nitric oxide is a bad thing; for example, hypotension and septic shock. These are some of the biggest problems in intensive care medicine and there is a huge unmet need for drug treatments.” The study, which was carried out at UCL's Rayne Institute, was funded by grants from the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. Professor Jeremy Pearson, Associate Medical Director of the British Heart Foundation, said: "The unexpected finding in the 1980s that a simple gas, nitric oxide (NO), is made by cells in the blood vessel wall and is a powerful control of blood vessel relaxation led to the award of the Nobel Prize in 1998 to its discoverers. "More recently, there has been increasing evidence that impairment of NO production is likely to be an important factor in the development of heart and circulatory disease, but the mechanisms responsible are not fully understood. "This study suggests for the first time that the loss of the activity of the enzyme DDAH-1 leads to reduced NO production and may cause heart and circulatory disease. These findings are likely to be important in the search for new ways to optimise the health of our blood vessels." ### Notes for Editors 1. For more information, please contact Ruth Metcalfe in the UCL Media Relations Office on tel: +44 (0)20 7679 9739, mobile: +44 (0)7990 675 947, out of hours: +44 (0)7917 271 364, e-mail: r.metcalfe@ucl.ac.uk2. 'Disruption of methylarginine metabolism impairs vascular homeostasis' is published in the February issue of the journal Nature Medicine. Advance online publication is embargoed to 18.00 GMT (13.00 US Eastern) Sunday 4 February 2007. Journalists can obtain copies of the paper by contacting the UCL Media Relations Office.3. The study was funded by the British Heart Foundation, the Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. About UCL Founded in 1826, UCL was the first English university established after Oxford and Cambridge, the first to admit students regardless of race, class, religion or gender, and the first to provide systematic teaching of law, architecture and medicine. In the government's most recent Research Assessment Exercise, 59 UCL departments achieved top ratings of 5* and 5, indicating research quality of international excellence. UCL is the fourth-ranked UK university in the 2006 league table of the top 500 world universities produced by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University. UCL alumni include Mahatma Gandhi (Laws 1889, Indian political and spiritual leader); Jonathan Dimbleby (Philosophy 1969, writer and television presenter); Junichiro Koizumi (Economics 1969, Prime Minister of Japan); Lord Woolf (Laws 1954, Lord Chief Justice of England & Wales); Alexander Graham Bell (Phonetics 1860s, inventor of the telephone), and members of the band Coldplay.
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Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is a 'cosmic graffiti artist,' astronomers discover
02-08-2007 · EurekAlert!
Astronomers from the University of Virginia and other institutions have found that Enceladus, the sixth-largest moon of Saturn, is a "cosmic graffiti artist," pelting the surfaces of at least 11 other moons of Saturn with ice particles sprayed from its spewing surface geysers. This ice sandblasts the other moons, creating a reflective surface that makes them among the brightest bodies in the solar system.
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Catching some rays
08-21-2007 · EurekAlert!
An international team of researchers has detected low-energy solar neutrinos -- subatomic particles produced in the core of the sun -- and measured in real-time the rate the particles hit our planet.
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