Something has caught the eye of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Galaxy Evolution Explorer. The culprit: a red-giant named Mira. As seen in the image, the star was seen exhibiting a trailing tail-like material from the outer envelope over 13 light-years in length.

The phenomenon was detected recently even though, according to studies, the formation of the tail-like streak has been present over the past 30,000 years. The only reason why this wasn't noticed before was the fact that the emission radiated by Mira was caused by ultraviolet light; a source that the Galaxy Evolution Explorer is very sensitive to.

Also, because Mira moves at a comparatively faster rate than most red giants, the appearance of a bow shock has also been noted. This build up of gas in front of the star is thought to be the cause of its turbulent, tail-like appearance as it trails across the cosmos.

Mira was similar to our own sun billions of years ago. As such, this phenomenon may give a foreshadowing as to the future of our own local star. It has been theorized that upon the expulsion of all its remaining planetary gases into space, Mira will eventually form a colorful shell called a planetary nebula. In time, once the nebula fades, the burnt-out core of the star will be the only thing remaining left of it and thus forming a white dwarf.

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology were the ones responsible for this discovery through the Galaxy Evolution Explorer. James D. Neill of Caltech had this to say regarding Mira:

It's amazing to discover such a startlingly large and important feature of an object that has been known and studied for over 400 years. This is exactly the kind of surprise that comes from a survey mission like the Galaxy Evolution Explorer.

As Yoda said, "Size matters not." Three small, mostly amateur-class telescopes worked together to discover a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting its parent star 500 light-years away from Earth. These small-boy networks work hand-in-hand with the professional planet-hunting telescopes, including the upcoming NASA Kepler mission.

The newly-discovered planet, TrES-2, orbits its host star GSC 03549-02811 once every 2.5 days, and is located within the constellation Draco. TrES-2 is clasified as a "Hot Jupiter," a giant planetary body that orbits its star closer than Mercury orbits our Sun. Hot Jupiters have recently received attention for their potential role in forming Earth-like habitable planets.

TrES-2 is named after the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey (TrES), a network of telescopes belonging to Caltech's Palomar Observatory, Lowell Observatory in Arizona, and one located in the Canary Islands. These telescopes are generally small (around the 10cm range), and the imaging equipment are the ones you'd find in an astronomy hobby store, such as off-the-shelf 4-inch camera lenses. They were able to gather enough data to actually locate TrES-2 as a possible planet, but the team had to seek follow-up confirmation from a much larger telescope, the 10-meter monster at Keck Observatory in Hawaii.

The TrES telescopes, along with the big boys and other telescope networks around the world, observe and record the sky for as many nights as possible, even for a couple of months. The telescopes locate big planets by watching for a drop in the brightness of the parent star as seen from Earth. This happens as the planet pasess betwen the star and Earth-bound observers. Computers then analyze the data. This is harder than it looks. The software cannot distinguish between binary systems (twin-star systems that also change in brightness as seen from Earth) and Hot Jupiters. So astronomers need to do painstaking manual work. One advantage of this method of hunting planets, though, is that they can also estimate the size and mass of a planet through the same observations.

TrES-2 is the thrid planet discovered by small-telescope networks, and the second discovered by TrES. Admits David Charbonneau of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, "Hunting for planets with amateur equipment seemed crazy when we started the project, but with this discovery the approach has become mainstream."

The need to define "planet" surges.

Unless you're from another solar system, you probably know Pluto is under siege. An on going debate on new definitions will determine if Pluto will remain a planet or demoted into something else. Believe it or not, while planets have been around forever, an official definition of what they are does not exist.

If a group of Pluto lovers have it their way, the new and highly controversial definition proposed by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) will enable  Pluto to keep its current status as well as increase the member of our solar system.

Under the proposed definition Pluto will remain a planet. But it will lose its moon Charon, which would become a planet itself. Both would be called "plutons", to distinguish them from the eight "classical" planets. Ceres, currently an asteroid, would be upgraded to a "dwarf planet".  A Pluto-sized object known as 2003 UB313 would also be called a "pluton" making it 12th planet.

This proposed definition may have its own supporters, it also has its share of critics. Ironically, one of them is Caltech researcher Mike Brown, the man who discovered  2003 UB313. "It's flattering to be considered discoverer of the 12th planet," Brown said but added the overall proposal is "a complete mess" because that will turn at least 53 known bodies in our solar system into planets with more waiting in the wings to be discovered.

IAU members will vote on the proposal August 24.

The word "Planet" is not what it used to be. In fact, there is no standard definition for it right now and that is causing some problems. But historians, educators and astronomers have teamed up to come up with a definition for the word planet by September.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is expected to propose wording to separate planets from other small, round objects at its 12-day General Assembly meeting in Prague this August.

The what-is-a-planet problem dates back to the late 1990s when astronomers discovered several Pluto-like objects in the distant reaches of our solar system. All the new-found objects, some smaller others bigger than Pluto, were categorized as planets because they were round and orbited the Sun - the two main qualifications for this type of heavenly body.

The rest of the article awaits after the jump!