Archive for September, 2011

Python’s readlines options

Posted September 30, 2011 By grigoris

A very interesting post on the different ways readline can be used in Python:

> .readlines() : reads the whole file at once and creates a list of lines

> .readline() : reads one character at the time

> .xreadlines() : reads one line at a time (for large files).

 

MetRec’s quick links

Posted September 29, 2011 By grigoris

A short list of links for MetRec (meteor detection program):

New planet around a binary system

Posted September 20, 2011 By grigoris

It is always fascinating when science fiction becomes reality. This is the case with the Kepler-16b, a binary system that proved to host a cold giant planet (like Saturn), which compiles from gas and rocks. This opens a wide new category of planetary systems since most of the stars belong to a binary system.

For more information see NASA’s Kepler announcement and the related page with star/planet’s properties, along with the publication (Doyle L et al 2011: Science – in press, arXiv-1109.3432).