Space and astronomy news
[/caption] In a news conference today, Kepler mission scientists announced the first confirmed circumbinary planet ( a planet that orbits a binary star system). The planet in question, designated Kepler-16b has been compared to the planet Tatooine from the Star Wars saga. Would it be possible for someone like Luke Skywalker to stand on the …
Continue reading “Kepler Mission Discovers “Tatooine-like” Planet”
[/caption] NASA renewed its focus on ground breaking science today with the thunderous blastoff of a pair of lunar bound spacecraft that will map the moons interior with unparalled precision and which will fundamentally alter our understanding of how the moon and other rocky bodies in our solar system – including Earth – formed and …
Continue reading “NASA launches Twin Lunar Probes to Unravel Moons Core”
[/caption] There’s a planet out there playing a game of ‘doorbell ditch’ with astronomers. Scientists can’t see this distant world, but they know it’s there because its gravity is having a noticeable effect on the orbit of a neighboring planet. “It’s like having someone play a prank on you by ringing your doorbell and running …
Continue reading “‘Invisible’ World Discovered Around a Distant Star”
[/caption] Jupiter hasn’t always been in the same place in our solar system. Early in the history of our solar system, Jupiter moved inward towards the sun, almost to where Mars currently orbits now, and then back out to its current position. The migration through our solar system of Jupiter had some major effects on …
[/caption] It is our general understanding of solar system composition that planets fall into two categories: gas giants like Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus… and rocky bodies that support some type of atmosphere like Earth, Mars and Venus. However, as we reach further into space we’re beginning to realize the Solar System is pretty unique …
Continue reading “Coming To A Solar System Near You… Super-Earth!”
[/caption] “Tell me thy company, and I’ll tell thee what thou art…” In this case it is Asteroid 3552 Don Quixote – one of the most well-known of Near Earth Asteroids. You may know its name, but did you know it has possible cometary origin? It may very well be one of the Jupiter-Family Comets …
Continue reading “3552 Don Quixote… Leaving Our Solar System?”
[/caption] With no more volume than could be contained within a teaspoon, the material that makes up a white dwarf star weighs tons. Smaller than the diameter of Earth, and a direct family member of stars like our own Sol, these stellar gnomes could predict our eventual fate. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope, …
Continue reading “White Dwarf Stars Predict Our Solar System’s Demise”
[/caption] It was once thought that our planet was part of a “typical” solar system. Inner rocky worlds, outlying gas giants, some asteroids and comets sprinkled in for good measure. All rotating around a central star in more or less the same direction. Typical. But after seeing what’s actually out there, it turns out ours …
[/caption] Recently, some researchers speculated on what types of observational data from distant planetary systems might indicate the presence of an alien civilization, determined that asteroid mining was likely to be worth looking for – but ended up concluding that most of the effects of such activity would be difficult to distinguish from natural phenomena. …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Alien Mining”
[/caption] Planetary rings are more than just astronomical marvels — they’re also a sort of archive, chronicling histories of impacts for decades. A pair of studies were published online in Science today by two different teams that noticed odd characteristics in the rings of Saturn and Jupiter — and followed them to this promising conclusion. In …
Continue reading “New Studies: Planetary Rings Harbor Records of Past Smash-Ups”