Space and astronomy news
One of the first things that many people ask about a planet is whether there is water or not. So, naturally, the question ”is there water on Jupiter?” has been asked many times. The answer is yes, there is a small amount of water, but it is not ”on” Jupiter. It is in the form …
The mass of Jupiter is 1.9 x 1027 kg. It is hard to fully understand a number that large, so here are a few comparisons to help. It would take 318 times Earth’s mass to equal Jupiter’s. Jupiter is 2.5 times more massive than all of the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter …
The diameter of Jupiter at its equator is 142,984 km. Since it rotates very quickly, completing a full rotation in just 10 hours, it is an oblate spheroid and bulges at the equator. If you measure the diameter through the poles it is 9,276 km smaller at 133,708 km. Solely based on diameter, Jupiter is …
With yesterday’s announcement about finding a batch of so-called “super-Earths†– rocky alien worlds a few times more massive than our own – as well as another announcement back in May that 45 relatively low mass planets had been found, it’s obvious astronomers are constantly improving on their techniques to find new worlds. While the …
Continue reading “Super-Earths: How Much Are They Like Earth?”
Jupiter, which takes its name from the father of the gods in ancient Roman mythology, is the largest planet in our Solar System. It also has the most moon’s of any solar planet – with 50 accounted for and another 17 awaiting confirmation. It has the most intense surface activity, with storms up to 600 …
The answer to ”how long is a year on Jupiter” is 11.86 Earth years. There is so much more to know about the Jovian system, that we can not just leave you with one fact, so here are some more interesting facts about Jupiter. At perihelion Jupiter is 741 million km from the Sun(4.95 AU). …
Asteroid 10537 (1991 RY16) is a rarity. It is composed of basaltic rock (i.e. rock that cooled quickly after formation from a molten state) and appears to have evolved independently from the large asteroid Vesta. Vesta suffered a huge impact billions of years ago, and the debris from this collision litters the inner asteroid belt. …
Continue reading “Rare Asteroid Studied by Hawaiian Scientists”
When astronomers looked at the orbits of the planets, they felt that there could be a planet “missing” in between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars. In fact, this is where the asteroid belt is; a collection of large and small rocky objects. Could this be the missing planet? Astronomers think that Jupiter formed early …
Continue reading “Was There a Planet Between Mars and Jupiter?”
Of all the Jovian related questions that we get here at Universe Today, what is Jupiter made of is one of the most common. Jupiter is mainly composed of hydrogen and helium just like a star. Answering that question seems to open a flood of other questions about the gas giant, so here are some …
With several space- and ground-based telescopes, as well as dedicated space missions searching for exoplanets, or planets orbiting other stars, the count of new discoveries keeps rising. The current total now stands at 287 planets. The newest spacecraft dedicated to this search, the COROT Mission (Convection, Rotation and planetary Transits), announced the finding of two …
Continue reading “Exoplanet Count Rises With New Discoveries”