Solar System
Our Solar System: Now 2 Million Years Older
Our solar system is beautiful and aging gracefully, but it might be even older than we originally thought, by as…
Clockwork Planets
[/caption] While the Perseid meteor shower has been putting on quite a show, there's an awesome "no telescope needed" eye-catching…
The Earth and Moon May Have Formed Later Than Previously Thought
[/caption] The Earth and Moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Nice Way To Build A Solar System
When considering how the solar system formed, there are a number of problems with the idea of planets just blobbing…
Astronomy Without A Telescope – One Potato, Two Potato
Sometimes it’s good to take a break from mind-stretching cosmology models, quantum entanglements or events at 10-23 seconds after the…
How Common are Solar Systems Like Ours?
Solar system montage. Credit: NASA On the whole, we'd like to think we're special, but we also hope we aren't…
Planets Fact Sheet
Mercury Mass: 0.3302 x 1024 kg Volume: 6.083 x 1010 km3 Average radius: 2439.7 km Average diameter: 4879.4 km Mean…
Why is Venus So Hot?
You might have heard that Venus is the hottest planet in the Solar System. In fact, down at the surface…
Reexamining a Cataclysm
[/caption] One of the legacies of the Apollo program is the rare lunar samples it returned. These samples (along with…
Planet Jupiter
[/caption] Jupiter is the 5th planet in the Solar System, and by far the largest, containing 2.5 times the mass…