planets

Not One, Not Two, But Three Planetary Systems Are Forming Around This Binary Star

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Astronomers have spied three whole systems of exoplanets being born around one binary star. SVS 13 is a binary star system 980 light-years away, and the complex structures of dust around it are shedding light on how planetary systems are born in these fascinating environments. Since a large proportion of stars is bound up in … Read more

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has captured over 2200 photographs of Mars

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The helicopter is providing scientists with information about Mars, reaching places the Perseverance rover cannot traverse Space 8 March 2022 By Chen Ly NASA’s Perseverance rover captured this image of the Ingenuity helicopter NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU NASA’s helicopter Ingenuity has taken more than 2200 photographs of Mars since arriving on the planet just over a year ago. … Read more

For The First Time, a Tatooine-Like Planet Has Been Detected Via a Wobbling Star

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Not all planetary systems are alike. Out there in the big, wide galaxy, a number of different configurations have been spotted, some vastly different from our home system. These include extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, that orbit not one, but two stars, like the fictional Star Wars world of Tatooine.   Now, for the first time, astronomers … Read more

The Chelyabinsk Meteorite May Have Been Involved in The Smash That Formed Our Moon

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A meteor that exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2013 could have also been somehow involved in the giant impact that formed the Moon. This tantalizing finding comes thanks to a new way of dating collisions between rocks in space, based on microscopic analysis of minerals within meteorites. Although further investigation is warranted, … Read more

Superhabitable planets | Space

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A superhabitable planet is a world that might have an even better chance at hosting life than our own home, Earth.  Because Earth is the only known inhabited planet and its life depends on liquid water, efforts to identify exoplanets that could host life focus on Earth-like worlds. But some researchers think there are other … Read more

Rogue planets: How wandering bodies in interstellar space ended up on their own

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Joanna Barstow, Ernest Rutherford Fellow, The Open University We now know of almost 5,000 planets outside the solar system. If you were to picture what it would be like on one of these distant worlds, or exoplanets, your mental … Read more

What’s the maximum number of planets that could orbit the sun?

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The solar system contains eight planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, all of which circle the sun due to its intense gravitational pull. But is this the maximum number of planets that can orbit the sun? Or is there room for more? Compared with other known planetary systems, the solar system … Read more

February full moon 2022: The ‘Snow Moon’ is accompanied by predawn planets

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The full moon of February, called the Snow Moon, will arrive Wednesday (Feb. 16) at 11:57 a.m. EST (0457 GMT). That same day, Mercury reaches its greatest distance west of the sun, making it a bright but challenging to observe “morning star” in mid-northern latitudes.  In New York City the full moon will rise at … Read more

Deep interior of Mars might have led to the loss of the planet’s atmosphere

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Key changes deep in the core of Mars might have led to the planet losing its magnetic field early in its history, a new study suggests. Today, Mars is a planet with a thin atmosphere that is unable to support substantial running water on the surface, but scientists have found evidence of ancient lakes, streams … Read more