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Astronomers have found 65 evenly spaced rocks orbiting a white dwarf star in its habitable zone, hinting that a planet’s gravity may be holding them there Space 11 February 2022 By Leah Crane Illustration of the white dwarf star WD 1054-226 orbited by clouds of planetary debris and a major planet in the habitable zone … Read more
Distant X-rays may be the most direct evidence yet of the remains of a disintegrated planet colliding with the corpse of a star, a new study finds. White dwarfs are the cool, dim cores of dead stars that are left behind after average-size stars have exhausted their fuel and shed their outer layers. They are … Read more
When young stars coalesce out of a cloud of molecular hydrogen, a disk of leftover material called a protoplanetary disk surrounds them. This disk is where planets form, and astronomers are getting better at peering into those veiled environments and watching embryonic worlds take shape. But young stars aren’t the only stars with disks of … Read more
Earth’s moon is large for the planet’s size, and many astronomers have long believed that this fact has helped make Earth a habitable world. And a new study has now found that our planet was just the right size to form such a large, life-enabling moon. The study, by researchers from the University of Rochester … Read more
Astronomers have found lots of exoplanets but not much evidence of exomoons, and a new model might explain why Space 1 February 2022 By Alex Wilkins An artist’s impression of an exoplanet Shutterstock / Artsiom P Rocky planets much bigger than Earth might not be able to form large moons like our own, which is … Read more
Uranus and Neptune are the most twin-like of all the planets in the Solar System. They are almost the same size and mass, have similar compositions and structures, even similar rotation rates. Which makes one glaring difference quite perplexing. Neptune is a fetching shade of azure, with visible swirling storms. Uranus is more of … Read more
Uranus is pale blue in colour while Neptune is a deeper shade of blue, and an atmospheric model can explain the difference Space 28 January 2022 By Will Gater Uranus (left) and Neptune (right) imaged by Voyager 2 NASA/JPL-Caltech Uranus and Neptune are different shades of blue, and we may finally know why. In visible-light … Read more
If you’re looking for the best telescopes of 2022, then you’ve come to the right place. Our handy guide of the best telescopes is perfect for seasoned astronomers, who want nothing but the best views of deep-sky targets like galaxies and nebulas, as well as beginners trying their hand at skywatching for the first time. … Read more
A gas giant is a large planet composed mostly of gases, such as hydrogen and helium, with a relatively small rocky core. The gas giants of our solar system are Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. These four large planets reside in the outer part of the solar system past the orbits of Mars and the … Read more
Terrestrial planets are Earth-like planets made up of rocks or metals with a hard surface. Terrestrial planets also have a molten heavy-metal core, few moons and topological features such as valleys, volcanoes and craters. In our solar system, there are four terrestrial planets, which also happen to be the four closest to the sun: Mercury, Venus, … Read more