planets

Astronomers Detect Water Vapor in The Atmosphere of a ‘Super Neptune’ Exoplanet

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New Year’s Day comes around once every 47.5 hours on the roughly Neptune-sized exoplanet TOI 674b, which makes it something of a rare creature.  In spite of years of hunting, surprisingly few middle-sized gas giants have ever been seen with orbits shorter than a few days in length, creating what astronomers refer to as a … Read more

The hunt is on for exomoons around alien planets and scientists may have just found one

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It’s time for another tantalizing glimpse of what alien solar systems might look like. Astronomers have announced the possible detection of an exomoon, or a moon in another stellar system from our own, the second such candidate observation to date. The signal comes from a star studied by NASA’s now-retired Kepler space telescope, and scientists … Read more

Saturn: Planet’s moon Mimas may be hiding an impossible ocean

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Mimas doesn’t show any hints of liquid water, and it seems impossible that it could have an ocean under its surface, but that’s exactly what a new set of simulations suggest Space 11 January 2022 By Leah Crane Mimas, a moon of Saturn, imaged by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute Saturn’s moon Mimas may … Read more

The Sun Used to Have Saturn-Like Rings That Stopped Earth From Being a ‘Super-Earth’

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Before Earth and the other planets in our Solar System existed, the Sun may have been surrounded by giant rings of dust similar to Saturn’s, according to a new study.   Those rings of dust may have prevented Earth from growing into a “super-Earth” – a type of planet that is about twice the size of Earth and … Read more

Does every star have planets?

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In 1992, astronomers discovered the first planet outside the solar system. Since then, telescopes have spotted thousands of these so-called exoplanets orbiting not only stars similar to the sun but also in binary star systems; small, cool stars called red dwarfs; and even ultradense neutron stars. It’s enough to make you wonder: Does every star … Read more

The brightest planets in January’s night sky: How to see them (and when)

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The new year begins with four of the five naked-eye planets strung out along a crooked diagonal line measuring nearly 40 degrees above the south-southwest horizon an hour after sunset.  Your clenched fist held at arm’s length measures 10 degrees, so these four planets — in this order: Venus, Mercury, Saturn and Jupiter — will … Read more

Indestructible ‘Black Box’ will record our planet’s demise in minute detail

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Every commercial flight you have ever taken has been recorded. Every tug on the yoke and every adjustment of the throttle has been dutifully logged by a little recording device tucked away in the tail of the aircraft. It’s the infamous “black box” that search and rescue crews scan the crash site for any time … Read more

Feast Your Eyes on The Annual Family Portraits Hubble Took of Our Solar System Giants

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Every year, Hubble takes a little time to turn its electronic eyes closer to home. Rather than staring into vast distances across space and time, it focuses on our very own Solar System; specifically, the heavyweight planets that lurk out past the asteroid belt – Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.   That’s not because they’re … Read more

Astronomers Detect Up to 170 Rogue Planets Hurtling Aimlessly Through Space

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Interstellar space is a graveyard of lost souls. Adrift far from any star, these planets float in the darkness like ghost ships in the night. Catching sight of one requires patience, and a good eye. But a new approach based on tens of thousands of images collected by the European Southern Observatory’s facilities has resulted … Read more