solar

Hear the largest moon in the solar system sing in new squeaky Juno video

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The magnetosphere of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede sounds like a dial-up modem in a newly released audio clip from NASA. This month the team behind the space agency’s Juno mission published new data from the spacecraft, which has been pirouetting around Jupiter and its many moons since July 2016. One of the most fascinating new troves … 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

Stellar Video Shows Comet Leonard as It Zips by Earth For The 1st Time in 80,000 Years

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Since early this year, skywatchers on Earth have been tracking Comet Leonard, a kilometer-wide dirty snowball made of ice, rock, and dust. Now, as it heads towards a close encounter with the Sun on 3 January 2022, several spacecraft – with the distinct advantage of having an unobstructed front-row seat to the action – have … 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

We Finally Have The First-Ever Analysis of Stardust Retrieved From The Ryugu Asteroid

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It’s been over a year since the Hayabusa2 probe delivered its precious cargo of dust from an alien space rock, and we’re finally getting a more detailed glimpse of what makes up asteroid Ryugu.   In two papers published today, international teams of scientists have revealed that, in accordance with analyses conducted by the probe … Read more

Kepler’s Third Law: The movement of solar system planets

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Kepler’s Third Law is the last of the revolutionary theorems by German astronomers Johannes Kepler and explains planetary orbits around the sun. Before Kepler outlined his laws of planetary motion in the early 17th century, humankind’s knowledge of the solar system and beyond was in its infancy and largely remained a mystery. At the time … Read more

NASA Releases Ghostly Sounds Recorded at Ganymede by The Juno Probe

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In another context, Jupiter‘s moon Ganymede might have been a planet. As the largest moon in our Solar System, it’s one of the most intriguing locations in the neighborhood. Which is great, because it just so happens that Jupiter probe Juno is in the vicinity. Now, it’s sent back some curious noises.    On 7 June … Read more

Earth’s Tilted Magnetic Field 41,000 Years Ago Pushed The Auroras to Unexpected Places

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If you want to be dazzled by a spectacular northern lights display, your best bet is to skywatch near the North Pole. But that wasn’t the case 41,000 years ago, when a disruption of Earth’s magnetic field sent auroras wandering toward the equator.   During this geomagnetic disturbance, known as the Laschamp event or the Laschamp excursion, … Read more

Gigantic Eruption From ‘Dragon’ Star Is a Dire Warning About The Sun

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In the search for “potentially-habitable” extrasolar planets, one of the main things scientists look at is stellar activity. Whereas stars like our own, a G-type (G2V) yellow dwarf, are considered stable over time, other classes are variable and prone to flare-ups – particularly M-type red dwarf stars.   Even if a star has multiple planets … Read more