Showing 20 articles starting at article 1041

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Mathematics: Statistics, Space: The Solar System

Return to the site home page

Space: The Solar System
Published

New tools for predicting arrival, impact of solar storms      (via sciencedaily.com) 

When the sun hurls a billion tons of high-energy particles and magnetic fields into space at speeds of more than a million miles per hour and the 'space weather' conditions are right, the resulting geomagnetic storm at Earth can wreak havoc on communication and navigation systems, electrical power grids, and pose radiation hazards to astronauts and airline passengers and crew.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Why we live on Earth and not Venus      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Compared to its celestial neighbors Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable evolutionary path that enabled Earth to sustain life.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Despite new information, Pluto will remain a dwarf planet, cosmologist says      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Back in 1930, it was an easy answer -- Pluto was a planet because we couldn't see anything else brighter at a similar distance away from us, says a cosmologist. Then, in the 1990s, astronomers began detecting more and more planet-like objects around Pluto and the questions started -- was Pluto a planet or not?

Space: The Solar System
Published

Atmosphere of Venus studied through rare transit images      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Two of NASA's heliophysics missions can now claim planetary science on their list of scientific findings. A group of scientists used the Venus transit -- a very rare event where a planet passes between Earth and the sun, appearing to us as a dark dot steadily making its way across the sun's bright face -- to make measurements of how the Venusian atmosphere absorbs different kinds of light.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Eyeing up Earth-like planets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Almost 2000 exoplanets have been discovered to date, ranging from rocky Earth-like planets to hot-Jupiters, and orbiting every type of star. But how many of these distant worlds are habitable? Today’s technology means that we currently have very little information about what exoplanets are like beyond their presence, size and distance from star. With the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope we may have our first glimpses into atmospheres of Earth-like exoplanets.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Is salt the key to unlocking the interiors of Neptune and Uranus?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The interiors of several of our Solar System's planets and moons are icy, and ice has been found on distant extrasolar planets, as well. This ice must exist under extreme pressures and high-temperatures, and potentially contains salty impurities, too. New research focuses on the physics underlying the formation of the types of ice that are stable under these paradoxical-seeming conditions. It could challenge current ideas about the physical properties found inside icy planetary bodies.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Planet Mars behaving like a rock star      (via sciencedaily.com) 

If planets had personalities, Mars would be a rock star according to recent preliminary results from NASA's MAVEN spacecraft. Mars sports a 'Mohawk' of escaping atmospheric particles at its poles, 'wears' a layer of metal particles high in its atmosphere, and lights up with aurora after being smacked by solar storms. MAVEN is also mapping out the escaping atmospheric particles.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Active volcanism on Venus      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Researchers combing through the data from the Venus Express mission have found new evidence of active lava flows on Earth's nearest neighbor.

Space: The Solar System
Published

New tool could predict large solar storms more than 24 hours in advance      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Large magnetic storms from the Sun, which affect technologies such as GPS and utility grids, could soon be predicted more than 24 hours in advance.

Space: The Solar System
Published

What our solar system looked like as a ‘toddler’      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Astronomers have identified a young planetary system which may aid in understanding how our own solar system formed and developed billions of years ago. 

Space: The Solar System
Published

Mercury's magnetic field is almost four billion years old      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New data from MESSENGER, the spacecraft that orbited Mercury for four years before crashing into the planet a week ago, reveals Mercury's magnetic field is almost four billion years old.

Space: The Solar System
Published

NASA Completes MESSENGER Mission with Expected Impact on Mercury's Surface      (via sciencedaily.com) 

A NASA planetary exploration mission came to a planned, but nonetheless dramatic, end April 30 when it slammed into Mercury's surface at about 8,750 mph and created a new crater on the planet's surface.

Space: The Solar System
Published

New exoplanet too big for its star challenges ideas about how planets form      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The discovery of a strange exoplanet orbiting very close to a small cool star 500 light years away is challenging ideas about how planets form.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Unmasking the secrets of Mercury, in color      (via sciencedaily.com) 

The MESSENGER spacecraft is the first ever to orbit the planet Mercury, and the spacecraft's seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation are unraveling the history and evolution of the solar system's innermost planet. MESSENGER's highly successful orbital mission is about to come to an end, as the spacecraft runs out of propellant and the force of solar gravity causes it to impact the surface of Mercury near the end of April 2015.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Can sound help us detect 'earthquakes' on Venus?      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Detecting an 'earthquake' on Venus would seem to be an impossible task. But conditions in Venus' atmosphere are much more hospitable, and it is here that researchers hope to deploy an array of balloons or satellites that could detect Venusian seismic activity -- using sound.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Small solar eruptions can have profound effects on unprotected planets      (via sciencedaily.com) 

While no one yet knows what's needed to build a habitable planet, it's clear that the interplay between the sun and Earth is crucial for making our planet livable -- a balance between a sun that provides energy and a planet that can protect itself from the harshest solar emissions.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Comet dust: Planet Mercury's 'invisible paint'      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have long puzzled over the planet Mercury's excessively dark surface. New research suggests that carbon from passing comets could be the planet's mystery darkening agent.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Unexplained warm layer discovered in Venus' atmosphere      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Scientists have found a warm layer in Venus' atmosphere, the nature of which is still unknown. The researchers made the discovery when compiling a temperature map of the upper atmosphere on the planet's night side based on the data collected by the Venus Express probe.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Explosions of Jupiter's aurora linked to extraordinary planet-moon interaction      (via sciencedaily.com) 

New observations of the planet's extreme ultraviolet emissions show that bright explosions of Jupiter's aurora likely also get kicked off by the planet-moon interaction, not by solar activity.

Space: The Solar System
Published

Wandering Jupiter accounts for our unusual solar system      (via sciencedaily.com) 

Jupiter may have swept through the early solar system like a wrecking ball, destroying a first generation of inner planets before retreating into its current orbit, according to a new study. The findings help explain why our solar system is so different from the hundreds of other planetary systems that astronomers have discovered in recent years.