As scientists work to understand what might make a distant planet habitable, one factor that is getting attention is the shape of the planet's orbit, how "eccentric" it might be. It might seem that a perfect circular orbit would be ideal for habitability because it would provide stability, but a new model suggests that it …
Continue reading "How Planetary Orbits, in Our Solar System and Beyond, Can Affect Habitability"
Though on holiday, I wanted to share these images and a bit of the Juno at Jupiter news. Because telescopes have never been able to see clearly down through the thick clouds of Jupiters-- the ones that together form the planet's glorious stripes-- it has remained a mystery how deep they may be. Based on …
Continue reading "Jupiter’s Stripes Run Deep, But Hopefully Juno’s Problems Do Not"
Though on holiday, I wanted to share these images and a bit of the Juno at Jupiter news. Because telescopes have never been able to see clearly down through the thick clouds of Jupiters-- the ones that together form the planet's glorious stipes-- it has remained a mystery how deep they may be. Based on …
Continue reading "Jupiter's Stripes Run Deep, But Hopefully Juno's Problems Do Not"
It took a while -- almost five years since launch -- but the Juno spacecraft is now at Jupiter and orbiting the giant planet. A 35-minute rocket burn to slow Juno down from its record-breaking 130,000 mph entry speed led to a successful insertion into orbit just minutes before midnight, making it another July 4th …
It took a while -- almost five years since launch -- but the Juno spacecraft is now at Jupiter and orbiting the giant planet. A 35-minute rocket burn to slow Juno down from its record-breaking 130,000 mph entry speed led to a successful insertion into orbit just minutes before midnight, making it another July 4th …
The last NASA mission to orbit Jupiter, the Galileo, was designed, flown and its data analyzed as if it was circling the only Jupiter in the sky. This is hardly surprising since the spacecraft launched in 1989, before the exoplanet era had arrived. Ironically, Galileo entered its Jupiter orbit in late 1995, just a few …
The last NASA mission to orbit Jupiter, the Galileo, was designed, flown and its data analyzed as if it was circling the only Jupiter in the sky. This is hardly surprising since the spacecraft launched in 1989, before the exoplanet era had arrived. Ironically, Galileo entered its Jupiter orbit in late 1995, just a few …
What can get the imagination into super-drive more quickly than the crashing of really huge objects? Like when a Mars-sized planet did a head-on into the Earth and, the scientific consensus says, created the moon. Or when a potentially dinosaur-exterminating asteroid heads towards Earth, or when what are now called "near-Earth objects" seems to be …
What can get the imagination into super-drive more quickly than the crashing of really huge objects? Like when a Mars-sized planet did a head-on into the Earth and, the scientific consensus says, created the moon. Or when a potentially dinosaur-exterminating asteroid heads towards Earth, or when what are now called "near-Earth objects" seems to be …
Results from two very different papers in recent weeks have brought home one of the more challenging and intriguing aspects of large exoplanet hunting: that some exoplanets the mass of Jupiter and above share characteristics with small, cool stars. And as a result, telling the two apart can sometimes be a challenge. This conclusion does …
Continue reading "The Borderland Where Stars and Planets Meet"
