Planet News | Universe Today

Illustration of WASP-12b in orbit about its host star (Credit: ESA/C Carreau)

Results from recent research explain why WASP-12b is so unusual; we're watching it die a painful death at the hands of its homesun, which is snacking on it.
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A dark red area discovered on dwarf planet Haumea appears to be richer in minerals and organic compounds than the surrounding icy surface. Since Haumea is so small and far away, it shows up in telescopes as just a point of light, but the spot was discovered by measuring changes in brightness as it rotates. Small but persistent differences indicate that the dark spot is slightly redder in visible light and slightly bluer at infrared wavelengths.
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A NASA image of asteroid Eros (left) and Robert Gaskell's shape model of the asteroid (right). Credit: PSI

Thinking about trekking across Titan or meandering around Mercury? Along with your backpack and towel, you'll also want to pack one of Robert Gaskell's maps. Gaskell, a senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, is working on creating real hitchhiking guides to the various bodies in our solar system. He's been equated to the final frontier what Lewis and Clark were to the American West – the guy producing the most accurate and detailed maps available. And thanks to current space missions sending back loads of data, Gaskell is beginning to work on creating precise maps of Mercury, the asteroid Eros, and eight moons of Saturn including Enceladus. Gaskell has created sophisticated software that combines hundreds of spacecraft images of varying resolution to create the maps. He's been developing the software for nearly 25 years, and if you want to map a planet, moon, or asteroid, he's the guy to ask.
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A Kuiper Belt Object discovered three years ago finally has a real name. It's also officially been classified as a dwarf planet, and plutoid as well, by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Formerly known as 2005 FY9, and also as 136472, (in addition to being unofficially called Easterbunny) the third largest known trans-Neptunian object is now Makemake. Pronouced like "maki-maki," the object was named after the creator god from Easter Island mythology. Astronomer Mike Brown, one of the discoverers of Makemake, wrote in his blog that the IAU finally accepted his six-month old proposal to give the object a proper name. "Three years is a long time to have only a license plate number instead of a name," wrote Brown, who appears to be pleased that the IAU accepted the name that he and his team suggested.
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The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on board NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has done it again. When the instrument caught a Mars avalanche in action in March, we were able to witness a fairly common terrestrial event on a different planet. The impact was huge; we were all fascinated by the slide of rock and ice for weeks. Now looking on the very small-scale, HiRISE has picked up a seemingly mundane terrestrial occurrence: a rock rolling down a hill. But this rock rolled down a crater side on Mars, leaving a track in the Martian regolith big enough to be spotted by the MRO…
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Filed under: Mars, Planet News | 11 Comments »

What's that? Another meteor shower we can't possibly see? Of course you can. All you need to view this meteor shower is a backyard on Mars! A team of scientists led by Armagh Observatory have, for the first time, detected a storm of shooting stars on Red Planet. Read more…

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For every backyard astronomer, we know 4.5 billion years ago, both Venus and Earth were formed with nearly the same radius, mass, density and chemical composition. Venus is like Earth's evil twin, but why is the climate on both worlds so widely varied? Scientists analysing the data from the orbiting European Venus Express spacecraft are finally putting the pieces of the geological and climatological puzzle together as they take a closer look at Venusian evolution. Read more…

Filed under: Planet News, Planetary Formation, Venus | 16 Comments »

The Holy Grail in the search for extra-solar planets would be to find an Earth-like world orbiting another star. A group of UK astronomers believe they have good chance of being the first to find such a planet with a revolutionary new camera called RISE. With RISE, scientists will search for extra-solar planets using a technique called “transit timing,” which may provide a short-cut to discovering Earth-like planets with existing technology.
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Set your April jokes on fool, dear reader because it's April 1st. That means there'll be a non-stop barrage of April Fools Jokes coming at you from all directions. We had to join in the fun, but we're not the only ones. Check out this "offering" from Virgin Galactic and Google. They're going to be setting up a colony on Mars and they're looking for volunteers. You've got to know it's serious because Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page make the offer personally. I like how they mentioned the one-way trip idea. Is someone reading Universe Today?

And Branson's version is here:

Filed under: Planet News, Space Exploration | 5 Comments »