How Many Moons Does Saturn Have?
Saturn has 53 confirmed and named moons, though as many as 150 may exist. This makes it second only to Jupiter in terms of the number of natural satellites it has orbiting it
Kepler Has Found the First Earth-Sized Exoplanet in a Habitable Zone!
It’s truly a “eureka” moment for Kepler scientists: the first rocky Earth-sized world has been found in a star’s habitable “Goldilocks” zone, the narrow belt where liquid water could readily exist on a planet’s surface without freezing solid or boiling away. And while it’s much too soon to tell if this really is a “twin …
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Ceres and Vesta Converge in Virgo, Watch it Happen With Just Binoculars
Don’t let them pass you by. Right now and continuing through July, the biggest and brightest asteroids will be running on nearly parallel tracks in the constellation Virgo and so close together they’ll easily fit in the same binocular field of view. The twofer features Ceres (biggest) and Vesta (brightest) which are also the prime …
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50 Years of Talking to Space: a NASA Social for the Deep Space Network
When you’re talking to spacecraft billions of miles away, you need a powerful voice. And when you’re listening for their faint replies from those same staggering distances, you need an even bigger set of ears. Fortunately, NASA’s Deep Space Network has both — and last week I had the chance to see some of them up close …
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Discovery! Possible Dwarf Planet Found Far Beyond Pluto’s Orbit
What is a dwarf planet? Some astronomers have been asking that question after Pluto was demoted from planethood almost a decade ago, partly due to discoveries of other worlds of similar proportions. Today, astronomers announced the discovery of 2012 VP113, a world that, assuming its reflectivity is moderate, is 280 miles (450 kilometers) in size and orbiting …
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Asteroid Swarm ‘Pounded’ Pulsar Star, Causing Changes Visible From Earth
When you throw a bunch of rock and debris at a rapidly spinning star, what happens? A new study suggests that so-called pulsar stars change their dizzying spin rate as asteroids fall into the gaseous mass. This conclusion comes from observations of one pulsar (PSR J0738-4042) that is being “pounded” with debris from rocks, researchers …
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Search for Planetary Nurseries in the Latest Citizen Science Project
Growing up, my sister played video games and I read books. Now that she has a one-year-old daughter we constantly argue over how her little girl should spend her time. Should she read books in order to increase her vocabulary and stretch her imagination? Or should she play video games in order to strengthen her …
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What Is A Super Earth?
The Universe is always surprising us with how little we know about… the Universe. It’s continuously presenting us with stuff we never imagined, or even thought possible. The search for extrasolar planets is a great example. Since we started, astronomers have turned up over a thousand of them. These planets can be gigantic worlds with …
Kepler Finds an Earth-Sized “Gas Giant”
Gas planets aren’t always bloated, monstrous worlds the size of Jupiter or Saturn (or larger) they can also apparently be just barely bigger than Earth. This was the discovery announced earlier today during the 223rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Washington, DC, when findings regarding the gassy (but surprisingly small) exoplanet KOI-314c were presented. “This planet might have …
Happy New Year’s Day 2014 from Mars – Curiosity Celebrates 500 Sols Spying Towering Mount Sharp Destination
Curiosity Celebrates 500 Sols on Mars on Jan. 1, 2014 NASA’s Curiosity rover snaps fabulous new mosaic spying towering Mount Sharp destination looming dead ahead with her high resolution color cameras, in this cropped view. See full mosaic below. Imagery assembled from Mastcam raw images taken on Dec. 26, 2013 (Sol 494). Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS/Marco Di …