Space and astronomy news
[/caption] Every rocky planet has a lithosphere, but what is lithosphere? It is the rigid outermost shell of a rocky planet. Here on Earth the lithosphere contains the crust and upper mantle. The Earth has two types of lithosphere: oceanic and continental. The lithosphere is broken up into tectonic plates. Oceanic lithosphere consists mainly of …
[/caption] We’ve all seen pictures of erupting terrestrial volcanoes from space, and even eruptions on Jupiter’s moon Io in the outer solar system, but would it be possible to detect an erupting volcano on an exoplanet? Astronomers say the answer is yes! (with a few caveats) It’s going to be decades before telescopes will be …
Continue reading “Extrasolar Volcanoes May Soon be Detectable”
Scientists at the European Southern Observatory have identified the closest looking solar system to our own. They located a sun-like star more than 100 light years distant with as many as seven different planets, including one that might be the smallest ever found outside the solar system. “We have found what is most likely the …
Continue reading “Step On The Scales: Weighing Up Planet Earth…”
There is another Sun-like star out there with an intriguing family of planets orbiting about and it could be the closest parallel to our own solar system that astronomers have found yet. European astronomers discovered a planetary system containing at least five planets, orbiting the star HD 10180, with evidence that two other planets may …
[/caption] The first planet from the Sun is Mercury, orbiting the Sun at an average distance of 57.91 million km. It’s also the smallest planet in the Solar System, measuring just 4,879 kilometers across. Mercury is named after the Roman god of commerce; he was the same entity as the Greek god Hermes – the …
[/caption] Venus is the second planet from the Sun, and a virtual twin of our own planet Earth in many ways. But what type of planet is Venus? There are two major classifications of planets in the Solar System. There are the inner, rocky terrestrial planets and then the outer gas giants. Venus is a …
[/caption] Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet in the Solar System. But what type of planet is Mercury? Mercury is classified as a terrestrial planet. The terrestrial planets include the 4 rocky worlds in the inner Solar System: Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars. The term “terrestrial” comes from the latin term “terra”, meaning Earth. …
[/caption] The Earth and Moon were created as the result of a giant collision between two planets the size of Mars and Venus. Until now it was thought to have happened when the solar system was 30 million years old or approximately 4.5 billion years ago. But new research shows that the Earth and Moon …
Continue reading “The Earth and Moon May Have Formed Later Than Previously Thought”
Sometimes it’s good to take a break from mind-stretching cosmology models, quantum entanglements or events at 10-23 seconds after the big bang and get back to some astronomy basics. For example, the vexing issue of the potato radius. At the recent 2010 Australian Space Science Conference, it was proposed by Lineweaver and Norman that all …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – One Potato, Two Potato”
[/caption] Using their backyard telescope, today? No; however, this image of three exoplanets required just 1.5 meters (diameter; 60 inches) of a telescope mirror, not vastly larger than the biggest backyard ‘scope. These particular exoplanets orbit the star HR 8799, and have been imaged directly before, by one of the 10-meter (33-foot) Keck telescopes and …
Continue reading “Could An Amateur Astronomer Snap a Picture of an Exoplanet?”