solar system – Page 6 – Shamskm: A site to exchange knowledge and solutions

Astronomers Discover Houdini-Like Vanishing Act in Space

By Guest PostJuly 9, 2012Scienceastronomer, astronomical scale, baffling discovery, benjamin zuckerman, carl melis, Chile, constellation centaurus, dust, dust particles, dusty disc, game changer, gemini observatory, gemini telescope, infrared astronomical satellite, iras, joseph rhee, joy pollard, jupiter, lynette cook, mars, mega flare, mercury, NASA, neptune, norm murray, rocky debris, rocky planet, saturn rings, solar system, tyc 8241 2652, ucla, wise satellite

Astronomers report a baffling discovery never seen before: An extraordinary amount of dust around a nearby star has mysteriously disappeared.

“It’s like the classic magician’s trick — now you see it, now you don’t,” said Carl Melis, a postdoctoral scholar at UC San Diego and lead author of the research. “Only in this case, we’re talking about enough dust to fill an inner solar system, and it really is gone!”

“It’s as if the rings around Saturn had disappeared,” said co-author Benjamin Zuckerman, a UCLA professor of physics and astronomy. “This is even more shocking because the dusty disc of rocky debris was bigger and much more massive than Saturn’s rings. The disc around this star, if it were in our solar system, would have extended from the sun halfway out to Earth, near the orbit of Mercury.” (more…)

“Extremely Little” Telescope Discovers Pair of Odd Planets

By Guest PostJune 17, 2012Sciencebinary system, bluish metal, brown dwarf, constellation andromeda, constellation auriga, david salisbury, digital camera, earth, extrasolar planets, failed star, hd 42176, jupiter, kelt 1b, kelt 2ab, kelt north telescope, mercury, osmium, planet, platinum ore, robert siverd, scott gaudi, small telescope, solar system, southern arizona, thomas beatty, transit method, vanderbilt university

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Even small telescopes can make big discoveries.

Though the KELT North telescope in southern Arizona carries a lens no more powerful than a high-end digital camera, it’s just revealed the existence of two very unusual faraway planets.

One planet is a massive, puffed-up oddity that could change ideas of how solar systems evolve. The other orbits a very bright star, and will allow astronomers to make detailed measurements of the atmospheres of these bizarre worlds. (more…)

Largest Meteorite Hunt in History Yields Treasure for UA

By Guest PostMay 16, 2012Sciencean ounce, california, carbonaceous chondrites, daniel stolte, dante lauretta, dolores hill, ed beshore, greg hupe, hiroshima bom, meteorite, meteorite hunt, michael farmer, NASA, nevada, nuclear explosion, osiris rex mission, planetary science, robert ward, scientists, sierra nevada, sky, solar system, spacecraft, sutters mill, university of arizona

Thanks to the generosity of three professional meteorite hunters, the UA Lunar and Planetary Laboratory will own three samples of a rare kind of meteorite leftover from the earliest beginnings of the solar system.

To the untrained eye, the black, smooth-edged lump that is sitting under a glass cover looks similar to a piece of charcoal. But to scientists Dante Lauretta and Ed Beshore from the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, it is one of the most intriguing stones they have ever seen.

“This meteorite is the oldest rock you’ll ever find on Earth. In fact, it formed 50 to 60 million years before the Earth even existed,” said Lauretta, who is a professor of planetary science and principal investigator of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, which will send a spacecraft to return a sample from an asteroid in 2023. (more…)

NASA’s Spitzer Sees the Light of Alien ‘Super Earth’

By Guest PostMay 9, 2012Science55 cancri, 55 cancri e, atmosphere, bill danchi, gaseous planet, hot jupiter, jet propulsion laboratory, kelvin, michael gillon, michael werner, NASA, planet, signs of life, solar system, spitzer project, spitzer space telescope, super earth

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has detected light emanating from a “super-Earth” planet beyond our solar system for the first time. While the planet is not habitable, the detection is a historic step toward the eventual search for signs of life on other planets.

“Spitzer has amazed us yet again,” said Bill Danchi, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The spacecraft is pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA’s upcoming James Webb Space Telescope to apply a similar technique on potentially habitable planets.” (more…)

First Geologic Map of Jupiter’s Moon Io Details an Otherworldly Volcanic Surface

By Guest PostMarch 21, 2012Scienceapollo moon, arizona state university, david a williams, david williams, europa, galileo, galileo orbiter, ganymede, geologic map, image mosaic, io, jovian satellite, jupiter, ken herkenhoff, ken tanaka, marcia mcnutt, mars, moon, NASA, solar system, spacecraft, usgs, volcanic activity, voyager 1

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – More than 400 years after its discovery by Galileo, the innermost large moon of Jupiter – Io – can finally rest on its geologic laurels. A group of scientists led by Dr. David A. Williams of Arizona State University has produced the first global geologic map of the Jovian satellite. The map, which was published by the U. S. Geological Survey, technically illustrates the geologic character of some of the most unique and active volcanoes ever documented in the solar system.

Since its discovery in January 1610, Io has been the focus of repeated observation, first by Earth-based telescopes, and later by fly-by and orbiting spacecraft. These studies depict an otherworldly celestial body whose gravitational relationships with Jupiter and sister moons Europa and Ganymede cause massive, rapid flexing of its surface and interior. This flexing generates tremendous heat in Io’s interior, which is relieved through surface volcanism, resulting in 25 times more volcanic activity than occurs here on Earth. (more…)

What Do Sunsets Look Like From Other Planets?

By Guest PostJanuary 17, 2012ScienceAlien, aspen, astrophysicist, atmosphere, colorado, conference, exoclimes, exoclimes 2012, extrasolar planets, frederic pont, fundamental problems, Galaxy, gloomy orange, hd 189, hd 189733 b, hd 209, hd 209458 b, Hubble Space Telescope, modern astronomy, neutral sodium lines, osiris, planet forming discs, planetary atmospheres, planets, sodium street lighting, solar system, spectral, sun, sunset, sunset images, transmission spectrum, university of exeter, website

A University of Exeter astrophysicist has shown what sunsets look like on planets outside our solar system.

He has worked out the colour of sunsets on two planets: HD 209458 b and HD 189733 b, known as ‘extrasolar planets’ because they are outside our solar system.

Extrasolar planets orbit stars, in a similar way to the Earth orbiting the Sun. Professor Frédéric Pont of the University of Exeter has used the extrasolar planets’ ‘transmission spectrum’, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, to work out the colour of the ‘sunsets’ created by these stars.

Writing on the website ExoClimes.com, where he has posted the two sunset images he has produced, Professor Pont said: “Unlike its sister planet HD ’189, the planet HD ’209 (‘Osiris’) has a sunset that looks truly alien. The star is white outside the atmosphere, since its temperature is close to that of the Sun. It then acquires a bluish tinge as it sinks deeper, because the absorption by the broad wings of the neutral sodium lines (the spectral lines responsible for the gloomy orange of sodium street lighting) remove the red and orange from the star light. (more…)

NASA Discovers First Earth-Size Planets Beyond Our Solar System

By Guest PostDecember 20, 2011Scienceearth size planets, rocky worlds, solar system, sun like star

PASADENA, Calif. — NASA’s Kepler mission has discovered the first Earth-size planets orbiting a sun-like star outside our solar system. The planets, called Kepler-20e and Kepler-20f, are too close to their star to be in the so-called habitable zone where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, but they are the smallest exoplanets ever confirmed around a star like our sun. (more…)

Meteorite Shockwaves Trigger Dust Avalanches on Mars

By Guest PostDecember 18, 2011Scienceairblast, alfred mcewen, atmosphere, basketball court, craters on mars, dark streaks, dust avalanches, dusty surface, equator, erosion, hirise camera, impact crater, jay melosh, kaylan burleigh, mars global surveyor orbiter, martian surface, meteorite, olympus mons, plate tectonic processes, red planet, shock wave, solar system, tallest mountain, university of arizona

Dust avalanches around impact craters on Mars appear to be the result of the shock wave preceding the actual impact, according to a study led by an undergraduate student at the UA.

When a meteorite careens toward the dusty surface of the Red Planet, it kicks up dust and can cause avalanching even before the rock from outer space hits the ground, a research team led by an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona has discovered.

“We expected that some of the streaks of dust that we see on slopes are caused by seismic shaking during impact,” said Kaylan Burleigh, who led the research project. “We were surprised to find that it rather looks like shockwaves in the air trigger the avalanches even before the impact.” (more…)

Tag Archives: solar system