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Solar System’s Edge Redefined

By Guest PostMay 1, 2014Scienceantibody staining techniques, berghexe, bioassays, brain inspired, chazara briseis, dark energy camera, dharmendra s modha, earth, gemini observatory, gewaessertyp, giant planets, gravity, jim brase, johannes robalotoff, jupiter, kuiper belt, lawrence livermore, linda elkins tanton, llnl program, mars, neptune, noao, saturn, scott sheppard, sean james, sequoia supercomputer, solar system, stickstoffbelastung, uranus

Washington, D.C.—The Solar System has a new most-distant member, bringing its outer frontier into focus.

New work from Carnegie’s Scott Sheppard and Chadwick Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory reports the discovery of a distant dwarf planet, called 2012 VP113, which was found beyond the known edge of the Solar System. This is likely one of thousands of distant objects that are thought to form the so-called inner Oort cloud. What’s more, their work indicates the potential presence of an enormous planet, perhaps up to 10 times the size of Earth, not yet seen, but possibly influencing the orbit of 2012 VP113, as well as other inner Oort cloud objects. (more…)

How Do We Know When Voyager Reaches Interstellar Space?

By Guest PostSeptember 18, 2013Sciencealpha centauri, data on plasma, direct measurements, ed stone, exploration, galactic cosmic rays, interstellar magnetic fields, interstellar plasma, interstellar space, ionized gas, mid ocean ridges, milky way galaxy, neptune, particles, plasma environment, plasma influence, plasma oscillations, saturn, sea floors, solar storms, solar system, uranus, visited jupiter, voyager

Whether and when NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft, humankind’s most distant object, broke through to interstellar space, the space between stars, has been a thorny issue. For the last year, claims have surfaced every few months that Voyager 1 has “left our solar system.” Why has the Voyager team held off from saying the craft reached interstellar space until now?

“We have been cautious because we’re dealing with one of the most important milestones in the history of exploration,” said Voyager Project Scientist Ed Stone of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “Only now do we have the data — and the analysis — we needed.” (more…)

Clocking Neptune’s Spin

By Guest PostJune 29, 2011Scienceamerican astronomical society, astronomer giovanni cassini, clocking neptune's spin, earth and mars, erich karkoschka, giant gas planets, Icarus, jupiter, jupiter's red spot, lighthouse in space, magnetic field, mercury, NASA, neptune, neptune’s atmosphere, planet's inner core, radio telescopes, rocky planets, saturn, swirling and roiling, tracking atmospheric features on neptune, ua planetary scientist, ua's lunar and planetary laboratory, university of arizona, uranus, venus

*By tracking atmospheric features on Neptune, a UA planetary scientist has accurately determined the planet’s rotation, a feat that had not been previously achieved for any of the gas planets in our solar system except Jupiter.

A day on Neptune lasts precisely 15 hours, 57 minutes and 59 seconds, according to the first accurate measurement of its rotational period made by University of Arizona planetary scientist Erich Karkoschka.

His result is one of the largest improvements in determining the rotational period of a gas planet in almost 350 years since Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini made the first observations of Jupiter’s Red Spot. (more…)

NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft

By Guest PostJanuary 23, 2011Scienceairborne telescopes, atmosphere, crater, earth, ed stone, icy rings, magnetic north, Miranda, mysterious seventh planet, NASA, neptune, saturn, south poles, Space, stars, suzanne dodd, uranian equator, uranus, voyager 2 spacecraft, voyager spacecraft

As NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft made the only close approach to date of our mysterious seventh planet Uranus 25 years ago, Project Scientist Ed Stone and the Voyager team gathered at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., to pore over the data coming in.

Images of the small, icy Uranus moon Miranda were particularly surprising. Since small moons tend to cool and freeze over rapidly after their formation, scientists had expected a boring, ancient surface, pockmarked by crater-upon-weathered-crater. Instead they saw grooved terrain with linear valleys and ridges cutting through the older terrain and sometimes coming together in chevron shapes. They also saw dramatic fault scarps, or cliffs. All of this indicated that periods of tectonic and thermal activity had rocked Miranda’s surface in the past. (more…)

CU Student-Built Dust Counter Breaks Distance Record As It Heads for Pluto

By Guest PostOctober 13, 20101 commentSciencealan stern, andrew poppe, boulder, dust grains, johns hopkins university, jupiter, kuiper belt, mihaly horanyi, NASA, neptune, new horizons mission, orbit, pluto, satellite, sdc, sme, solar mesosphere explorer, solar system, space dust, student dust counter, university of colorado, uranus, venetia burney

A University of Colorado at Boulder space dust counter designed, tested and operated by students that is flying aboard NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto now holds the record for the most distant working dust detector ever to travel through space. (more…)

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