Study: Pluto Should Be a Planet!
In 2006, members of the International Astronomical Union or the IAU, an organization recognized as the authority for naming celestial bodies, voted on a set of characteristics that define what makes a planet a planet. One of those traits required a planet had to “clear” its orbit; meaning it had to provide the greatest gravitational force in […]
Astronomers Discover A Dozen New Jovian Moons
As a team of astronomers was looking beyond Pluto for the mysterious Planet 9. So far they haven’t located the giant hypothetical planet, but they did wind up discovering a dozen new moons orbiting Jupiter. “Jupiter just happened to be in the sky near the search fields where we were looking for extremely distant Solar System […]
New Sunspot Index Breaks Link Between Solar Activity and Climate Change
A newly updated analysis of sunspot numbers over the last 400 years suggests solar activity has nothing to do with climate change, a discovery that eliminates a key argument used by those who question human caused climate change. Some of those who suggest that climate change is not anthropogenic in nature contend that changes in the […]
Science Scanner: Voters Say Pluto is a Planet, Sense of Touch Explored, Promising New Way to Stop Spread of Cancer, High-Tech Bracelet Secures Computers
People Vote to Make Pluto a Planet Again Until 2006, school children were taught – and most people considered the matter settled – that Pluto is one of the nine planets of the solar system. But that year members of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) – which is responsible for naming and classifying celestial objects […]
Evidence of Water Vapor Found on Dwarf Planet Ceres
Scientists have found signs of water vapor on the dwarf planet known as Ceres. “This is the first time water vapor has been unequivocally detected on Ceres or any other object in the asteroid belt and provides proof that Ceres has an icy surface and an atmosphere,” said Michael Küppers of the European Space Agency. […]
See Jupiter’s Newly-discovered Tiny Moon in Motion
Astronomers have found that one of two recently-discovered moons of Jupiter is just two kilometers in diameter and may be the smallest of Jupiter’s 67 satellites. Back in September 2010, scientists discovered two unknown distant satellites of Jupiter while conducting routine tracking observations of the planet’s previously identified moons. To confirm that these were indeed […]