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Tag: orbit

NASA released this high-resolution enhanced color view of Pluto on 9/25/15. The image combines blue, red and infrared images taken by the Ralph/Multispectral Visual Imaging Camera (MVIC) on 7/14/15. (NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI)

Study: Pluto Should Be a Planet!

September 15, 2018

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 […]

Various groupings of Jovian moons with the newly discovered ones shown in bold. (Roberto Molar-Candanosa, courtesy of Carnegie Institution for Science)

Astronomers Discover A Dozen New Jovian Moons

July 21, 2018

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 […]

Illustration of NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite -- TESS -- observing an M dwarf star with orbiting planets. (NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center)

NASA Launches TESS the Exoplanet Hunter

April 23, 2018

The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, will soon join NASA’s fleet of exoplanet-hunters that, so far, includes the Kepler, Hubble, and the Spitzer Space Telescopes. TESS was launched at 2251 UTC on April 18, 2018, from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The space observatory is expected to survey about 85% of […]

Drawing of the Tiangong-1 (Craigboy/Wikimedia Commons)

Chinese Space Station Expected To Fall to Earth Within Days

March 28, 2018

Aerospace experts say they expect the Chinese space station, Tiangong-1, or “Celestial Palace 1” in English, to drop out of orbit and fall to Earth sometime between March 30th and April 2nd. Considering its orbital path and expected reentry trajectory, the experts say the space station could fall anywhere in the world between nearly 43° north […]

Biggest Wave Spotted; Walking Heel-to-Toe; Newborn Exoplanets

December 15, 2016

New Record for Biggest Wave Measured by Buoy The UN’s World Meteorological Society says the biggest wave ever to be measured by a buoy was identified at 0600 universal time on February 4, 2013. The colossal 19-meter swell was spotted in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the UK. The previous highest wave recorded […]

This artistic rendering shows the distant view from Planet Nine back towards the sun. The planet is thought to be gaseous, similar to Uranus and Neptune. Hypothetical lightning lights up the night side. (Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC))

Is Planet 9 Causing Our Solar System to Wobble?

October 20, 2016

A new study from researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) suggests that Planet 9, the huge and so far unseen planet said to be lurking in the far reaches of the solar system, might be causing our group of planets to wobble a little and giving an impression that the sun is slightly tilted. […]

This image shows Saturn's northern hemisphere in 2016, as that part of the planet nears its northern hemisphere summer solstice in May 2017. (NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

NASA Will Have Cassini Working Hard Right Up to Fiery Finish

September 16, 2016

As the saying goes all good things must come to an end and the same will go for the Cassini mission to Saturn as it begins its final year of operation. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has big plans for the orbiter as it makes its year-long swan song. Dubbed the Grand Finale, the space agency […]

This image, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, shows Mars, as it was observed On 5/12/16, before opposition in 2016 (NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Bell (ASU), and M. Wolff (Space Science Institute)

Mars Makes Closest Approach to Earth in More Than a Decade

May 23, 2016

Do you want to get a good look at Mars?  Well now is the time to catch the Red Planet as it makes its closest approach to Earth in the past eleven years. Every 26 months in an event called an opposition by astronomers – Mars and the Sun happen to be on opposite sides […]

Artist concept of dwarf planet Makemake and its moon MK2 (NASA/ESA)

Dwarf Planet Moon Discovered; Supplements Boost Antidepressants; Kepler Back in Business

April 27, 2016

Hubble Spots Moon Circling Distant Dwarf Planet Out in the far reaches of our solar system lies the Kuiper Belt.  This region of space is occupied by icy objects left over from the creation of the solar system. Several dwarf planets, such as Pluto, also occupy the Kuiper Belt. Astronomers studying images gathered by the […]

Astronomers Spot 80 of the Oldest Galaxies

March 14, 2016

Advancing technology is making it possible for scientists to investigate the early universe. About 200 million years after the Big Bang, it is thought that clumps of condensed primordial cold gas clouds provided material for the first stars to be born. As stars were created they formed small galaxies. An international team of researchers are […]

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