Study: Dinosaurs Roamed Before Saturn’s Moons and Rings Formed
A new study from researchers at the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) has found that most of Saturn’s 62 moons and perhaps even its celebrated rings may only be a hundred million years old. That’s more recent than when dinosaurs were roaming Earth. One of the study authors, Matija […]
Scientists Find Evidence of a Giant 9th Planet
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology – Caltech -are reporting that they have found evidence of a giant planet traveling in an odd and drawn out orbit in the far reaches of the solar system. If confirmed the newly found planet would be the solar system’s ninth planet. Pluto had that honor until it […]
Scientists Measure A Mighty Wind Blowing on Exoplanet
A pair of British scientists have found that winds of over 2 kilometers per second are blowing around HD 189733b, an exoplanet located about 63 light years away from us. According to the researchers, the exoplanet’s 2 kps wind speed is about seven times the speed of sound and is 20 times more than the […]
Astronomers Observe Exoplanet Temperatures Swinging Wildly
For the first time ever, scientists in the United Kingdom detected temperature fluctuations on a super-Earth exoplanet – 55 Cancri e, the so-called “diamond planet.” Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope to study the rocky exoplanet’s thermal radiation over a two-year period, researchers led by the University of Cambridge found that the temperature on the side […]
The Best Science Images – April 2015
Mercury’s Surface ‘Painted’ With Carbon from Comets
A first glance, the planet Mercury looks a lot like our Moon, both gray and pockmarked with craters after being bombarded with meteorites and blasted by the solar wind over the millennia. Some take the similarity further, referring to them as “twins.” The color of Mercury’s surface though is much darker than the moon, so […]
Extrasolar Object’s Ring System is 200 Times Larger Than Saturn’s
One of our solar system’s most fascinating planets is Saturn. It’s the 2nd largest planet, after Jupiter. But what makes Saturn stand out from the others is the dazzling system of rings that surround it. Recently, a Dutch and an American astronomer found that an extrasolar object, discovered back in 2012, is surrounded by a […]
Science Scanner: Leonardo da Vinci Might be Wrong and is Planet Mercury a Hit-and-run Victim?
Scientists Catch Photosynthesis in Action Researchers have snapped the very first images of photosynthesis as it happens. Photosynthesis is the process which plants use to convert light energy into chemical energy, which is then stored as sugar. Using the U.S. Department of Energy’s LCLS x-ray laser, the world’s most powerful, the researchers imaged the part […]
Scientists Discover Planet Covered in Diamonds
Scientists have found a planet outside of our solar system which could be a true diamond in the rough. This gem of a planet is twice Earth’s size, according to the US-Franco team that found it, and its surface appears to be covered in graphite and diamond. Researchers estimate that at least one-third of the […]
Curiosity Makes Its Way to First Mars Experiment
The Mars rover Curiosity is about to undertake its first major scientific experiment on the Red Planet.Before Curiosity heads off to its primary destination, the foothills of Mount Sharp, scientists want to learn more about the terrain surrounding the rover’s landing site. The Mars mission team members are fascinated with the geology of the area, […]