Latest Planetary science Stories

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Astronomers using NASA's Kepler space telescope have found that six percent of red dwarf stars have habitable, Earth-like planets. Red dwarfs are considered to be the most abundant stars in our galaxy, so it is feasible that one of these Earth-like planets could be just 13 light-years away, when taking into account the astronomers new research published in The Astrophysical Journal. The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics...

Revising and revisiting the Giant Impact Theory Scientists are revisiting the age-old question of how Earth's moon formed with the development of two new models that work out the complicated physics of planetary collisions. The idea of a moon-forming collision is not new: The Giant Impact Theory put forth in the 1970s suggested that the moon resulted from a collision with a protoplanet approximately half the size of ancient Earth. But the physics underlying such a collision implied that...

REDLANDS, Calif., Feb. 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The State of Maryland has signed a statewide software license agreement with Esri to make geographic information system (GIS) technology available for all K?12 classrooms and formal after-school programs. This agreement marks another step for the state as it expands its efforts to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-proficient students with the ability to pursue postsecondary study and careers in...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online An international group of scientists, led by Panayotis Lavvas of the University of Reims, Champagne-Ardenne, used data from NASA's Cassini mission to describe, in unparalleled detail, how aerosols in the highest part of the atmosphere are kick-started on Saturn's moon Titan. The study, published in a recent issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), seeks to understand aerosol formation at Titan because it could...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Finding planets outside of our own Solar System has become a bit of a hot topic in the scientific community, and the enthusiasm behind the discovery of "Earth-like" planets has been on the rise, but a new study suggests we may want to tone down our excitement a bit. A new study led by Dr. Helmut Lammer of the Space Research Institute (IWF) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences says that maybe these "Earth-like" planets may not be so...

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory The small near-Earth asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass very close to Earth on February 15, so close that it will pass inside the ring of geosynchronous weather and communications satellites. NASA's Near-Earth Object Program Office can accurately predict the asteroid's path with the observations obtained, and it is therefore known that there is no chance that the asteroid might be on a collision course with Earth. Nevertheless, the flyby will provide a unique...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Three-dimensional printing is growing rampantly and the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to utilize the up-and-coming technology to build a base on the moon using lunar soil. ESA is partnering with industrial partners, including architects Foster + Partners, to see if the idea of building a lunar habitat on the moon is a feasible one. Foster + Partners created a dome with a cellular structured wall that could help to shield...

Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online For many in the extreme upper latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the Aurora borealis (better known as the Northern Lights) offer breathtaking displays of color and lights, dancing effortlessly across the night sky. These lights, which are caused by solar winds bouncing off the Earth’s upper atmosphere, are typically visible only around the Polar ‘auroral zone’ due to the strong magnetic forces around this region. However,...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Cassini mission scientists have observed a huge thunder-and-lightning storm on Saturn consume itself for the first time. The NASA scientists said in a paper published in the journal Icarus that they observed as the massive storm made its way around the planet, until it ran into its own tail and dissipated. "This Saturn storm behaved like a terrestrial hurricane - but with a twist unique to Saturn," Andrew Ingersoll, a Cassini...

John P. Millis, Ph.D. for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online [ Be sure to check out our recent podcasts on Planet Hunting, and The Search For Life Beyond Earth ] The holy grail of planetary astronomy is the elusive Earth-like planet that scientists hope will show that life exists elsewhere in our galaxy. With a growing database of more than 2,000 planet candidates, researchers feel it is only a matter of time before a planet is found with the potential to sustain life. This gives...