Latest Planetary science Stories
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...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online Researchers are contradicting one hypothesis that comet explosions may have ended the 9,000-year-old Clovis culture. The Clovis comet hypothesis was first reported in 2007, claiming a comet initiated the Younger Dryas cold period nearly 13,000 years ago. This period, also known as the Big Freeze, was a brief period of cold climatic conditions and drought, causing the collapse of the North American ice sheets. According to the...
WASHINGTON, Jan. 30, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A star thought to have passed the age at which it can form planets may in fact be creating new worlds. The disk of material surrounding the surprising star called TW Hydrae may be massive enough to make even more planets than we have in our own solar system. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The findings were made using the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Telescope, a mission in which NASA is a...
Latest Planetary science Reference Libraries
Image Caption: Artistic concept of a planetary system. Credit: Wikipedia/NASA/JPL-Caltech The term Astronomy encompasses a broad range of topics, including the study of stars, galaxies, and planets. In order to focus on the different areas of study, many subfields of astronomy emerge. One such area is the study of planets known, appropriately, as Planetary Astronomy. Observational Planetary Astronomy Even within the field of Planetary Astronomy, there are several divisions to...
Solar cycles: what are they and why should we care about them? Solar cycles are made up of what are known as solar minimums (min) and solar maximums (max). We refer to a solar min at the time when the sun is not active with many sunspots, while a solar max is just the opposite when we see a large increase in sunspot activity. So how long do solar cycles last? Typically they run on what is known as an 11 year cycle from the max to the min and then start over again anew. As of 2012 we...
Planetary and Space Science is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1959 and published by Elsevier 15 times per year. As of May 2012, the editor-in-chief is Rita Schulz (The Netherlands). The journal publishes original research articles and short communications. The main focus is on solar system processes which encompass multiple areas of the natural sciences. Research that involves planetary and space sciences involves many disciplines. Celestial mechanics is part of these...
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors is a biweekly published peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. As of April 2012, co-editors are G. Aelfric (University of Bristol), K. Hirose (Tokyo Institute of Technology), M. Jellinek (University of British Columbia), and K. Zhang (University of Exeter). This journal focuses on the physical and chemical processes of planetary interiors. Topics covered include planetary physics, geodesy and geophysics. Publishing formats...
Geophysical Journal International is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publish monthly by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society and the German Geophysical Society. The editor-in-chief is Jeannot Trampert of TA Utrecht, the Netherlands. The primary focus of this journal is fundamental research in Geophysics. Publishing formats are original research, research notes, letters, and book reviews. Coverage includes computational, theoretical, observational and applied...
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