Latest Space science Stories
By Robert Sanders, UC BerkeleyAnalysis method can locate satellite galaxies based on the ripples they create in the hydrogen gasPlanet X, an often-sought 10th planet, is so far a no-show, but Sukanya Chakrabarti has high hopes for finding what might be called Galaxy X "“ a dwarf galaxy that she predicts orbits our Milky Way Galaxy.Many large galaxies, such as the Milky Way, are thought to have lots of satellite galaxies too dim to see. They are dominated by "dark matter," which...
Europe's billion-dollar Planck space telescope brought results on Tuesday that have delighted astronomers as it showed off 15,000 new celestial objects. Astronomers reported at a conference in Paris that Planck has carried out three complete scans of the Universe, showing off 15,000 new celestial objects, including 30 galaxy clusters. Jan Tauber, a project scientist at the European Space Agency (ESA), said that the data is a "treasure trove" that will be exploited for years to come....
Observations from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and the Japanese satellite Hinode show that some gas in the giant, fountain-like jets in the sun's atmosphere known as spicules can reach temperatures of millions of degrees. The finding offers a possible new framework for how the sun's high atmosphere gets so much hotter than the surface of the sun.What makes the high atmosphere, or corona, so hot "“ over a million degrees, compared to the sun surface's 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit --...
2011 could bring more space weather as the Sun pulls out of a trough of low activity and heads into a long-awaited and possibly destructive period of turbulence. Many people may be surprised to find out that the Sun goes through moments of calm and tempest. However, two centuries of observation have revealed that our star follows an 11-year cycle of behavior. The latest cycle started in 1996 for reasons that are unclear, but it has taken longer than expected to end. Experts say that there are...
HAMPTON, Va., Dec. 3, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- You say you want a revolution in planetary science? (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) On Tuesday, Dec. 7, at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, James Green, director, NASA Planetary Science will present "The Revolution in Planetary Science: New Worlds, New Discoveries," at 2 p.m. in the Reid Conference Center. Green will review what NASA has learned on its journey through the Solar System and its hopes...
(Ivanhoe Newswire)-- NASA won't have to look too far to find Earth-size planets.UC Berkeley astronomers Andrew Howard and Geoffrey Marcy observed 166 stars within 80 light years of Earth with the powerful Keck telescope for five years and found increasing numbers of smaller planets, down to the smallest size detectable today "“ planets called super-Earths, about three times the mass of Earth."Of about 100 typical sun-like stars, one or two have planets the size of Jupiter, roughly six...
New mission, ARTEMIS, begins science operations in Lagrange-point parking orbitTwo micro-satellites originally launched into Earth's orbit in 2007 by NASA have been redirected by University of California, Berkeley, scientists toward new orbits around the moon, extending study of the earth and moon's interaction with the solar wind.The second of the two probes settled into a temporary "Lagrange-point" orbit on Friday, Oct. 22, inaugurating science operations for a new mission dubbed...
Every hundred years or so, a solar storm comes along so potent it fills the skies of Earth with blood-red auroras, makes compass needles point in the wrong direction, and sends electric currents coursing through the planet's topsoil. The most famous such storm, the Carrington Event of 1859, actually shocked telegraph operators and set some of their offices on fire. A 2008 report by the National Academy of Sciences warns that if such a storm occurred today, we could experience widespread power...
Want to build a pinhole camera to look at an eclipse? Or learn more about how gigantic telescopes examine the sun? The place to go on the Web is solarweek.org from October 18-22. Twice a year, Solar Week provides a weeklong series of web-based educational activities for classrooms about our magnetic variable star, the sun, and its interactions with Earth and the solar system.Each day of Solar Week offers a different set of lessons and games for students ranging from the upper elementary to...
SAN DIEGO, Oct. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Stellar Solar announced today the launch of their military discount program that offers up to $2,000 in savings on residential solar systems for both active and retired military personnel in San Diego County. The program covers all branches of the armed forces. "The armed forces and Department of Defense have taken an aggressive approach to installing solar on military bases nationwide, which is really leading by example for their soldiers, sailors,...
Latest Space science Reference Libraries
The prominent feature that allows for the existence of life on Earth is the Sun. Radiation from our closest star provides heat and energy to our planet, driving biological processes and providing the necessary conditions for liquid water to naturally exist. But our Sun is only but one star in this vast Universe. And as it turns out, most stars are quite different than the one that illuminates our day. For this reason, scientists have, for hundreds of years, attempted to study the other...
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...
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...
Ring Current -- A ring current is an electric current carried by charged particles trapped in a planet's magnetosphere. It is caused by the longitudinal drift of energetic (10-200 keV) particles. Earth's Ring Current Earth's ring current is responsible for geomagnetic storms. The ring current system consists of a band, at a distance of 3-5 RE(1), which lies in the equatorial plane and circulates clockwise around the Earth (when viewed from the north). The particles of this region...
Planetary Ring -- A planetary ring is a ring of dust and other small particles orbiting around a planet in a flat disc-shaped region. The most spectacular and famous planetary rings are those around Saturn, but all four of the solar system's gas giant planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) possess ring systems of their own. The origin of planetary rings is not precisely known, but they are thought to be unstable and dissipate over the course of tens or hundreds of millions of...
