Latest Terrestrial planets Stories
redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Several new, high-resolution images of Mercury were among the data obtained by NASA’s Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) satellite and released by the US space agency on Friday. The images, which show the crater-filled surface of our solar system’s innermost planet in “unprecedented detail,” were obtained by MESSENGER during its 13th through 18th month in orbit around Mercury. They...
[ Watch the Video: NASA Captures Planet Mercury In Color HD ] redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online NASA scientists have used thousands of images acquired by the Messenger probe during its first year in orbit around Mercury in order to create a colorful, high-resolution map of the planet, various media outlets reported on Friday. According to the Daily Mail, the images of Mercury, which appears to be brownish-gray in color when viewed from here on Earth, were taken...
NASA Science NASA has recently discovered a very strange planet. Its days are twice as long as its years. It has a tail like a comet. It is hot enough to melt lead, yet capped by deposits of ice. And to top it all off ... it appears to be pink. The planet is Mercury. Of course, astronomers have known about Mercury for thousands of years, but since NASA's MESSENGER probe went into orbit around Mercury in 2011, researchers feel like they've been discovering the innermost planet all...
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...
WASHINGTON, Nov. 29, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A NASA spacecraft studying Mercury has provided compelling support for the long-held hypothesis the planet harbors abundant water ice and other frozen volatile materials within its permanently shadowed polar craters. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The new information comes from NASA's MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft. Its onboard instruments have...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online One nearby super-Earth planet could have a lot more "bling" on it than our planet, because astronomers say it maybe a diamond planet. Yale University scientists reported in the Astrophysical Journal Letters that the surface of 55 Cancri e is likely covered in graphite and diamond, rather than water and granite. The planet has a radius twice of Earth's, and a mass eight times greater, allowing it to fall into the classification...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online A new study presented at the European Planetary Science Congress on Wednesday shows just how rare our Earth really is. Super-Earths are out there, and exoplanet hunters estimate there could be billions of the planets. However, the new research suggests that just because they are Super-Earths, doesn't mean they are capable of hosting life. "We are discovering planets orbiting distant stars that are similar to Earth in composition...
Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online After spending the last year-and-a-half orbiting Mercury, NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft is revealing new information about the planet that lies closest to the sun. New x-ray data from the space probe shows that the planet contains high levels of magnesium and sulfur on its surface, making its composition quite different than that of other planets. MESSENGER's X-ray spectrometer shows a planet whose northern volcanic plains formed...
SAN DIEGO, Sept. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA's Project MESSENGER spacecraft returned photos of Mercury's surface revealing "... an unusual landform on Mercury, characterized by irregular shaped, shallow, rimless depressions, commonly in clusters and in association with high-reflectance material." Mercury is the only rocky planet where such surface-features have been observed. NASA scientists recognized that the "pits" appear to have formed from volatile-related activity, but were...
[ Watch The Video ( BepiColombo Vertical Vibration Test ) ] [ Watch The Video ( BepiColombo Vibrating Horizontally ) ] Mimicking the intense vibrations experienced by a satellite during launch, the engineering model of the BepiColombo mission to Mercury has been subjected to similar forces at ESA’s spacecraft test facilities. A major design issue for spacecraft arises from the intense environment experienced during launch, ranging from vigorous vibrations to deafening noise. It is...
Latest Terrestrial planets Reference Libraries
Terrestrial Planet -- A terrestrial planet is a planet that is mostly composed of silicate rocks and may or may not have a relatively thin atmosphere. The term is derived from the Greek word for Earth, so an alternate definition would be those planets that are more Earth-like than not. Terrestrial planets are very different from gas giants, which may or may not have solid surfaces and are composed mostly of hydrogen and helium in various physical states. Only one terrestrial planet,...
The Planet Venus -- in astronomy, 2d planet from the sun; it is often called the evening star or morning star and is brighter than any object in the sky except the sun and the moon. Because its orbit lies between the sun and the orbit of the earth, Venus passes through phases like those of the moon, varying from a large bright crescent when the planet is near inferior conjunction (nearest the earth) to a smaller silvery disk when it is at superior conjunction (farthest from the earth)....
The Planet Mercury -- in astronomy, nearest planet to the sun, at a mean distance of 36 million mi (58 million km); its period of revolution is 88 days. Mercury passes through phases similar to those of the moon as it completes each revolution about the sun, although the visible disk varies in size with respect to its distance from the earth. Because its greatest elongation is 28, it is seen only for a short time after sunset or before sunrise. Since observation of Mercury is...
The Planet Mars -- in astronomy, 4th planet from the sun, with an orbit next in order beyond that of the earth. Physical Characteristics Mars has a striking red appearance, and in its most favorable position for viewing, when it is opposite the sun, it is twice as bright as Sirius, the brightest star. Mars has a diameter of 4,200 mi (6,800 km), just over half the diameter of the earth, and its mass is only 11% of the earth's mass. The planet has a very thin atmosphere consisting...
Earth -- in geology and astronomy, fifth largest planet of the solar system and the only planet definitely known to support life. Gravitational forces have molded the earth, like all celestial bodies, into a spherical shape. However, the earth is not an exact sphere, being slightly flattened at the poles and bulging at the equator. The equatorial diameter is c.7,926 mi (12,760 km) and the polar diameter 7,900 mi (12,720 km); the circumference at the equator is c.24,830 mi (40,000 km)....
