Latest Terrestrial planets Stories
A small NASA spacecraft called Messenger will enter into the orbit of the planet Mercury on St. Patrick 's Day, circling as close as 125 miles from the rocky planet's surface and revealing parts of Mercury never before seen by human eyes.Coincidentally, a few days earlier will be the best time this year for people here on Earth to see Mercury with the naked eye, the Associated Press reported.Despite being the planet closest to the sun, some scientists believe Mercury contains tons of ice in...
HOUSTON, Feb. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Studies of ice processes on Mars and early science results from a Japanese mission to an asteroid will highlight the 42nd annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 7-11 in Houston. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) The conference will include presentations on these topics and special sessions on observations of last year's flyby of comet Hartley 2 and research on the effects that volatile species such...
NASA's MESSENGER probe is about set a milestone for spacecraft as it becomes the first probe to orbit Mercury. MESSENGER's team outlined details to scientists at a conference in Washington DC. The spacecraft has already made three flybys of Mercury and is set to enter orbit around the rocky world on March 17. NASA's Mariner 10 spacecraft made several passes of the planet in the 1970s and sent pictures back of what appeared to be an uninteresting planet compared with Venus, Mars and the Solar...
New research gives the first accurate estimate of how much faster the Earth's core is rotating compared to the rest of the planet.Previous research had shown that the Earth's core rotates faster than the rest of the planet. However, scientists from the University of Cambridge have discovered that earlier estimates of 1 degree every year were inaccurate and that the core is actually moving much slower than previously believed "“ approximately 1 degree every million years. Their findings are...
The change of seasons on Earth has been a cause for celebration since time immemorial. Caused by the tilt of Earth's axis relative to its orbital plane around the sun, seasons have profound changes on our weather and climate. When seasons change, nature reacts differently, depending on location. Temperatures change, rain or snow falls, rivers may flood, to name just a few effects.From space, NASA satellites record the change of seasons. Satellite images show large parts of the landscape at...
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif., Dec. 9, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A team of NASA-funded researchers has unveiled a new theory that contends planets gained the final portions of their mass from a limited number of large comet or asteroid impacts more than 4.5 billion years ago. These impacts added less than one percent of the planets' mass. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Scientists hope the research not only will provide a better historical picture of the birth...
New research reveals that the abundance of so-called highly siderophile, or metal-loving, elements like gold and platinum found in the mantles of Earth, the Moon and Mars were delivered by massive impactors during the final phase of planet formation over 4.5 billion years ago. The predicted sizes of the projectiles, which hit within tens of millions of years of the giant impact that produced our Moon, are consistent with current planet formation models as well as physical evidence such as the...
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A team of astronomers, including two NASA Sagan Fellows, has made the first characterizations of a super-Earth's atmosphere by using a ground-based telescope. A super-Earth is a planet up to three times the size of Earth and weighing up to 10 times as much. The findings, reported in the Dec. 2 issue of the journal Nature, are a significant milestone toward eventually being able to probe the atmospheres of Earth-like planets for signs of...
The atmosphere around a super-Earth exoplanet has been analyzed for the first time by an international team of astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope. The planet, which is known as GJ 1214b, was studied as it passed in front of its parent star and some of the starlight passed through the planet's atmosphere. We now know that the atmosphere is either mostly water in the form of steam or is dominated by thick clouds or hazes. The results will appear in the 2 December 2010 issue of the...
First such levels measured outside polar regionsIn Hebrew, the Dead Sea is called Yam ha-Melah, the "sea of salt." Now measurements show that the sea's salt has profound effects on the chemistry of the air above its surface.The atmosphere over the Dead Sea, researchers have found, is laden with oxidized mercury. Some of the highest levels of oxidized mercury ever observed outside the polar regions exist there.The results appear in a paper published on-line November 28th in the...
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)....
