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astronomy

SPACE: The Darkest Planet

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dark planet - pixabay

There’s a planet the size of Jupiter whipping around a star 466 light-years away from Earth, and it might be the color of plums, or dying embers or, well … just about anything else. Researchers don’t know for sure, because the massive, gassy world is one of the darkest planets astronomers have ever detected. According to a new paper posted April 17 in the preprint journal arXiv, the planet known as WASP-104b is “darker than charcoal” and may swallow up to 99 percent of the light its local star sheds upon it. “From all the dark planets I could find … Read more

SPACE: New Animation Captures the Cyclones of Jupiter’s North Pole

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Jupiter Storms

Using data from NASA’s Juno mission, researchers created a 3D flyover of the gas giant’s north pole in infrared. It shows the turbulent dynamics of the pole, which is topped by a huge cyclone about 2,500 miles (4,000 kilometers) across. Ringing this monster atmospheric storm are eight other cyclones with diameters ranging from 2,500 to 2,900 miles (4,000 to 4,700 km). The Juno spacecraft launched on Aug. 5, 2011, and entered Jupiter’s orbit on July 4, 2016, flying as low as 2,200 miles (3,500 km) over the highest cloud tops of the planet, according to NASA. The goal of the … Read more

SPACE: Did Medieval People Know About Planet Nine?

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Planet Nine

The far reaches of the outer solar system may be home to an icy giant — a hypothetical planet scientists have dubbed “Planet Nine.” Meanwhile, archives back on Earth are home to dozens of medieval records documenting the passage of comets through the heavens. Now, two researchers from Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland are hoping to use these old scrolls and tapestries to solve the modern astronomical mystery of Planet Nine. “We have a wealth of historical records of comets in Old English, Old Irish, Latin and Russian which have been overlooked for a long time,” said university medievalist … Read more

Did Prehistoric ‘Astronomers’ Build Stonehenge?

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Stonehenge - pixabay

Ever since humans could look up to see the sky, we have been amazed by its beauty and untold mysteries. Naturally then, astronomy is often described as the oldest of the sciences, inspiring people for thousands of years. Celestial phenomena are featured in prehistoric cave paintings. And monuments such as the Great Pyramids of Giza and Stonehenge seem to be aligned with precision to cardinal points or the positions where the moon, sun or stars rise and set on the horizon. Today, we seem to struggle to imagine how ancient people could build and orient such structures. This has led … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers find “Styrofoam” Planet

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styrofoam planet

Fifth-graders making styrofoam solar system models may have the right idea. Researchers at Lehigh University have discovered a new planet orbiting a star 320 light years from Earth that has the density of styrofoam. This “puffy planet” outside our solar system may hold opportunities for testing atmospheres that will be useful when assessing future planets for signs of life. “It is highly inflated, so that while it’s only a fifth as massive as Jupiter, it is nearly 40 percent larger, making it about as dense as styrofoam, with an extraordinarily large atmosphere,” said Joshua Pepper, astronomer and assistant professor of … Read more

SPACE: Astronomers Find a “Warm Neptune”

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warm Neptune

A study combining observations from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes reveals that the distant planet HAT-P-26b has a primitive atmosphere composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Located about 437 light-years away, HAT-P-26b orbits a star roughly twice as old as the sun. The analysis is one of the most detailed studies to date of a “warm Neptune,” or a planet that is Neptune-sized and close to its star. The researchers determined that HAT-P-26b’s atmosphere is relatively clear of clouds and has a strong water signature, although the planet is not a water world. This is the best measurement … Read more

SPACE: Another Super Earth Found

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Super Earth

It seems like only yesterday when scientists announced the discovery of yet another “super-Earth.” Last year, a half-lava, half-rock world, dubbed 55 Cancri e, was found around 40 light-years from Earth and was determined to be twice the size of our home planet. And now it has happened again. Researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) have announced the discovery of a new super-Earth, designated LHS 1140b, orbiting the habitable zone of a small red dwarf star, LHS 1140, about 39 light-years away. (It’s 4.2 light-years from our sun to the nearest star, Proxima Centauri.) By Lee Speigel – … Read more

News: Planet Poltergeist

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The International Astronomical Union has announced the names of a slew of exoplanets and stars as chosen by worldwide public ballot. Enter exoplanet Poltergeist, as nominated by an Italian group. Also new to the nomenclature galaxy is the star Cervantes (Spain) and the exoplanet Galileo (Netherlands). The IAU writes: The votes are in — the names of 19 ExoWorlds (14 stars and 31 exoplanets orbiting them) have been chosen by public vote in the NameExoWorlds contest, and accepted by the IAU. Reflecting the truly international interest in astronomy, over half a million votes from 182 countries and territories contributed to … Read more