From our perspective, the Sun rises in the east and sets in the west. The "big ball of fire" - or gas, to be more precise - is also our nearest star.
Contrary to popular belief, the Sun will never explode. Instead, it will eventually morph from a "red giant" into a "white dwarf."
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1. How old is the Sun? Most scientists believe that the Sun is about the same age as Earth and all the other seven planets of the Solar System, i.e., 4.5 billion years;
In case you are keeping track:
Near-Earth asteroid pairs offer clues to composition, dynamics and environmental conditions of
The scientists argue that the most likely cause for breakup is the YORP mechanism, an acronym derived from the last names of the four scientists who proposed it in the 19th century. The mechanism refers to asteroid spin-up as the result of its non-uniform reflection and emission of photons. Photons carry momentum, and when an asteroid is non-uniform in its surface properties, the departing photons can gradually spin it up until eventually it fragments.
Campus solar system model draws intrigue from commuters and classrooms
A to-scale, 1-mile-long model of the solar system lines the West Woodruff Avenue sidewalk. Credit: Jackie Appel | For The Lantern
While most Ohio State students won't have the chance to travel through space, a new collaboration with artists and scientists brought small-scale space exploration to campus.
A to-scale, 1-mile-long model of the solar system that is 4.5 billion times smaller than the actual system lines the West Woodruff Avenue sidewalk. Ohio State collaborated with scientists, artists, fabricators and accessibility advocates to complete the project that has even become part of some lesson plans, Wayne Schlingman, planetarium director and main coordinator of the project, said.
Is this asteroid the littlest planet? Some astronomers think so.
An asteroid orbiting the sun has surprised astronomers by turning out to be roughly spherical in shape – possibly qualifying it to be the smallest dwarf planet in the solar system, according to a study by a team of astronomers.
The asteroid, named Hygeia, is the fourth-largest object orbiting in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, after the dwarf planet Ceres and the asteroids Vesta and Pallas.
Not to change the topic here:
Mercury transit: Solar System's smallest planet to transit Sun today - BBC Science Focus
Those looking towards the Sun this afternoon may notice a tiny black disc moving across the glowing orb in a rare celestial event.
A transit of Mercury will take place when the smallest planet in the Solar System passes between the Earth and the Sun.
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The event begins at 12:35 GMT, when the edge of Mercury appears to touch the edge of the sun, and ends at 18:04 when the edge of the silhouetted planet will appear to leave our star.
Voyager 2 Makes an Unexpectedly Clean Break from the Solar System - Scientific American
Astronomers have released the first results from the late 2018 passage of NASA’s Voyager 2 probe into interstellar space, revealing some notable differences to the first crossing made by its sister spacecraft, Voyager 1, in 2012. The data shows that although Voyager 1’s departure was fairly “messy,” the exit of Voyager 2 was much cleaner as it left our sun’s influence on its journey into the galaxy.
In a series of papers published in the journal Nature Astronomy , five separate teams of scientists analyzed the data from Voyager 2 to compare its crossing with that of Voyager 1. Although it took Voyager 1 about 28 days to cross the heliopause after leaving the sun’s bubble of influence, known as the heliosphere, it took Voyager 2 less than a day to do so.
Mercury creates tiny solar eclipse in rare celestial act | News | DW | 11.11.2019
Astronomy aficionados are peering into the sky to watch a rare celestial event that sees the smallest planet of the solar system glide between the sun and the Earth to create a tiny solar eclipse.
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Mercury is putting a rare celestial show on Monday, with the smallest and the innermost planet in the solar system passing directly between the Earth and the sun .
Second interstellar visitor may be carrying water from beyond our solar system, shocking study
A shocking new study suggests that the second interstellar object ever discovered, Comet 2I/Borisov, could be carrying water on it from beyond the Solar System.
The study suggests that 2I/Borisov, discovered on Aug. 30 by astronomer Gennady Borisov, is releasing water vapor on its journey.
"Using a simple sublimation model we estimate an H2O active area of 1.7 km2 [0.65 miles squared], which for current estimates for the size of Borisov suggests active fractions between 1-150 [percent], consistent with values measured in Solar System comets," the study's abstract states. It is common for asteroids in the Solar System to carry water.
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