The seven extraterrestrial planets of the solar system: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, ... [+] Uranus, Neptune. Photographed in 2019 with a Maksutov telescope from Mannheim and Stockach in Germany.
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For months the "big three" planets—Jupiter, Saturn and Mars—have been visible only in the early hours, before dawn.
As we move into June, the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn begin to pop into the late-evening sky, all making an appearance before midnight before the end of the month. And what a sight they can be!
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'Twilight Zone' Planets And A Solar Eclipse On The Solstice: A Stargazer's Guide To June
The beautiful twilight sky (Nov 28, 2019) after sunset with the planets conjuction of Moon (with ... [+] earth shine), Venus and Jupiter.
When it comes to stargazing in the northern hemisphere's late spring, June is something of a twilight zone. The nights dramatically shorten as we approach the summer solstice on Saturday, June 20, 2020, and that means very few hours of complete darkness.
However, don't despair; from a spectacular low-hanging full Moon and ever-earlier planet-rises to a solar eclipse on the summer solstice, there are plenty of noteworthy celestial events this month. Here are the highlights:
NASA's Surprising Discovery: Saturn's Planet-Sized Moon Titan Drifting Away 100X Faster Than
Larger than the planet Mercury, Huge moon Titan is seen here as it orbits Saturn. Below Titan are the shadows cast by Saturn’s rings. This natural color view was created by combining six images captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on May 6, 2012. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
Just as our own Moon floats away from Earth a tiny bit more each year, other moons are doing the same with their host planets. As a moon orbits, its gravity pulls on the planet, causing a temporary bulge in the planet as it passes.
Mercury's Metallic Core is Saturated with Carbon | Planetary News
Rocky planets are layered worlds consisting of various chemical and physical compositions changing with depth through the crust, mantle, and core. The composition of each of these components plays an important role in the thermal and magmatic evolution of the planet. The crust, and sometimes the mantle, of a planet can often be directly sampled or studied remotely.
Under the extremely reducing conditions in the inner Solar System, carbon could have been sequestered into the metallic core of Mercury. High pressure, high-temperature experiments were conducted, and the authors determined that up to 6.4 weight percent carbon could be dissolved in iron-rich metallic melts under temperature and pressure conditions relevant to Mercury's interior.
In case you are keeping track:
Astronomers Spot Earth-Like Planet Orbiting a Sun-Like Star | Digital Trends
Astronomers have located a planet and star which are more similar to Earth and the sun than any pair found before. Located around 3000 light-years away, the star Kepler-160 and its orbiting planet KOI-456.04 are close enough together that there could even be liquid water on the planet’s surface.
The discovery was made by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Germany, investigating a star first observed by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. Research conducted in 2010 suggested that Kepler-160 could have two exoplanets orbiting around it. Now, the researchers believe that the star in fact hosts three or even four exoplanets, including the Earth-like KOI-456.04.
Reader's Question: Planets in the Early Universe | Evolution News
This is true. Some of the early more massive galaxies were able to build up heavy elements relatively quickly, even though most galaxies only made them more slowly. The problem with the early universe is that it was a much more dangerous place. The rate of supernovae and active galactic nuclei was much higher then. In our Milky Way, heavy elements would have built up more rapidly in the inner regions of the galaxy, but it was also more dangerous there.
Interstellar panspermia is more likely now than at any time in the past, but I think it's still overall very unlikely. These questions are active topics for research. I hope to write on them in the near future. Thanks for your question.
Record breaker! Briefcase-size satellite spots alien planet | Space
A satellite the size of a briefcase successfully detected an alien world, potentially paving the way for a future network of tiny planet-hunting spacecraft.
The Arcsecond Space Telescope Enabling Research in Astrophysics (ASTERIA) cubesat , which was deployed into Earth orbit from the International Space Station in November 2017, spotted the exoplanet 55 Cancri e, a new study reports.
The little cubesat didn't discover some previously unknown world. 55 Cancri e , a scorching-hot planet about twice the size of Earth that lies 40 light-years from our solar system, was first found in 2004.
Swarms of autonomous insect robots could prove key to future planetary exploration –
While we’re preparing to launch a six-wheeled robotic rover roughly the size of a car to explore Mars, future planetary exploration and science missions could employ much smaller hardware — including, potentially, swarms of robots the size of insects designed to act in concert with one another autonomously.
Swarming insect-like robots are being developed by a number of different institutions and companies, but a researcher at California State University Northridge recently received a sizable Department of Defense grant specially to fund the development of autonomous robot swarms for extraterrestrial applications — as well as for use right here on Earth in mining, industrial and search and rescue efforts.
Happening on Twitter
...people do NOT see it. Director Jeff Gibbs & Producer Ozzie Zehner join me to discuss this outrageous censorship… https://t.co/qRV02NHps6 MMFlint (from Michigan/New York City) Wed Jun 03 00:15:05 +0000 2020
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