An international research group led by René Heller from the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Göttingen, Germany, claims to have found a star-exoplanet pair closely resembling the Sun-Earth system, based on their statistical data analysis. This distant solar system circles the star Kepler-160, a G dwarf star like our Sun located about 3,000 light years from Earth.
Heller and colleagues used a novel method to make their discovery. Rather than detecting step-wise jumps in the star’s light curve, they created a detailed physical model of Kepler-160’s brightness variations. This new technique revealed a fourth, previously unknown planet circling the star.
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Did galactic crash trigger solar system formation? | Space | EarthSky
The Sagittarius dwarf galaxy has been orbiting the Milky Way for billions for years. As its orbit around the 10,000 times more massive Milky Way gradually tightened, it started colliding with our galaxy’s disk. The three known collisions between Sagittarius and the Milky Way have, according to a new study, triggered major star formation episodes, one of which may have given rise to the solar system. Image via ESA .
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Astronomers have known that Sagittarius repeatedly smashes through the Milky Way's disk, as its orbit around the galaxy's core tightens as a result of gravitational forces. Previous studies suggested that Sagittarius, a so-called dwarf galaxy, had had a profound effect on how stars move in the Milky Way.
The First Known Interstellar Comet Might Survive Our Solar System After All
Earlier this year, a comet that wandered into the Solar System from a distant star appeared to have met its demise when it started to break apart. But appearances can be deceiving, and a new analysis of 2I/Borisov's fragmentation has found that the main body of the comet will survive its encounter with the Solar System.
It's a win-win situation. The comet did partially break up, which means scientists can analyse the debris from its interior to try to understand its composition; and the icy space rock's epic journey across the galaxy will continue on.
A Hydrogen Iceberg from a Failed Star Might Have Passed through Our Solar System - Scientific
Our sun is a ship; our galaxy the sea. Moving in cosmic currents, our star completes a lap of the Milky Way every 230 million years or so, with its retinue of planets in tow. For the most part, this journey is solitary, save for the occasional close encounter with another star. But a few years ago, something remarkable seems to have occurred. While traversing this vast, magnificent ocean, our sun may have come across a cosmic iceberg, a sizable hunk of hydrogen ice adrift in space.
The idea is the conclusion reached by Darryl Seligman of the University of Chicago and Gregory Laughlin of Yale University in a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters (a preprint is available at arXiv.org ). They examined existing data on an object called ‘Oumuamua, which became the first interstellar object discovered in our solar system in October 2017. Since then there has been some debate over whether it was a comet or asteroid; no one is quite sure.
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Crash of Galaxies May Have Created Solar System
The coming together of our galaxy and a smaller one caused countless stars to form in the Milky Way more than 4.5 billion years ago, scientists reported last week.
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A crash between galaxies usually does not involve stars hitting each other, the scientists noted. But it can create conditions for star formation. For example, it can increase the amount of gas in a galaxy or cause gas clouds to come together.
Tomás Ruiz-Lara is an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain. He was the lead writer of a report on the research.
Here's what scientists heard when Mercury-bound BepiColombo flew past Earth | Space
BepiColombo captured five eerie recordings as it whizzed past Earth at a speed of 2.159 miles (3.474 kilometers) per second, according to a statement from the European Space Agency (ESA) on May 5.
The European-Japanese mission's flyby on April 10 , the first of nine gravity-assist maneuvers, helped to tighten the spacecraft's trajectory around the sun, slingshotting it onto an orbit that will bring it closer to its destination: Mercury — the smallest and least explored planet in the solar system.
Can narrow disks in the inner solar system explain the four terrestrial planets?
A successful solar system model must reproduce the four terrestrial planets. Here, we focus on 1) the likelihood of forming Mercury and the four terrestrial planets in the same system (a 4-P system); 2) the orbital properties and masses of each terrestrial planet; and 3) the timing of Earth's last giant impact and the mass accreted by our planet thereafter.
Comments: 25 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Did ancient Mars have rings? | Space | EarthSky
A new study of Mars’ smallest moon Deimos, by scientists from the SETI Institute and Purdue University, suggests that the planet used to have rings a few billion years ago.
Artist’s concept of the red planet Mars with rings. Image via Kevin Gill on Flickr / CC by 2.0.
Ring systems are common in our solar system. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune all have rings. None of the smaller rocky planets have them, but is it possible that some of them could have had rings in the past? On June 2, 2020, scientists from the SETI Institute and Purdue University announced evidence suggesting that Mars used to have its own rings a few billion years ago. The findings would help explain why Mars’ smallest moon, Deimos , has an unusually tilted orbit.
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