The formation of the solar system is a challenging puzzle for modern astronomy and a terrific tale of extreme forces operating over immense timescales. Let's dig in.
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I can't help but start with: In the beginning, there was nothing. But it wasn't quite nothing. All stars form from the collapse of nebulae, which are loose clouds of gas and dust, and our sun — and solar system — are no different. Astronomers call it the "pre-solar nebula" and of course it isn't around today, but we've seen enough solar systems forming throughout the galaxy to get the general picture.
While you're here, how about this:
Jupiter and Saturn in rare celestial 'Great Conjunction' | Space News | Al Jazeera
Rocket launches overlooking the Atlantic Ocean are becoming increasingly common, sometimes with more than one in a week.
NASA will launch four astronauts aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule this weekend, opening a new era in human spaceflight.
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Elon Musk wants to make space travel like air travel. Will he succeed? How long until we can board a rocket ourselves?
Researchers found a route that could speed up Solar System travel
Researchers discovered an "œcelestial autobahn," or œcelestial highway, that could make Solar System travel faster than previously believed. It needs to be studied further to determine how spacecraft might be able to use it.
Royal City Science brings the solar system to Downtown Guelph - GuelphToday.com
Downtown Guelph will be transformed into a scale map of the solar system over the upcoming winter break, allowing parents and their kids to get outside in a physically-distanced way to learn about science.
The Solar System Stroll runs Dec. 19 to Jan. 3 and combines a geocaching-type walk with science facts about the planets and other things in our solar system. It is being billed as a physically-distanced science walk in Downtown Guelph.
The free event is being run by Royal City Science, which is a non-profit hoping to eventually bring a science centre to Guelph to be a hub for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education.
Quite a lot has been going on:
Meteorite Fragment Points to Missing Dwarf Planet in Early Solar System - ExtremeTech
Every asteroid that falls to Earth is a potential window into the origins of the solar system, but scientists have stumbled upon something quite strange when studying a fragment of the Almahata Sitta asteroid. It contains evidence of a huge, previously unknown object in our solar system — perhaps a long since destroyed dwarf planet.
The Almahata Sitta asteroid collection consists of about 600 fragments, all of which rained down on Sudan in 2008 when the space rock known as 2008 TC3 exploded. This was the first-ever asteroid impact correctly predicted by scientists, giving teams on the ground the chance to swoop in and collect a great deal of material from the 4-meter (13-foot) object.
Scientists Say There Was a Huge, Mysterious Object in the Early Solar System
After studying one of the fragments of an asteroid that exploded over Sudan, a team of scientists arrived at a provocative conclusion.
The researchers suggest that at least one giant space rock, the size of a dwarf planet, orbited the Sun during the earliest days of our solar system. Inside of the tiny asteroid splinter allocated to the study, they found an unusual crystal structure that couldn't have formed inside a typical asteroid, according to the research the team published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy .
Signal detected coming from outside our solar system for first time in history | South Wales Argus
FOR the first time in history scientists believe they have received a radio signal from a world outside of our solar system.
The signal was detected by the Low-Frequency Array or LOFAR, a network of radio telescopes based in the Netherlands which is being used to map the universe at certain frequencies.
LOFAR picked up the signal from a region of space occupied by the constellation Boötes, The Herdsman, pinpointing the source to a lone exoplanet, the same size as Jupiter, orbiting in a binary star-system.
Let's Search for Alien Probes, Not Just Alien Signals - Scientific American
In September 2020, another unusual “asteroid” was discovered by-Pan STARRS, showing an excess push by sunlight without a cometary tail. This object, labeled by the astronomical name 2020 SO , was not unbound like `Oumuamua but instead on an Earthlike orbit around the sun. After integrating its orbit back in time, it was found that 2020 SO is a stray rocket booster, left over from a crash of the Surveyor 2 lunar lander on the surface of the Moon in 1966.
Happening on Twitter
TODAY is the shortest day and longest night of the year! TODAY is also the #GreatConjunction, an event during whic… https://t.co/ysaCxNK0gD EarthDayNetwork (from Washington, DC) Mon Dec 21 22:01:04 +0000 2020
Jupiter and Saturn, the solar system's largest planets, can now be seen creeping closer together in the night sky e… https://t.co/DxHwZBEVMz KGETnews (from Bakersfield, CA) Thu Dec 17 05:49:32 +0000 2020
In their closest encounter in our sky since 1623, Jupiter and Saturn will appear to form a single star on Dec. 21.… https://t.co/yGMxNqM7ZG NatGeoEducation (from Washington, D.C.) Tue Dec 15 11:41:35 +0000 2020
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