New work led by Carnegie’s Matt Clement reveals the likely original locations of Saturn and Jupiter. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
In its youth, our Sun was surrounded by a rotating disk of gas and dust from which the planets were born. The orbits of early formed planets were thought to be initially close-packed and circular, but gravitational interactions between the larger objects perturbed the arrangement and caused the baby giant planets to rapidly reshuffle, creating the configuration we see today.
Other things to check out:
Watching the Skies: 5 bright planets in sight this month | WOODTV.com
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — In October, we had an awesome view of Mars and two full moons. Even though November will only have one full moon and Mars’ brightness is starting to fade, it’s going to be a great month for sky gazers.
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Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn are the “bright planets,” or the planets that we can see without use of a telescope or binoculars.
Mercury will likely be the hardest planet to spot, and binoculars would help. First, look for Venus. Venus is still the brightest of the planets and the third brightest celestial object, only behind the sun and the moon. Venus will be easy to find in the east before and during dawn.
What’s Up in the Sky: Spacecraft in the news and planets in the sky - News - Holland
I want to begin this month’s column with a brain teaser: What did OSIRIS-REx say after orbiting Bennu for a couple of years? Before you answer, you may need a little background.
OSIRIS-REx is a spacecraft that was launched by NASA in 2016 and has been in orbit around the asteroid Bennu since 2018, where it will remain until 2023. The actual name represented by the spacecraft’s initials is too long for this column, but it is basically a sample return mission. OSIRIS-REx has been studying the asteroid for two years and recently touched down briefly to collect some asteroid stuff before returning to orbit.
New remote sensing technique could bring key planetary mineral into focus -- ScienceDaily
Planetary scientists from Brown University have developed a new remote sensing method for studying olivine, a mineral that could help scientists understand the early evolution of the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies.
"Olivine is understood to be a major component in the interiors of rocky planets," said Christopher Kremer, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University and lead author of a new paper describing the work. "It's a primary constituent of Earth's mantle, and it's been detected on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars in volcanic deposits or in impact craters that bring up material from the subsurface."
And here's another article:
Planets and stars could form as 'siblings' at the same time – Physics World
Detailed ring structures have been spotted for the first time in a young star-forming disc. This suggests that planets may form at the same time as their host stars – rather than towards the end of the star formation process. The observation was made by Dominique Segura-Cox at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and colleagues and it could offer new clues about how the solar system formed.
Concentric bright rings in the discs surrounding newly forming stars (called protostars) are widely believed to be clear evidence for ongoing planet formation. As nascent planets accrete gas and dust, many theories suggest that they carve out gaps in the disc, creating distinctive radial patterns. So far, these structures have been discovered in abundance around class II protostars, which are about 1 million years old.
How to Spot Tonight's Halloween Blue Moon & A Few Planets, Too
Look east as the Sun sets in the west. In practice you won't see the full Moon appear until about 10-15 minutes after the moonrise time because of atmospheric cloud low on the horizon and other obstructions.
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Spotting Uranus at opposition will be slightly more difficult in 2020 than in years past. The phenomenon coincides with a full moon that will make dimmer stars and planets—including Uranus—harder to see in the night sky. The planet sits in the constellation Aries, which regrettably appears close to the moon for most of the night.
Giant Asteroid Survivor of Failed Planet Discovered to Be Slowly Rusting in Space
Roughly two to three times Earth's distance from the Sun, in the Asteroid Belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter, 16 Psyche makes its home. This giant metal asteroid is one of the most massive objects in the Asteroid Belt, categorised as a minor planet.
Astronomers think that 16 Psyche is the exposed core of a full planet that didn't make it all the way, and we're itching to know more about it. NASA will be sending a probe to check it out in the next few years, and in the meantime, scientists are working to glean what they can from Earth.
Six Planets, Three Star Clusters And A Waning 'Hunter's Moon': What You Can See In The Night Sky
Did you see the "Blue Hunter's Moon" on Halloween? Though it lights-up the skies in the early part of this week it's now on the wane so will be rising later at night. That means darker skies and easier stargazing. That goes double given the end of daylight saving.
The first half of this week is perfect for planet-spotting. Get up early and you can see super-bright Venus and, for this week only, tiny Mercury. When the day is done, Mars is still looking great in the southeast after dark, so too Jupiter in the southwest, while later this week the darker skies will be perfect for having a go at spotting Uranus as well as a couple of beautiful star clusters.
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