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    Category Astronomy/Space

    Ahuna Mons on Ceres

    July 31, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The image, based on observations from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, shows the largest mountain on the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn was the first mission to orbit an object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, and spent time at both large asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres. Ceres is one of just five recognised dwarf planets in the Solar System (Pluto being another). Dawn entered orbit around this rocky world on 6 March 2015, and studied its icy, cratered, uneven surface until it ran out of fuel in October of 2018.

    One of the features spotted by the mission is shown here in this reconstructed perspective view: a mountain named Ahuna Mons...

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    TESS discovers three New Planets nearby, including Temperate ‘Sub-Neptune’

    July 30, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This infographic illustrates key features of the TOI 270 system, located about 73 light-years away in the southern constellation Pictor. The three known planets were discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite through periodic dips in starlight caused by each orbiting world. Insets shows information about the planets, including their correct relative sizes, and how they compare to Earth. Temperatures given for TOI 270 planets are equilibrium temperatures, calculated without the warming effects of any possible atmospheres.
    Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Scott Wiessinger

    Planetary system orbiting an unusually quiet star is ideal for future habitability searches...

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    New Space Discovery sheds light on how Planets Form

    July 30, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Data on the brightness of a young star led to the discovery of exoplanet DS Tuc Ab. Red arrows mark “transits” where the planet crossed between Earth and the planet’s host star. The large, smooth variations are caused by the star, a result of its youth. Figure courtesy of: Elisabeth Newton
    Data on the brightness of a young star led to the discovery of exoplanet DS Tuc Ab. Red arrows mark “transits” where the planet crossed between Earth and the planet’s host star. The large, smooth variations are caused by the star, a result of its youth. Figure courtesy of Elisabeth Newton.

    A young planet and a bright star offer glimpses into the past and future. Researchers at Dartmouth College have discovered a planet orbiting one of the brightest young stars known, according to a study published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters. Aged at approximately 45 million years old, the star and its planet could provide valuable information on how planetary bodies form.

    Known as an exoplanet because it is outside of the solar system, the planet was found as part of NA...

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    ‘Terminators’ on the Sun trigger Plasma Tsunamis and the start of New Solar Cycles

    July 28, 2019, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    An animation of a solar tsunami
    This visualization of a computer model simulation shows a solar tsunami, which is initiated at the equator. As the tsunami travels toward the poles it buoys the toroidal magnetic fields (white lines) traveling deeper in the solar interior. As these bands are lifted to the surface, they erupt as sunspots on the solar surface. (©UCAR. Visualization: Mausumi Dikpati, NCAR. This animation is freely available for media & nonprofit use.)

    The next solar cycle is predicted to take off within a year. In a pair of new papers, scientists paint a picture of how solar cycles suddenly die, potentially causing tsunamis of plasma to race through the Sun’s interior and trigger the birth of the next sunspot cycle only a few short weeks later.

    The new findings provide insight into the mysterious timing...

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