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    Neptune tagged posts

    Uranus and Neptune are hiding something big beneath the blue

    December 11, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Uranus and Neptune may not be the icy worlds we’ve long imagined. A new Swiss-led study uses innovative hybrid modeling to reveal that these planets could just as easily be dominated by rock as by water-rich ices. The findings also help explain their bizarre, multi-poled magnetic fields and open the door to a wider range of possible interior structures. But major uncertainties remain, and only future space missions will The Solar System is commonly grouped by planetary composition: four rocky terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars), two massive gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), and a pair of ice giants (Uranus and Neptune)...

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    Mysterious object found dancing with Neptune

    July 23, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A team of astronomers led by the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian has discovered a rare object far beyond Neptune, from a class known as trans-Neptunian objects, that is moving in rhythm with the giant planet. This image shows the orbits of all of the objects discovered in the Outer Solar System Origins Survey. The orbit of 2020 VN40 is the thickest one, tilted up and to the left from the orbits of most of the objects.  The orbits of the giant planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are the white circles. 
    Credit: Rosemary Pike, CfA

    This object, called 2020 VN40, is the first confirmed body that orbits the sun once for every ten orbits Neptune completes.

    Astronomers have discovered a bizarre object in the outer solar system, 2020 VN40, that dances to Neptune’s g...

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    Astronomers Find Far-flung “Super Earths” Are Not Farfetched

    April 25, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    This artist's concept illustrates the results of a new study that measured the masses of many planets relative to the stars that host them
    Caption: This artist’s concept illustrates the results of a new study that measured the masses of many planets relative to the stars that host them, leading to new information about populations of planets in the direction of the bulge of the Milky Way. This study, published in the journal Science, shows that super-Earths are common and places them in context with gas giant planets.

    Credit: Westlake University

    A new study shows that planets bigger than Earth and smaller than Neptune are common outside the Solar System.

    An international team including astronomers from the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) has announced the discovery of a planet about twice the size of Earth orbiting its star farther out than Saturn is to the sun.

    These results are another examp...

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    Webb captures Neptune’s auroras for first time

    March 27, 2025, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    NASA's Webb captures Neptune's auroras for first time
    Credit: Webb Space Telescope

    Neptune lies in the frigid, dark, vast frontier of the outer edges of our solar system, about 3 billion miles away from the sun.

    For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured bright auroral activity on Neptune. Auroras occur when energetic particles, often originating from the sun, become trapped in a planet’s magnetic field and eventually strike the upper atmosphere. The energy released during these collisions creates the signature glow.

    In the past, astronomers have seen tantalizing hints of auroral activity on Neptune, for example, in the flyby of NASA’s Voyager 2 in 1989. However, imaging and confirming the auroras on Neptune has long evaded astronomers despite successful detections on Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus...

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