Solar System // Current

Jupiter, our Hero and Saturn is his trusty sidekick! |

Do you have any idea how many threats our dear Earth face from the cosmic... more

zamurai127
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Jupiter's Moon Europa Might Be Teeming With Fish

New evidence has come to light that the vast, ice-encrusted oceans of Europa may be... more

pjacobs51
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Dawn Takes up Residence in Asteroid Belt

The Dawn spacecraft – which is on a course to study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf planet Ceres – has taken up permanent residence in the asteroid belt as of November 13th. Dawn is officially the first human-made object to become a part of the asteroid belt, which is sandwiched between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.Dawn didn't move in without checking the place out first, though; this is the second visit for the craft, which remained there for 40 days in June of 2008. The lower boundary of the asteroid belt is defined as the furthest Mars gets away from the Sun during its orbit – 249,230,000 kilometers, or 154,864,000 miles.

Dawn, which was launched in September 2007, is on an eight-year, 4.9-billion kilometer (3-billion mile) journey to study the asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres. By studying these members of the asteroid belt, NASA scientists hope to learn more about the formation of our Solar System. Because Vesta and Ceres are some of the largest members of the ring of asteroids between Mars and Jupiter, they are the most intact from when they were formed, and should act as a 'time capsule' to preserve information about what the early Solar System was like.

Dawn got a gravity assist from Mars in February of 2009, which propelled it past the planet and into the asteroid belt.

The spacecraft is expected to visit Vesta in August of 2011. Vesta is believed to be the source of most of the asteroid-origin meteorites that fall to ground here on Earth, and further study of the asteroid should confirm this.

In May of 2012, Dawn will make its way to Ceres, which lies further out in the asteroid belt. It will arrive there in July of 2015, where it will spend the remainder of its mission studying the icy dwarf planet, which may even have a tenuous atmosphere.

If you want to keep tabs on Dawn in its new home, the mission web site has a tool updated hourly, found here, which allows you to see where Dawn is right now. The tool includes simulated views of the Earth, Mars, Sun and Vesta from the vantage point of the spacecraft.

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/11/16/dawn-takes-up-residence-in-asteroid-belt/The Dawn spacecraft – which is on a course to study the asteroid Vesta and dwarf... more

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Earth in comparison to other objects in space

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Gas planet has life-based molecules

Water, methane and carbon dioxide have been found around a gas planet light years away... more

Skyscraper08
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Found far away: 32 new planets

Astronomers have found 32 new planets outside our solar system, adding evidence to the... more

xiola
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1 month ago
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Astronomers: "The Edge Of Solar System Tied Up Like A Ribbon"

The new find defies previous theories in which it was believed the atoms surrounding... more

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Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half

Solar energy technology is enjoying its day in the sun with the advent of innovations... more

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50 Years of Space Exploration (infographic)

Half a century of space missions beautifully depicted in this giant Solar System map... more

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Earth's Moon

The Moon has fascinated mankind throughout the ages. By simply viewing with the naked eye, one can discern two major types of terrain: relatively bright highlands and darker plains. By the middle of the 17th century, Galileo and other early astronomers made telescopic observations, noting an almost endless overlapping of craters. It has also been known for more than a century that the Moon is less dense than the Earth. Although a certain amount of information was ascertained about the Moon before the space age, this new era has revealed many secrets barely imaginable before that time. Current knowledge of the Moon is greater than for any other solar system object except Earth. This lends to a greater understanding of geologic processes and further appreciation of the complexity of terrestrial planets.
On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step onto the surface of the Moon. He was followed by Edwin Aldrin, both of the Apollo 11 mission. They and other moon walkers experienced the effects of no atmosphere. Radio communications were used because sound waves can only be heard by travelling through the medium of air. The lunar sky is always black because diffraction of light requires an atmosphere. The astronauts also experienced gravitational differences. The moon's gravity is one-sixth that of the Earth's; a man who weighs 180 lbf (pound-force) on Earth weighs only 30 lbf on the Moon. (The equivalent metric weight (or force) is the Newton, where 4.45 Newtons equal one pound-force.)

The Moon is 384,403 kilometers (238,857 miles) distant from the Earth. Its diameter is 3,476 kilometers (2,160 miles). Both the rotation of the Moon and its revolution around Earth takes 27 days, 7 hours, and 43 minutes. This synchronous rotation is caused by an unsymmetrical distribution of mass in the Moon, which has allowed Earth's gravity to keep one lunar hemisphere permanently turned toward Earth. Optical librations have been observed telescopically since the mid-17th century. Very small but real librations (maximum about 0°.04) are caused by the effect of the Sun's gravity and the eccentricity of Earth's orbit, perturbing the Moon's orbit and allowing cyclical preponderances of torque in both east-west and north-south directions.The Moon has fascinated mankind throughout the ages. By simply viewing with the naked... more

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A Blue Moon?

There appears to be, to the surprise of planetary scientists, water, water everywhere... more

remanns
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2 months ago
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Highway in the sky

Gravitational corridors could help spacecraft fly across the solar system like ships... more

Healthylivinggal
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3 months ago
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Clash of planets

The space telescope of the NASA Spitzer found evidence of a collision between two... more

hyperion74
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3 months ago
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Daly City school district fancies sun-powered schools | San Francisco Examiner

nstead of putting solar panels on top of schools, the Daly City district is exploring... more

BUILDUSMAXIMUS
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3 months ago
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Solar Funds on the Rise: Borrego Launches Financing Deal

It looks like financing for solar projects may be starting to pick up again.

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Dwarf planet inspires watch creation

The dwarf planet Eris is the inspiration behind the creation of the Pierr Junod Eris... more

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The Weirdest Object in our Solar System?

"The dwarf planets and other objects that litter the Kuiper belt in the far reaches of our solar system are a strange bunch, but astronomers have found what they think might be the weirdest one.

Discovered on Dec. 28, 2004 (catalogued as 2003 EL61 and nicknamed "Santa" for a time), the minor planet now known as the dwarf planet Haumea, to honor its Hawaiian discovery, is as big across as Pluto and one-third of its mass, but shaped something "like a big squashed cigar," said one of the astronomers who studies the object, Mike Brown of Caltech.

From its shape to its satellites, Haumea is a strange object, but one that could shed light on the history of collisions in the solar system, as well as the early environment of the Kuiper belt, which sits out beyond the orbit of Neptune.

When astronomers first found this object, they noticed that it was getting brighter and fainter by about 25 percent every two hours. If it were round, that observation would likely mean the object rotates every two hours, an incredible rate that would rip it apart, Brown said.

Astronomers determined that it was more likely that Haumea is elongated and rotating every four hours.

"We see this thing tumbling end over end getting brighter and fainter," Brown said.

Haumea is the fastest spinning object in the solar system.

But Haumea's football shape and frantic spin aren't the only weird things about it. It also has an unusual satellite.

Several Kuiper belt objects are known to each have a satellite orbiting them, thought in many cases to be a smaller body captured by the bigger object's gravity.

But it was apparent that Haumea's satellite, Hi'iaka didn't fit that mold. "It's way too small to be one of these captured objects," Brown said. It was also made of water ice.

It turned out that Hi'iaka did fit the situation of a body hitting Haumea and scattering ice debris throughout the area.

Haumea is big enough that it differentiated, like the Earth, so that its heaviest components settled to the core and the lightest, specifically ice, stayed at the surface. So when it collided, the pieces that were spewed out were mostly pure ice, the thinking goes.""The dwarf planets and other objects that litter the Kuiper belt in the far reaches of... more