Engineers at the NASA/CalTech operated Jet Propoulsion Laboratory (JPL) have found an ingenious way to entend the life of the aging spacecraft – the only one to visit the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune and is now sending back vital data about the region beyond the Heliosphere – the region where the Sun’s magnetic field… Read More »
We know a lot about the solar system – but we also know so little. Over the last century or so there have been several theories of additional planets inhabiting both the inner and the outer solar system. Vulcan During the 19th century it was discovered the planet Mercury was not sticking to the predictions… Read More »
Where should we look for life? Developed in 1961 by the late Frank Drake, a giant of the SETI community, it was an initial attempt to ascertain how many intelligent civilisations might exist that humanity could potentially communicate with. Every parameter was a best guess, nothing definitive was known, and whilst our knowledge has improved… Read More »
Over the years of humanity looking to the heavens we have been aware of ‘stuff’ burning up in the atmosphere, in the early days we did not know what this was or where it came from, there are stories of “stones from the heavens” thrown by angry gods and in recent years archaeologists have found… Read More »
In 2006 the IAU (international Astronomical Union) held a meeting, IAU0603, and resolution 5A discussed the “Definition of a Planet”. Courtesy the IAU. RESOLUTIONS Resolution 5A is the principal definition for the IAU usage of “planet” and related terms. Resolution 6A creates for IAU usage a new class of objects, for which Pluto is the… Read More »
The astronomy world has been abuzz for several years regarding the discovery of so many mini-Neptunes – planets that seems to be similar in characteristics to Neptune, but smaller. A Mini-Neptune, also called an ice dwarf or transitional planet, is a planet less massive than Neptune but resembling Neptune in that it has a thick… Read More »
There is a lot of debate about colonising Mars, in fact the conversations have been had for more than 100 years, but realistic plans to at least land humans on Mars are around 50 years old. In 1976 the debate grew when NASA successfully landed the Viking 1 and 2 landers on the Red Planet,… Read More »
Researchers have concluded that the molten rock and cooled volcanic glass present on the surface of Lava-Ocean Planets is unlikely to be the cause of their brightness, some of which have an albedo higher than Earth. This is intriguing, these lava-Ocean worlds are similar in size to Earth but whizz around their host star so… Read More »
For as long as humans have gazed upward to the sky, there are many who gazed is awe at the site of the Moon in our sky. For many thousands of years the Moon has been both a source of inspiration and terror in all cultures around the world, with various appearances being classed as… Read More »