Since its detection in 2014, the brown dwarf known as WISE 0855 has fascinated astronomers. Only 7.2 light-years from Earth, it is the coldest known object outside of our solar system and is just barely visible at infrared ...
Astronomy
Jul 6, 2016
8
1975
Michigan State University's Seth Jacobson and colleagues in China and France have unveiled a new theory that could help solve a galactic mystery of how our solar system evolved. Specifically, how did the gas giants—Jupiter, ...
Planetary Sciences
Apr 27, 2022
0
2070
In less than a week, the spacecraft Juno will arrive at Jupiter, the culmination of a five-year, billion-dollar journey. It's mission: to peer deep inside the gas giant and unravel its origin and evolution. One of the biggest ...
General Physics
Jun 30, 2016
3
480
Gas giants orbiting our sun show a clear pattern; the more massive the planet, the lower the percentage of "heavy" elements (anything other than hydrogen and helium) in the planet's atmosphere. But out in the galaxy, the ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 27, 2023
1
366
The last decade has seen a bonanza of exoplanet discoveries. Nearly 2,000 exoplanets—planets outside our solar system—have been confirmed so far, and more than 5,000 candidate exoplanets have been identified. Many of ...
Astronomy
Mar 29, 2016
2
506
NASA is beginning to design its next big astrophysics mission, a space telescope that will provide the largest picture of the universe ever seen with the same depth and clarity as the Hubble Space Telescope.
Astronomy
Dec 22, 2017
4
1059
Planets form in disks of dust and gas called protoplanetary disks that whirl around a central protostar during its final assembly. Although several dozens of such disks have been imaged, just two planets have been caught ...
Planetary Sciences
Mar 27, 2024
1
546
Scientists have found the strongest evidence to date for a stratosphere on an enormous planet outside our solar system, with an atmosphere hot enough to boil iron.
Astronomy
Aug 2, 2017
3
1521
For the first time since the twin Voyager spacecraft missions in 1979, scientists have produced far-infrared maps of Jupiter using NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, SOFIA. These maps were created from ...
Space Exploration
Jan 5, 2017
1
639
News flash: The Milky Way galaxy just got a little weirder. Back in 2011 astronomers were amazed when NASA's Kepler spacecraft discovered a planet orbiting a double star system. Such a world, they realized, would have double ...
Astronomy
Sep 13, 2012
35
0
