Aerobraking is commonly used to slow down spacecraft when they arrive at various planetary systems. It requires a spacecraft to dip into the atmosphere of a celestial body in the planetary system, such as a moon or the planet ...
Space Exploration
Oct 10, 2023
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10
In our solar system, an asteroid orbits the sun in the opposite direction to the planets. Asteroid 2015 BZ509, also known as Bee-Zed, takes 12 years to make one complete orbit around the sun. This is the same orbital period ...
Astronomy
Jun 28, 2017
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379
For at least a million years, an asteroid orbiting the "wrong" way around the sun has been playing a cosmic game of chicken with giant Jupiter and with about 6,000 other asteroids sharing the giant planet's space, says a ...
Space Exploration
Mar 29, 2017
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367
The planets of the outer solar system are known for being strange, as are their many moons. This is especially true of Triton, Neptune's largest moon. In addition to being the seventh-largest moon in the solar system, it ...
Space Exploration
Jul 29, 2015
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37
Halley's Comet, also known as 1P/Halley, is the most well known comet in the Solar System. As a periodic (or short-term comet) it has orbital period that is less than 200 years, and has therefore been observed more than once ...
Space Exploration
Jun 15, 2015
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42
(Phys.org) —NASA's Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) spacecraft has spotted a never-before-seen comet—its first such discovery since coming out of hibernation late last year.
Space Exploration
Mar 3, 2014
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2
Astronomers have used the Subaru Telescope to show that the HAT-P-7 planetary system, which is about 1040 light years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, includes at least two giant planets and one companion star (Figure ...
Astronomy
Jan 25, 2013
2
0
Neptune's largest moon Triton is most likely a captured Kuiper Belt Object. The capture of icy Triton and the subsequent taming of its orbit likely led to the formation of a subsurface ocean through tidal heating. New research ...
Space Exploration
Sep 6, 2012
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0
Work by a team of University of Texas at Arlington astronomers could significantly broaden astrophysicists' search for planets in other solar systems by changing the way they think about the orbiting bodies.
Astronomy
Sep 29, 2010
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0
Astronomers have found that the extrasolar planet HAT-P-7b has a retrograde or highly tilted orbit. Studying such planets is important in understanding the diversity of planetary systems and assessing current models of how ...
Astronomy
Nov 18, 2009
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