A typical desk globe is designed to be a geometric sphere and to rotate smoothly when you spin it. Our actual planet is far less perfect—in both shape and in rotation.
Earth Sciences
Sep 20, 2018
8
134
Like cosmic lighthouses sweeping the universe with bursts of energy, pulsars have fascinated and baffled astronomers since they were first discovered 50 years ago. In two studies, international teams of astronomers suggest ...
Astronomy
Jan 17, 2017
0
2220
The moon Hyperion tumbles as it orbits Saturn. Hyperion's (168 miles or 270 kilometers across) spin axis has a chaotic orientation in time, meaning that it is essentially impossible to predict how the moon will be spinning ...
Space Exploration
Dec 6, 2016
1
4
Sputnik Planitia, a 1,000-kilometer wide basin within the iconic heart-shaped region observed on Pluto's surface, could be in its present location because accumulation of ice made the dwarf planet roll over, creating cracks ...
Space Exploration
Nov 16, 2016
1
467
Using satellite data on how water moves around Earth, NASA scientists have solved two mysteries about wobbles in the planet's rotation—one new and one more than a century old. The research may help improve our knowledge ...
Earth Sciences
Apr 11, 2016
2
280
In an interstellar race against time, astronomers have measured the space-time warp in the gravity of a binary star and determined the mass of a neutron star—just before it vanished from view.
Astronomy
Jan 8, 2015
5
460
Blame the "hot Jupiters." These large, gaseous exoplanets (planets outside our solar system) can make their suns wobble when they wend their way through their own solar systems to snuggle up against their suns, according ...
Astronomy
Sep 11, 2014
2
0
(Phys.org) —Imagine living on a planet with seasons so erratic you would hardly know whether to wear Bermuda shorts or a heavy overcoat. That is the situation on a weird, wobbly world found by NASA's planet-hunting Kepler ...
Astronomy
Feb 4, 2014
5
0
(Phys.org) —Astronomers have long sought strong evidence that Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*), the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, is producing a jet of high-energy particles. Finally they have found it, ...
Astronomy
Nov 20, 2013
4
0
(Phys.org) —By analyzing the distinctive cracks lining the icy face of Europa, NASA scientists found evidence that this moon of Jupiter likely spun around a tilted axis at some point.
Space Exploration
Sep 18, 2013
0
0
