Search results for solar system small body

Planetary Sciences May 31, 2024

Glimpses of a volcanic world: New telescope images of Jupiter's moon Io rival those from spacecraft

New images of Jupiter's volcano-studded moon Io, taken by the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in Arizona, offer the highest resolution of Io ever achieved with an Earth-based instrument. The observations were made ...

Astronomy May 30, 2024

The rush to return humans to the moon and build lunar bases could threaten opportunities for astronomy

The 2020s have already seen many lunar landing attempts, although several of them have crashed or toppled over. With all the excitement surrounding the prospect of humans returning to the moon, both commercial interests and ...

Planetary Sciences May 29, 2024

Moon orbiting 'Dinky' asteroid is actually two tiny moons stuck together

When NASA's Lucy spacecraft flew past its first official target Dinkinesh in November 2023, researchers discovered that the asteroid—known as "Dinky"—was not alone in space. A satellite asteroid, which the team named ...

Astronomy May 23, 2024

Finding the age of a contact binary 'moon'

There are millions of asteroids floating around the solar system. With so many of them, it should be no surprise that some are weirdly configured. A recent example of one of these weird configurations was discovered when ...

Environment May 21, 2024

Five ways to keep towns cool in a heat wave

Along with warmer and wetter winters across the UK and Europe, our summers are getting hotter with more frequent periods of extreme hot weather. And as well as affecting agriculture, infrastructure and wildlife, hot weather ...

Planetary Sciences May 21, 2024

Peering into Pluto's ocean using mathematical models and images from the New Horizons spacecraft

An ocean of liquid water deep beneath the icy surface of Pluto is coming into focus thanks to new calculations by Alex Nguyen, a graduate student in Earth, environmental and planetary sciences in Arts & Sciences at Washington ...

Astronomy May 10, 2024

Is dark matter's main rival theory dead? The Cassini spacecraft and other recent tests may invalidate MOND

One of the biggest mysteries in astrophysics today is that the forces in galaxies do not seem to add up. Galaxies rotate much faster than predicted by applying Newton's law of gravity to their visible matter, despite those ...

Evolution May 10, 2024

Why evolution often favors small animals and other organisms

Small really does seem to be beautiful in evolutionary terms. The largest dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals may look impressive but these giants are vastly outnumbered by microscopic bacteria and single-celled algae and fungi. ...

Planetary Sciences May 9, 2024

TESS discovers a rocky planet that glows with molten lava as it's squeezed by its neighbors

UC Riverside astrophysicist Stephen Kane had to double-check his calculations. He wasn't sure the planet he was studying could be as extreme as it seemed.

Planetary Sciences May 8, 2024

Exploring the asteroid Apophis with small satellites

The author of a disaster novel couldn't have dreamed it up any better: On a Friday, the thirteenth of all days, the potentially dangerous asteroid (99942) Apophis will come extremely close to humanity.

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