(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study published on arXiv.org shows that, based on computer simulations, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune may not have been the only gas giants in our solar system. According to David Nesvorny from ...
This August, stargazers will have a rare opportunity to see five visible planets in the night sky at the same time with the naked eye.
Space Exploration
Jul 14, 2016
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77
Scientists suggest in a new study the existence of a planetary object called a "synestia," a huge, spinning, donut-shaped mass of hot, vaporized rock, formed as planet-sized objects smash into each other.
Astronomy
May 22, 2017
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573
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
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1975
Thirty years ago, on Aug. 25, 1989, NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft made a close flyby of Neptune, giving humanity its first close-up of our solar system's eighth planet. Marking the end of the Voyager mission's Grand Tour of ...
Space Exploration
Aug 23, 2019
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1800
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
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2070
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
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368
(PhysOrg.com) -- Just as an expert chess player sacrifices a piece to protect the queen, the solar system may have given up a giant planet and spared the Earth, according to an article recently published in The Astrophysical ...
Astronomy
Nov 10, 2011
34
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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
(Phys.org)—An international team of astronomers has reported the discovery of a new giant extrasolar planet orbiting a subgiant star so closely that it should be destroyed due to tidal interactions. However, against all ...
