At the center the Earth is a solid metal ball, a kind of "planet within a planet," whose existence makes life on the surface possible, at least as we know it.
Earth Sciences
Jul 5, 2023
0
2037
Even by the wild standards of the outer solar system, the strange orbits that carry Neptune's two innermost moons are unprecedented, according to newly published research.
Astronomy
Nov 15, 2019
4
3796
How do you explore the interior of a planet without ever touching down on it? Start by watching the way the planet spins, then measure how your spacecraft orbits it—very, very carefully. This is exactly what NASA planetary ...
Space Exploration
Apr 17, 2019
1
505
(Phys.org)—As a result of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observations of a microlensing event, astronomers have found an extremely massive alien world circling a star located in the Milky Way's bulge. The newly discovered ...
(Phys.org)—A pair of researchers with Université de Bordeaux has proposed a new theory to explain the origin of the asteroid belt. In their paper published in Science Advances, Sean Raymond and Andre Izidoro describe their ...
Astronomers have found a system of seven Earth-sized planets just 40 light-years away. They were detected as they passed in front of their parent star, the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1. Three of them lie in the habitable zone and ...
Astronomy
Feb 22, 2017
19
4722
(Phys.org)—Using the gravitational microlensing technique, astronomers have recently detected what appears to be a Saturn-like planet residing near the Milky Way's bulge. The newly discovered exoplanet has a mass somewhere ...
(Phys.org)—Located about 1,530 light years from the Earth in the constellation of Cygnus, Kepler-36 is a sun-like star orbited by two known alien worlds. The inner planet, designated Kepler-36b is a so-called "super-Earth," ...
Long before Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars formed, it seems that the inner solar system may have harbored a number of super-Earths—planets larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. If so, those planets are long gone—broken ...
Astronomy
Mar 23, 2015
19
2132
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
