Could we terraform Jupiter?
So just what would it take to terraform Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system?
So just what would it take to terraform Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system?
Space Exploration
Aug 6, 2015
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Astronomers have used the ESO 3.6-metre telescope to identify a planet just like Jupiter orbiting at the same distance from a Sun-like star, HIP 11915. According to current theories, the formation of Jupiter-mass planets ...
Astronomy
Jul 15, 2015
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2285
As I began typing this column, NASA's New Horizon mission was on its final approach to its primary target, Pluto. By the time I finished composing my deathless prose, the main mission was over. And I'm not a slow writer.
Space Exploration
Jul 14, 2015
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Ever since the invention of the telescope four hundred years ago, astronomers have been fascinated by the gas giant of Jupiter. Between it's constant, swirling clouds, its many, many moons, and its Giant Red Spot, there are ...
Space Exploration
Jun 25, 2015
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NASA has now formally started to pack its bags for the next big discovery mission, this time heading to Jupiter's icy moon Europa. Last month NASA announced the instruments that will fly on this trip and now has formally ...
Space Exploration
Jun 25, 2015
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There's something about our solar system that appears to be unusual. For some reason, most of our bigger planets are far away from our host star, while closer in are smaller, rocky worlds, including Earth itself.
Astronomy
Jun 23, 2015
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Jupiter was appropriately named by the Romans, who chose to name it after the king of the gods. In addition to being the largest planet in our Solar System – with two and a half times the mass of all the other planets combined ...
Space Exploration
Jun 10, 2015
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Astronomers using the HARPS planet-hunting machine at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile have made the first-ever direct detection of the spectrum of visible light reflected off an exoplanet. These observations also revealed ...
Astronomy
Apr 22, 2015
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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
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NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has the best evidence yet for an underground saltwater ocean on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. The subterranean ocean is thought to have more water than all the water on Earth's surface.
Space Exploration
Mar 12, 2015
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