NASA recently used its powerful High Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) camera onboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to take a breathtaking image of a dust devil traversing Syria Planum on Mars. One unique aspect of ...
Planetary Sciences
Jun 30, 2023
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Scientists from the SETI Institute and Purdue University have found that the only way to produce Deimos's unusually tilted orbit is for Mars to have had a ring billions of years ago. While some of the more massive planets ...
Space Exploration
Jun 3, 2020
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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
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A new model of the moon's rotational dynamics—the first that takes into account the moon's solid inner core—helps explain why it appears to wobble on its axis.
Space Exploration
Dec 19, 2018
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Aspects of an otherwise Earthlike planet's tilt and orbital dynamics can severely affect its potential habitability—even triggering abrupt "snowball states" where oceans freeze and surface life is impossible, according ...
Astronomy
May 15, 2018
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Given that there are ambitious plans to colonise Mars in the near future, it is surprising how much we still have to learn about what it would be like to actually live on the planet. Take the weather, for instance. We know ...
Space Exploration
Aug 22, 2017
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Ever since the 16th century when Nicolaus Copernicus demonstrated that the Earth revolved around in the Sun, scientists have worked tirelessly to understand the relationship in mathematical terms. If this bright celestial ...
Space Exploration
Nov 24, 2014
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Have you heard the startling news that the Earth's poles might flip? Perhaps in the response to a close pass from the mysterious Planet X? Are you imagining the entire Earth actually flipping over on its side or rotating ...
Space Exploration
Mar 21, 2014
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The moon. Our nearest neighbour. The main source of the ocean's tides, and a beacon that drives the lives of animals across the globe. And also, to date, the only object beyond Earth on which humans have set foot.
Space Exploration
Mar 20, 2013
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Highly-tilted worlds would have extreme seasons, subjecting life to alternating periods of scorching and subzero temperatures. This could make the development of all but hardiest, simplest creatures a long shot.
Space Exploration
Feb 6, 2012
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