When the first object ever known to have visited the Earth's Solar System from outer space zoomed past in 2017, it was so strange that at least one leading astronomer was convinced it was an alien vessel.
Planetary Sciences
Mar 26, 2023
6
90
There is a mystery in our solar system surrounding the orbits of Kuiper belt objects. More than one trillion icy objects smaller than our moon orbit the sun in a donut-shaped ring beyond Neptune. Oddly, a cluster of outer ...
In April last year, billionaire Yuri Milner announced the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative. He plans to invest 100 million US dollars in the development of an ultra-light light sail that can be accelerated to 20 percent of ...
Astronomy
Feb 1, 2017
14
195
How did life come about? The answer to this question goes to the very heart of our existence on planet Earth.
Astrobiology
Mar 25, 2023
0
48
On October 19th, 2017, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System-1 (Pan-STARRS-1) in Hawaii announced the first-ever detection of an interstellar object, named 1I/2017 U1 (aka. 'Oumuamua). In the months that ...
Astronomy
Jan 11, 2019
3
188
An international team of astronomers have discovered a new dwarf planet orbiting in the disk of small icy worlds beyond Neptune. The new object is roughly 700 kilometers in size and has one of the largest orbits for a dwarf ...
Space Exploration
Jul 12, 2016
6
162
In 2017, a mysterious comet dubbed 'Oumuamua fired the imaginations of scientists and the public alike. It was the first known visitor from outside our solar system, it had no bright coma or dust tail, like most comets, and ...
Astronomy
Mar 22, 2023
0
456
There's a real buzz among planetary scientists after a new study suggested that an unseen planet, dubbed "Planet Nine", of about ten times the Earth's mass could be lurking in the Kuiper belt, a band of icy objects beyond ...
Space Exploration
Jan 25, 2016
2
55
When we talk about amazing geological features, we often limit ourselves to those on Earth. But as a geologist, I think that's crazy—there are so many structures on other worlds that can excite and inspire, and that can ...
Planetary Sciences
Aug 23, 2021
3
1371
Astronomers have discovered a planet three times the mass of Jupiter that travels on a long, egg-shaped path around its star. If this planet were somehow placed into our own solar system, it would swing from within our asteroid ...
Astronomy
Aug 27, 2019
1
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