Asteroid impacts are incredibly rare events, but they have the potential to cause irreparable damage to our planet. This year at the Planetary Defense Conference, a group of people took part in efforts to prepare the world for a fictional impact. Hosted by the International Academy of Astronautics, the 7th conference took place in Vienna …
Eclipsing Binaries Found in Newly-discovered Sextuple Star System
A new star system has been discovered that contains 3 pairs of binary stars. But what makes it extra special is that all 3 of them are eclipsing binaries! Named TYC 7037-89-1, researchers found the system using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Brian P. Powell and Veselin Kostov headed up the international …
TRAPPIST-1 Planets May Be More Similar Than We Thought
Back in 2016, the first exoplanet discovery using the Transiting Planets and Planetesimals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST) was made. With 3 planets found, and 4 more later discovered, the system was designated TRAPPIST-1. And the best part – all the planets’ sizes and masses are close to the Earth’s! Such an abundance of Earth-sized planets has …
Nobel Prize awarded for Black Hole Discoveries
Last week, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three scientists whose work has led the way for black hole research. Sir Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez share the prize, with half of the money going to Penrose and the other half being split between Genzel and Ghez. Black holes are some …
Underground Salt Water on Ceres
Thanks to data from NASA‘s Dawn spacecraft, scientists have found evidence for underground salt water on Ceres. The spacecraft was able to provide detailed views of the mysterious bright areas on the surface of the dwarf planet. Scientists realised that these bright areas were sodium carbonate deposits, which must have been formed from a salty …
ExoMars finds new Martian gas signatures
ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has been in orbit around the planet Mars since 2016. It’s primary purpose is to search for small traces of gases in the Martian atmosphere. In particular, those that may indicate the presence of biological life! We’re still a long way off answering that big question, but the spacecraft …
Solar Orbiter obtains first images for ESA
Today marks the release of the very first images taken by ESA’s Solar Orbiter. Having performed its first close approach to the Sun, Solar Orbiter has become the closest spacecraft to take images of the Sun. These stunning new images are already exciting scientists, showing the Sun at higher resolutions than we’ve ever seen before. …
New Horizons First Look at Pluto 5 Years Ago Today
On this day 5 years ago, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft gave us a whole new view on Pluto. The spacecraft spent 9 and a half years swinging past Jupiter and heading to the edge of the solar system, before coming within 7,800 km of the distant dwarf planet. Prior to this, we didn’t know much …
Asteroid Day
Today marks the international day of awareness and education about asteroids – Asteroid Day! It’s a huge program, organising events all over the world, and headquartered from Luxembourg. The date of June 30th was chosen specially to mark the anniversary of the Tunguska event. In 1908 Siberia, an asteroid exploded, flattening 2,000 square kilometres of …
Hot Jupiters’ Origins Made Clearer by New Discovery
Hot Jupiters are a mould-breaking type of planet; huge Jupiter-sized gas giants that orbit shockingly close to their star. The recent detection of HIP 67522 b could provide answers to the most pressing question about these goliaths. How did they form? We have no examples in our own solar system, so exoplanets like this one …