Collaborate Disseminate
Our solar system might still bear the scars from an extremely close shave with an alien star. Such an encounter – the closest pass we know of – would have shaken up objects on the outskirts and might even mean there’s no Planet Nine after all.Continue … Continue reading Alien star could have side-swiped our solar system closer than Voyager
Our solar system might still bear the scars from an extremely close shave with an alien star. Such an encounter – the closest pass we know of – would have shaken up objects on the outskirts and might even mean there’s no Planet Nine after all.Continue … Continue reading Alien star could have side-swiped our solar system closer than Voyager
The official definition of a “planet” could be set to change again soon. Last time that happened, Pluto was kicked out of the club, but the new proposed definition is designed to be more inclusive.Continue ReadingCategory: Space, ScienceTags: Planet, D… Continue reading The official definition of a planet could soon change again
Researchers have just revealed that Mimas, one of Saturn’s smallest moons, has an ocean of liquid water flowing under its entire surface. What is really making waves though, is how young the body of water is: just 5 to 15 million years old.Continue Rea… Continue reading Another ice-sealed ocean has been found in our solar system
The solar wind is a constant feature of the solar system – except on Christmas Day 2022 when it suddenly vanished completely. The odd event was detected by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars, which found that the Red Planet’s magnetosphere tripled in size… Continue reading Solar wind vanishes completely, causing Mars’ magnetosphere to swell
Our solar system officially houses eight planets, but some scientists say there could be a ninth. And that’s not just Pluto aficionados – evidence suggests a huge undiscovered world lurks on the dark fringes out there. Now, a new study has found the ou… Continue reading “Modified gravity” could rule out both dark matter and Planet Nine
Our Sun is capable of some truly terrifying outbursts – and now scientists have discovered evidence of its biggest tantrum on record. Tree rings dating back around 14,000 years contain a radiocarbon spike twice as powerful as the previous biggest known… Continue reading Tree rings reveal evidence of most powerful solar storm on record
There may not be any air in space, but there’s wind – solar wind, made up of charged particles thrown off by the Sun. The exact mechanism behind this phenomenon remains murky, but now ESA’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft has observed previously unknown “tiny… Continue reading Newly discovered Sun “nanoflares” could be source of solar wind
Meteorites can act as time capsules, preserving molecules from the solar system’s infancy. Certain fingerprints have been detected in these ancient space rocks that suggest a supernova went off right near our neighborhood – but that should have blasted… Continue reading A supernova went off right next to the young Sun – how did it survive?
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected water vapor on an object in the asteroid belt, a region of the solar system where it wasn’t known to survive. The new observations also reveal something missing unexpectedly.Continue ReadingCategory: Space, S… Continue reading Webb confirms water in weird comet, but something else is missing