An Organic ocean on Jupiter's Moon europa? If you went by news coverage alone, you’d think there’s only one world in the solar system aside from Earth worth studying—and that, of course, is Mars. NASA’s Curiosity rover is inching its way across the Red Planet’s Gale Crater; the Opportunity rover has entered its tenth year of exploration in a region some 5,000 miles (8,000 km) away; and a new rover, named InSight, is on the schedule for a 2016 launch. Why all that attention? In a word, water. But another world in our Solar System doesn’t have to look to the past for its maritime days. Long before astronomers could know Europa’s composition for sure, they suspected that it might be covered in ice. (MORE: Voyager 1 at the Threshold of Forever) None of this meant Europa had the ingredients for life: you could keep a tank of sterile water warm and churning for 4.5 billion years and at the end, all you’d have would be the same tank of sterile water. (MORE: Did a Distant Solar System Send Life to Earth?)
Jupiter loses a stripe - space - 11 May 2010 Jupiter has lost one of its prominent stripes, leaving its southern half looking unusually blank. Scientists are not sure what triggered the disappearance of the band. Jupiter's appearance is usually dominated by two dark bands in its atmosphere – one in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern hemisphere. But recent images taken by amateur astronomers show that the southern band – called the south equatorial belt – has disappeared. The band was present at the end of 2009, right before Jupiter moved too close to the sun in the sky to be observed from Earth. When the planet emerged from the sun's glare again in early April, its south equatorial belt was nowhere to be seen. No cover This is not the first time the south equatorial belt has disappeared. According to this theory, the south equatorial belt disappears when whitish clouds form on top of it, blocking our view of the darker clouds. More From New Scientist Lose weight by tricking body into thinking it's cold (New Scientist)
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets. It is sometimes referred to as the world or the Blue Planet.[23] Earth formed approximately 4.54 billion years ago, and life appeared on its surface within its first billion years.[24] Earth's biosphere then significantly altered the atmospheric and other basic physical conditions, which enabled the proliferation of organisms as well as the formation of the ozone layer, which together with Earth's magnetic field blocked harmful solar radiation, and permitted formerly ocean-confined life to move safely to land.[25] The physical properties of the Earth, as well as its geological history and orbit, have allowed life to persist. Name and etymology In general English usage, the name earth can be capitalized or spelled in lowercase interchangeably, either when used absolutely or prefixed with "the" (i.e. Heat
Orbit and rotation Jupiter l Jupiter facts, pictures and information. Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and by far the largest. Jupiter is more than twice as massive as all the other planets combined (the mass of Jupiter is 318 times that of Earth). Planet Profile orbit: 778,330,000 km (5.20 AU) from Sundiameter: 142,984 km (equatorial)mass: 1.900e27 kg History of Jupiter Jupiter (a.k.a. Jupiter is the fourth brightest object in the sky (after the Sun, the Moon and Venus). Jupiter was first visited by Pioneer 10 in 1973 and later by Pioneer 11, Voyager 1, Voyager 2 and Ulysses. The gas planets do not have solid surfaces, their gaseous material simply gets denser with depth (the radii and diameters quoted for the planets are for levels corresponding to a pressure of 1 atmosphere). Jupiter is about 90% hydrogen and 10% helium (by numbers of atoms, 75/25% by mass) with traces of methane, water, ammonia and "rock". Our knowledge of the interior of Jupiter (and the other gas planets) is highly indirect and likely to remain so for some time. Jupiter's Rings
How will Jupiter hold up his pants? | Bad Astronomy | Discover M From Emily at The Planetary Society blog comes word that one of Jupiter’s belts has disappeared… again. This image, by the accomplished amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, shows what’s up. Usually, the Great Red Spot is accompanied by a dark reddish belt that goes all the way around the planet, like the one in the northern hemisphere you can see in the picture. However, the Southern Equatorial Belt, as it’s called, is gone!This has happened before, in fact. It’s not clear exactly why this sort of thing occurs, though. Jupiter is a weird place. But there is a very cool thing about this: you can see it for yourself! But if you prefer your astronomy to be virtual, you can check out other pictures at Wesley’s site, as well as Astro Bob’s blog. I wonder how long the belt will be gone?
Alpha Centauri Location of Alpha Centauri in Centaurus (right-click on starmap to enlarge) From Earth to Alpha Centauri. Alpha Centauri (α Centauri, α Cen; also known as Rigil Kent /ˈraɪdʒəl ˈkɛnt/—see Names) is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Centaurus, and the third brightest star in the night sky.[10][11] The Alpha Centauri system is located 1.34 parsecs or 4.37 light years from the Sun, making it the closest star system to the Solar System.[12] Although it appears to the unaided eye as a single object, Alpha Centauri is actually a binary star system (designated Alpha Centauri AB or α Cen AB) whose combined visual magnitude of −0.27 makes it the third brightest star (other than the Sun) seen from Earth after the −1.46 magnitude Sirius and the −0.72 magnitude Canopus. Its component stars are named Alpha Centauri A (α Cen A), with 110% of the mass and 151.9% the luminosity of the Sun, and Alpha Centauri B (α Cen B), at 90.7% of the Sun's mass and 44.5% of its luminosity.
Observation Jupiter, Jupiter Information Jovian Giant The most massive planet in our solar system, with four planet-size moons and many smaller satellites, Jupiter forms a kind of miniature solar system. Jupiter resembles a star in composition. In fact, if it had been about eighty times more massive, it would have become a star rather than a planet. On January 7, 1610, using his primitive telescope, astronomer Galileo Galilei saw four small "stars" near Jupiter. Galileo would be astonished at what we have learned about Jupiter and its moons in the last 30 years. Jupiter's appearance is a tapestry of beautiful colors and atmospheric features. Atmosphere The composition of Jupiter's atmosphere is similar to that of the sun—mostly hydrogen and helium. Jupiter's enormous magnetic field is nearly 20,000 times as powerful as Earth's. Discovered in 1979 by NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft, Jupiter's rings were a surprise: a flattened main ring and an inner cloudlike ring, called the halo, are both composed of small, dark particles.
Cis-Neptunian objects Centaurs orbit the Sun between Jupiter and Neptune, often crossing the orbits of the large gas giant planets. There is an emerging sense[2] that the centaurs may simply be objects similar to scattered disc objects that were knocked inwards from the Kuiper belt rather than outwards, making them cis-Neptunian rather than trans-Neptunian scattered-disc objects. Notes[edit] References[edit] Pluto In 2015, the Pluto system is due to be visited by spacecraft for the first time. The New Horizons probe will perform a flyby during which it will attempt to take detailed measurements and images of the plutoid and its moons. Discovery Discovery photographs of Pluto In the 1840s, using Newtonian mechanics, Urbain Le Verrier predicted the position of the then-undiscovered planet Neptune after analysing perturbations in the orbit of Uranus. Subsequent observations of Neptune in the late 19th century caused astronomers to speculate that Uranus' orbit was being disturbed by another planet besides Neptune. In 1906, Percival Lowell, a wealthy Bostonian who had founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona in 1894, started an extensive project in search of a possible ninth planet, which he termed "Planet X".[25] By 1909, Lowell and William H. Name The discovery made headlines across the globe. ), but has a circle in place of the middle prong of the trident ( Demise of Planet X Other factors
Possibility of life