Topic: Solar Systems
Ep. 3.03 Mars is the future, the day the Dinos Died, a Star’s Death in 3 Acts, and more

Ep. 3.03 Mars is the future, the day the Dinos Died, a Star’s Death in 3 Acts, and more

I have to admit, realizing it is somehow late August was a bit startling. I’m not entirely sure where my summer went, but I am grateful that my garden is finally producing veg, and the temps are starting to slowly trend downward. The Dog Days of summer are named for the appearance of the Dog Star Sirius rising with the Sun. Running from July 3 to August 11, these are typically the hottest days of the year and once upon a time, in the Roman Empire, that heat was blamed on Sirius’ - the brightest star in the sky’s - being in  close proximity to the Sun. Today we know this isn’t so, but it...

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You can visit a piece of Bennu

You can visit a piece of Bennu

Credit: NMNH We would be remiss if we didn’t update you all on the Bennu sample return mission. As of writing, no word has been released on if the science team has managed to get the TAGSAM capsule open, yet. Remember how that boop became a shove and the capsule had...

Lucy finds a moonmoon

Lucy finds a moonmoon

Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL Last episode, we brought you some early science results from the Lucy mission, which is out exploring asteroids in the main belt on the way to hanging out amongst Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids. The biggest piece of news was the...

Lucy Sends Science Home

Lucy Sends Science Home

Credit: NASA Back in October 2021, a mission called Lucy lifted off on a multi-year journey to visit Jupiter’s two collections of Trojan Asteroids. Today, it is making its way through the asteroid belt before circling back to use the Earth to get a gravitational...

(Big-)Moonless worlds have unstable tilts

(Big-)Moonless worlds have unstable tilts

Modern-day Mars experiences cyclical changes in climate and, consequently, ice distribution. Unlike Earth, the obliquity (or tilt) of Mars changes substantially on timescales of hundreds of thousands to millions of years. At present day obliquity of about 25-degree...

Perseverance collects a River of Science

Perseverance collects a River of Science

Jezero Crater as Seen by ESA's Mars Express Orbiter: This image shows the remains of an ancient delta in Mars' Jezero Crater, which NASA's Perseverance Mars rover will explore for signs of fossilized microbial life. Credit: NASA The remnants of ancient dunes aren’t...

How Rivers Flow: Here, Mars & Titan

How Rivers Flow: Here, Mars & Titan

This false-color image shows Titan’s second-largest body of liquid, Ligeia Mare, in the moon’s northern hemisphere. Scientists think that rivers flowing into large bodies of liquids like this one should form deltas. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI/Cornell New research...