How Many Habitable Planets Are Out There?
A new paper in the Astronomical Journal estimates that there could be as many as 300 million potentially habitable planets in our galaxy, and some may even be as close as 30 light-years of the Sun.
Where Were Jupiter and Saturn Born?
One of the more annoying things about solar systems is planets and other objects don’t stay in one place or even in one orbit.
Asteroid Ryugu Shaken by Hayabusa2’s Impactor
We have talked a lot about Bennu lately, but OSIRIS-REx wasn’t the first mission to smack an asteroid in the hopes of getting a sample.
Craters Reveal Details of Titan’s Dynamic Surface Weathering
Titan’s atmosphere, like Earth’s atmosphere, interacts with the world’s surface. In a new paper appearing in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Anezina Solomonidou and collaborators analyzed mosaics of an image obtained by the Cassini mission.
NASA Scientists Discover ‘Weird’ Molecule in Titan’s Atmosphere
We have news this week of yet another interesting molecule found in the atmosphere of a world we hope harbors life.
Bumper Crop of Black Holes in New Gravitational Wave Paper
During the most recent observing season, a record-breaking 39 mergers were detected thanks to improvements in the LIGO and Virgo detectors.
The Magnetic Fields of a Jellyfish Galaxy
As galaxies plunge into galaxy clusters, they force their way through gas and dust and often gravitationally interact with other systems.
Study Offers More Complete View of Massive Asteroid Psyche
Last week, I talked about some of the upcoming US-based asteroid missions that are in the works. One of those is a mission to asteroid Psyche 16.
Lighting a Path to Find Planet Nine
In 2014, Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin noted the dwarf planets in the outer solar system have a statistically weird orbital distribution that can best be explained by adding a several Earth-mass planet out 12-23 times farther from the Sun than Pluto.
Small Water Ice Reservoirs Dot the Lunar Surface
Once again, in the quest for lunar resources, scientists used data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to try and find water ice.
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