Category: Solar System

Our solar system

NASA exoplanet telescope discovers ‘super-Earth’ in its star’s Goldilocks zone

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NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has spotted a ‘super-Earth’ planet orbiting in the habitable zone of a relatively nearby red dwarf star. The extrasolar planet or ‘exoplanet,’ which has been designated TOI-715 b, might have company in the form of an Earth-sized planet.  The discovery is significant because red dwarfs, which are smaller and cooler than the sun, are often suggested to be the stars most likely to host small rocky habitable planets. According to a NASA statement, TOI-715 b has a width around 1.5 times that of Earth…

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Powerful solar flare unleashes colossal plasma plume, sparks radio blackouts across South Pacific (video)

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A powerful solar flare erupted from a giant unstable sunspot last night, triggering radio blackouts on Earth and firing a hot plasma plume through the sun’s atmosphere at speeds of 900,000 mph (400 km/s). The long-duration solar flare from the sunspot region AR3575 began on Monday  (Feb 5) at 8:30 p.m. EST (0130 GMT on Feb 6) and peaked at 10:15 EST (0315 GMT on Feb 6), according to solar physicist Keith Strong who posted details about the eruption on X.  The eruption also released a coronal mass ejection (CME)…

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Zoozve — the strange ‘moon’ of Venus that earned its name by accident

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About a year ago, Latif Nasser was having a pretty ordinary evening. The day was done, the sun had set, and he was standing in front of his two-year-old son’s crib, tucking him in. It was the same room he’d visited tons of times before, performing the same duties, looking at the same wall decorated with the same solar system poster he’d seen from the same … wait. What was that? For the first time, Nasser did a double take of the artfully illustrated poster. And, for the first time,…

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NASA Ingenuity Mars helicopter, broken and alone, spotted by Perseverance rover on Martian dune (photo, video)

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NASA’s Perseverance Rover took a photo of its broken companion, the Ingenuity helicopter, as it sat alone on a dune. In this most recent photo of Ingenuity, the dual-rotor ‘copter can be seen motionless on a sandy dune in the background, as a barren, rocky Mars landscape fills the foreground.  The photo was taken on Feb. 4, 2024, at 1:05 p.m. local mean solar time, a little over two weeks since it suffered its mission-ending damage. Related: NASA to ‘wiggle’ broken Ingenuity Mars helicopter’s blades to analyze damage NASA and…

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Earth isn’t the only planet with seasons, but they can look wildly different on other worlds

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Spring, summer, fall and winter – the seasons on Earth change every few months, around the same time every year. It’s easy to take this cycle for granted here on Earth, but not every planet has a regular change in seasons. So why does Earth have regular seasons when other planets don’t? I’m an astrophysicist who studies the movement of planets and the causes of seasons. Throughout my research, I’ve found that Earth’s regular pattern of seasons is unique. The rotational axis that Earth spins on, along the North and South poles, isn’t…

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‘Halo’ Season 2 charges back onto Paramount Plus this week with plenty to prove

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Few TV shows have incited the ire of loyal fanbases more than Paramount+’s live-action, non-canon adaptation of Bungie and 343 Industries’ revered “Halo” gaming franchise, when their helmet-less Master Chief first appeared in March 2022 dragging major revisions to the property’s core mythology with him. Using the overarching narrative of “Halo’s” dense sci-fi worldbuilding as a starting point and launching into an alternate timeline with revised characters and story elements that enflamed hardcore gamers out of their Mjolnir power armor, the show’s executive producers went their own way with a…

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Major ‘magnetic anomaly’ discovered deep below New Zealand’s Lake Rotorua

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New maps have revealed a hidden hydrothermal system beneath a legendary lake in New Zealand, which serves as the setting for a famous Māori love story.  Lake Rotorua sits at the heart of a massive ancient crater of a dormant volcano on New Zealand’s North Island. The lake has a storied history: it is where the daughter of an influential chief is said to have overcome forbidden love by swimming across the lake to be with a young warrior.  The Rotorua area is also well known for hydrothermal activity, with…

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SLIM lander’s precise ‘moon sniper’ tech will lend itself to future lunar missions

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This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. Mariel Borowitz is an Associate Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology and director of the Nunn School Program on International Affairs, Science, and Technology. Japan landed its Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon, or SLIM, craft on the surface of the moon on Jan. 20, 2024. Despite a power issue with the lander, the event holds both political and technical importance. It’s Japan’s first lunar…

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SpaceX to launch NASA’s PACE ocean-monitoring satellite this week

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A NASA satellite is about to take flight to map out the ocean’s many hues. NASA’s PACE spacecraft, which will help scientists gauge the health of oceans around the world, is set to launch atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday (Feb. 6) at 1:33 a.m. EST (0633 GMT). You can watch the liftoff live here at Space.com, courtesy of NASA, or directly via the space agency. Coverage will begin at 12:45 a.m. EST (0545 GMT). Related: Earth is getting hotter at…

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This Week In Space podcast: Episode 96 — It’s Space TV!

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On Episode 96 of This Week In Space, Tariq and Rod discuss science on television with History Channel producer Jeff Stepp. Space and science TV has come a long way since the old-time staples like Mr. Wizard and the original Bille Nye, The Science Guy. Stepp joins us to talk about his work on “The UnXplained: With William Shatner” and other science shows — how are they conceived, what is production like, and what is the future of space and science-oriented media?  We know Jeff to be a fine writer…

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