planets

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128 New Moons Nearly Double Saturn's Tally
We Have a New
'Moon King'
Mar 12, 2025 11:07 AM CDT

We Have a New 'Moon King'

Discovery of 128 Saturn moons brings planet's total to 274

(Newser) - Move over, Jupiter: Saturn is the new "moon king," with 274 planetary satellites in orbit, almost half of which were only just discovered. As of 2023, Jupiter was considered the leader among moon-hosting planets in the solar system with 92 confirmed, compared to Saturn's 83. Jupiter now...

Friday's Sunset Brings Once-in-a-Century Event

7 other planets in solar system to line up in sky in the order of their distance from the sun

(Newser) - When three or four planets align in the night sky, it's considered uncommon. When six or seven align, it's rare. And when all seven planets apart from Earth line up in order of their distance from the sun, it's a once-in-a-century event—one you will have a...

Get a Close Look at Mercury's North Pole

European and Japanese spacecraft gets up close and personal, beams back stunning photos

(Newser) - A spacecraft has beamed back some of the best close-up photos yet of Mercury's north pole. The European and Japanese robotic explorer swooped as close as 183 miles above Mercury's night side before passing directly over the planet's north pole, reports the AP . The European Space Agency...

NASA Spots a 'Super Jupiter'
NASA Spots
a 'Super Jupiter'
Jul 24, 2024 5:08 PM CDT

NASA Spots a 'Super Jupiter'

Planet takes more than a century to go around its star

(Newser) - A super Jupiter has been spotted around a neighboring star by the Webb Space Telescope—and it has a super orbit. As the AP reports, the planet is roughly the same diameter as Jupiter, but with six times the mass. Its atmosphere is also rich in hydrogen like Jupiter's....

Arizona Names 'State Planet' That Is Not a Planet

18 years after Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet, its status is still debated

(Newser) - You surely know by now that Pluto is not a planet in the usual sense. Arizona isn't so sure. The state has recognized Pluto, one of five dwarf planets in our solar system, as its "official state planet." What does that mean? Essentially that Pluto still has...

6-Planet Solar System in Milky Way Has Scientists in Awe

'My jaw was on the floor,' says one of discovery made by NASA, ESA planet-hunting satellites

(Newser) - Astronomers have discovered a rare in-sync solar system with six planets moving like a grand cosmic orchestra, untouched by outside forces since their birth billions of years ago. The find, announced Wednesday in the journal Nature, can help explain how solar systems across the Milky Way galaxy came to be....

Astronomers Get a Preview of Earth's Fate

'If it’s any consolation, this will happen in about 5 billion years'

(Newser) - For the first time, scientists have caught a star in the act of swallowing a planet—not just a nibble or bite, but one big gulp. Astronomers on Wednesday reported their observations of what appeared to be a gas giant around the size of Jupiter or bigger being eaten by...

'Planet Collectors,' This Is Your Week

5 planets—Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars—will be lining up, with best viewing Tuesday

(Newser) - Keep an eye to the sky this week for a chance to see a planetary hangout. Five planets—Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, and Mars—will line up near the moon, per the AP . More details:
  • Where and when can you see them? The best day to catch the whole group
...

Evidence Suggests Venus Is Volcanically Active 'Right Now'
On Our Sister Planet, the First
Direct Evidence of Eruptions
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Mar 25, 2023 12:50 PM CDT

On Our Sister Planet, the First Direct Evidence of Eruptions

Evidence suggests Venus is volcanically active 'right now'

(Newser) - The second rock from the sun is much like the third, at least in terms of volcanic activity. "It's an active planet—right now," says Robert Herrick, a planetary scientist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, who's found evidence that volcanic eruptions are indeed occurring on...

Hold Up Your Pinkie for Tonight's Sky Event

Jupiter, Venus 'conjunction' will make planets seem to be very close; they're still 400M miles apart

(Newser) - Jupiter and Venus are more than 400 million miles apart, but on Wednesday night, they'll appear to be just a pinkie finger's length apart, with your hand held at arm's length. That's according to AccuWeather , which notes that the month of March will kick off with...

NASA Releases Staggering Photos of Neptune

Our most distant planet's rings are crisp

(Newser) - If you picture Neptune as a blue ring-less planet, new images released Wednesday from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope are about to set you straight. The images show what CNN refers to as the planet's "crisp, narrow rings." As Heidi Hammel of the Webb project says,...

As a Moon of Saturn Died, Planet's Rings Were Born
'Pretty Good Story' May
Explain Saturn's Rings
in case you missed it
Sep 18, 2022 3:55 PM CDT

'Pretty Good Story' May Explain Saturn's Rings

Scientists think one of its moons may have exploded eons ago

(Newser) - Saturn's rings are made from the guts of a vanished moon that got a bit too close to the planet. That's the conclusion of a new study that claims not only to explain the formation of the rings but also the significant tilt at which the solar system'...

NASA Gizmo Is Able to Make Oxygen on Mars
Toaster-Size Box Makes
Oxygen on Mars
new study
Sep 2, 2022 12:32 PM CDT

Toaster-Size Box Makes Oxygen on Mars

MOXIE offers hope of clearing a big hurdle for manned missions

(Newser) - The comparisons are small scale at the moment: A device the size of a toaster generated oxygen comparable to that of a modest tree. But given that this took place on Mars, the implications are of the large-scale variety. In a study published in Science Advances , NASA researchers report that...

Rare Planetary Event to Grace Night Skies in June
Ever See 5 Planets
Lined Up Before?
Here's Your Chance
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Jun 11, 2022 6:30 AM CDT

Ever See 5 Planets Lined Up Before? Here's Your Chance

Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn will all be aligned in June

(Newser) - Get ready for a planetary sky show not seen since "Hey Ya!" topped the charts and Mark Zuckerberg was launching Facebook out of his college dorm room. Throughout the month of June, those on the US mainland will be able to see, sans telescope, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,...

Venus, Jupiter to Converge This Weekend

Planets' conjunction best viewed early Saturday

(Newser) - Despite being millions of miles apart, Venus and Jupiter appear to meet in the night sky about once a year in what's known as a conjunction. But skywatchers who take in the sight this year are in for a real treat, as the planets will appear much closer than...

Scientists Baffled by Neptune's Temperature Swings
Scientists Baffled by
Neptune's Temperature Swings
NEW STUDY
Apr 12, 2022 10:55 AM CDT

Scientists Baffled by Neptune's Temperature Swings

Temps should be 'slowly growing warmer, not colder' amid southern summer

(Newser) - Neptune's southern hemisphere has spent the last 17 years in its summer season, yet global temperatures have plummeted. It's a head-scratching finding that leaves astronomers with more questions than answers. "Since we have been observing Neptune during its early southern summer, we would expect temperatures to be...

Our Sister Planet Just Got Undressed
Our Sister Planet
Just Got Undressed
NEW STUDY
Apr 30, 2021 9:40 AM CDT

Our Sister Planet Just Got Undressed

Venus' fundamental properties revealed through radar speckle tracking

(Newser) - Scientists have parted the clouds on Venus, our shrouded neighbor, revealing the length of its day, the rough size of its core, and the tilt of its axis. All this took almost 15 years to figure out. Between 2006 and 2020, Jean-Luc Margot and colleagues at the University of California,...

Newly Discovered Planet 'Is a Very Hellish World'

TOI-1431b is 3 times the size of Jupiter and hotter

(Newser) - Being 490 light-years from Earth, a newly discovered planet would be difficult to get to. That's just as well. "This is a very hellish world," an astrophysicist said. That's because, the team that pinpointed it found, TOI-1431b is inhospitably hot—hot enough to melt metal, hotter...

Remember Monday Night's Treat in the Sky

Jupiter and Saturn will appear nearly as one planet, a celestial rarity

(Newser) - The 2020 winter solstice has arrived, and along with it a moment that sky watchers have been anticipating for a while. Jupiter and Saturn will be so close in the night sky that they'll be difficult to distinguish as separate planets, per CNN . This so-called Great Conjunction hasn't...

Astronomers: There's a Space 'Superhighway'
Astronomers Find
Cosmic 'Superhighways'
new paper
Dec 12, 2020 3:40 PM CST

Astronomers Find Cosmic 'Superhighways'

Researchers call it a 'true celestial autobahn'

(Newser) - Think space travel is just too slow? Well, good news: Astronomers say they've uncovered an "autobahn" of invisible interactions that moves objects along—and might just speed up space exploration, Science Alert reports. The new research hinges on "manifolds," or gravitational regions that exist between orbital...

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