Astro Blog

Source:   By Daniel Clery, Science Excerpt: ...The planet hunt accelerated with the launch of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft in 2009, and the 2500 worlds it has discovered added statistical heft to the study of exoplanets—and yet more confusion. Kepler found that the most common type of planet in the galaxy is something between the size of Earth and Neptune—a “super-Earth,” which has no parallel in our solar system and was thought to be almost impossible to make.  ...Other planetary systems looked nothing like our orderly solar system, challenging the well-worn theories that had been developed to explain it. ...The traditional model of how stars and their planets form dates back to the 18th century, when scientists proposed that a slowly rotating cloud of dust and gas could collapse under its own gravity. ...This scenario naturally produces a planetary system just like our own: small, rocky planets with thin atmospheres close to the star, a Jupiter-like gas giant just beyond the...

Source:   NASA RELEASE 16-076 Excerpt: Using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have conducted the first search for atmospheres around temperate, Earth-sized planets beyond our solar system and found indications that increase the chances of habitability on two exoplanets. ...the exoplanets TRAPPIST-1b and TRAPPIST-1c, approximately 40 light-years away, are unlikely to have puffy, hydrogen-dominated atmospheres usually found on gaseous worlds. ...The planets orbit a red dwarf star at least 500 million years old, in the constellation of Aquarius. They were discovered in late 2015 through a series of observations by the TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope (TRAPPIST), a Belgian robotic telescope located at ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) La Silla Observatory in Chile. TRAPPIST-1b completes a circuit around its red dwarf star in 1.5 days and TRAPPIST-1c in 2.4 days. The planets are between 20 and 100 times closer to their star than the Earth is to the sun. B...

Source:   Kenneth Chang, The New York Times Excerpt: Susan G. Finley began working on rockets before NASA existed. And now at age 79, instead of watching fireworks on the Fourth of July, she will be at her post in NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., waiting for confirmation that the latest of its space adventures has succeeded. Ms. Finley, an engineering specialist for the Deep Space Network of radio telescopes, will monitor radio signals, waiting for one critical beep — a signal sent from Juno , the solar-powered planetary explorer — that announces it has finally reached Jupiter , the largest planet in the solar system, after a five-year journey. [See also  NASA’s Juno Spacecraft Enters Into Orbit Around Jupiter  ] http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/04/science/space/nasa-juno-susan-finley.html

Source:   By Kenneth Chang, New York Times Excerpt: After traveling for five years and nearly 1.8 billion miles, NASA’s Juno spacecraft will announce its arrival at Jupiter with the simplest of radio signals: a three-second beep. ...Juno’s mission is to explore the enigmas beneath the cloud tops of Jupiter. How far down does the Big Red Spot storm that has swirled for centuries extend? What is inside the solar system’s largest planet? ...“One of the primary goals of Juno is to learn the recipe for solar systems,” said Scott Bolton, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio who is the principal investigator for the $1.1 billion mission. “How do you make the solar system? How do you make the planets in our solar system?”... http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/28/science/nasa-jupiter-juno.html   See also  video  http://www.nytimes.com/video/science/100000004498333/juno-piercing-jupiters-clouds.html

Source:   By Bryan Lufkin, Scientific American Excerpt:  It will be the first spacecraft to probe deep below the planet’s thick cloud decks. ...the NASA orbiter will collect data that could elucidate the planet's origins and evolution, gather details about its long-lived storm (the Great Red Spot) and send back the highest-resolution color images of Jupiter to date. Jupiter was apparently born from the leftover gas and dust of the primordial nebula that formed our sun, yet exactly how that birth occurred, or even whether the planet has a solid core, is unknown. ...the NASA team has programmed the sensor-laden Juno to measure the chemical composition of the planet's atmosphere and to map its gravitational and magnetic fields. The craft's microwave radiometer will also “see” about 550 kilometers below the clouds covering Jupiter's surface. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-s-juno-spacecraft-is-scheduled-to-arrive-at-jupiter-on-july-4/

Source:  The New York Times Excerpt:  Set foot on [Pluto] an alien world, three billion miles from the warmth of the sun. Download the NYT VR [virtual reality] app for Android or iPhone. [Different views are seen by moving the smart phone to different viewing angles. Or use cardboard viewer for effect]... http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/05/19/science/space/seeking-plutos-frigid-heart-nytvr.html

Source:   By Shannon Hall, EoS-Earth & Space Science News (AGU) Excerpt: Massive meteorites likely slammed into a Martian ocean billions of years ago, unleashing tsunami waves up to 120 meters tall, a close study of a region of the Red Planet's terrain has found.... https://eos.org/articles/tsunamis-splashed-ancient-mars