jupiter

September 25, 2009 Astronomers using the twin 10-meter telescopes at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii recently explored one of the most compact dust disks ever resolved around another star. If placed in our own solar system, the disk would reach nearly to Jupiter's orbit. An outer disk that...

Studies of features in Jupiter's spectacular and rapidly changing aurorae have given new insights into the complex electromagnetic interactions between the giant planet and two of its innermost moons. As Ganymede and Io orbit Jupiter, they interact with regions of plasma and generate...

The first of three images of the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) GigaGalaxy Zoom project — a new 800-million-pixel panorama of the entire sky as seen from ESO's observing sites in Chile — is now available. The project allows stargazers to explore and experience the universe as it is seen...

Astronomers from the University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Hawaii have discovered multiple fragments ejected during the largest cometary outburst ever witnessed. Stevenson, together with colleagues Jan Kleyna and David Jewitt, began observing comet Holmes in October 2007...

Radar imaging at NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar on June 12 and 14, 2009, revealed that near-Earth asteroid 1994 CC is a triple system. Credit: NASA/JPL/GSSR New radar observations have revealed that a near-Earth asteroid is actually three rocks. The system, asteroid 1994 CC, was imaged...

A long-period comet called 2001 RX14 (Linear) turned up in images captured in 2002 by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescope in New Mexico. Credit: Mike Solontoi/University of Washington Some of the comets that make their way to Earth's neighborhood from the frigid outer reaches of the solar...

This montage shows the best views of Jupiter's four large and diverse "Galilean" satellites. The four moons are, from left to right: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. The images have been scaled to represent the true relative sizes of the four moons and are arranged in their order from Jupiter...

A sudden bright spot that appeared in the clouds of Venus just days after a comet left a bruise on Jupiter has scientists stumped as to its cause. Venus' bright spot, first noticed by amateur astronomer Frank Melillo of Holtsville, NY on July 19, is not the first such brightening noticed on our...

Some of the comets that make their way to Earth's neighborhood from the frigid outer reaches of the solar system likely follow a different route than previously thought, new modeling suggests. The study's findings, detailed in the July 31 issue of the journal Science, are good news for our...

Mysterious spot appeared on planet Venus Thursday, July 30, 2009 It takes but not with the spots in our solar system. Ran amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley in Australia last week in a dark spot in the southern hemisphere of Jupiter gas, now has his' colleague 'Frank Melillo from New York...

The recent bruising Jupiter received from a cosmic impact is a violent reminder that our solar system is a shooting gallery that sometimes blasts Earth. Still, what are the odds of a cosmic impact threatening our planet? So far 784 near-Earth objects (NEOs) more than a half-mile wide (1 km)...

Hubble photographs of the impact on Jupiter Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Actually, the Hubble Space Telescope in May after the repair is still controlled and calibrated, but such an impact on Jupiter rarely make them. So NASA scientists Hubble once there. It is now clear that the black spot last...

Star Trek is partly true: transparent metals in core of planet Tuesday, July 28, 2009 Back to the old habit of giving science fiction stories scientists food for thought. In Hamburg (Germany) is one of the constatatie metals that may be transparent, as was suggested in Star Trek IV: The...

Tue Jul 21, 9:59 am ET CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) – A large comet or asteroid has slammed into the Jupiter, creating an impact site the size of Earth, pictures by an Australian amateur astronomer show. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed the discovery using its large infrared telescope at...

New models of planet formation indicate that, at specific times, the architecture of the solar system experienced dramatic upheaval. Many of the objects found today in the asteroid belt located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter may have formed in the outermost reaches of the solar...

Gas giant planets that migrated early in the history of the solar system could have violently knocked some of the asteroid belt's denizens into their current orbits, according to a new study that aims to solve a number of enduring space rock mysteries. The research, which uses a theory of the...

Astronomers have taken what they say are the first-ever direct images of planets outside of our solar system, including a visible-light snapshot of a single-planet system and an infrared picture of a multiple-planet system. Earth-like worlds might also exist in the three-planet system, but if...

June 26, 2009 Stephen Hawking believes that one of the major factors in the possible scarcity of intelligent life in our galaxy is the high probability of an asteroid or comet colliding with inhabited planets. We have observed, Hawking points out in Life in the Universe, the collision of a...

The planet names are derived from Roman and Greek mythology, except for the name Earth which is Germanic and Old English in origin. The five planets easily visible with the unaided eye (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) have been observed for all human history as far as we can tell, and...

Saturn's Rings: As Saturn travels around the Sun, we see its majestic ring system from different angles. These images were taken with the Hubble Space Telescope from the year 1996 (bottom left) to 2000 (top right). Notice how thin the rings are! They are 300,000 km across, and only a kilometer...