Daily Archives: April 4, 2015

Put a Ring on It

An interesting characteristic that all the jovian planets possess is their rings. The most remarkable and noticeable of these are Saturn’s, which extend hundreds of thousands of kilometers wide. However, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune all have rings as well, on a much smaller scale. Although the rings are rather wide, they are only 1-1000 m… Continue reading Put a Ring on It Continue reading

Posted in Jovians, Planet Rings | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Put a Ring on It

Io’s crazy volcanoes!

photo from space.com So, we all know that Io is notoriously the volcanic moon of Jupiter, but apparently a couple of years ago it randomly got…MORE volcanic? According to this article, in August of 2013 three large eruptions occurred on Io.  To put it in perspective, this is the number of large eruptions that we […] Continue reading

Posted in Moons | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Io’s crazy volcanoes!

White dwarf supernovae

White dwarf supernovae only occur in a binary system, in which one of them is a white dwarf while the other can be a giant star or just a main sequence star. As far as we know, a white dwarf is the remnant of a star after the nuclear fusion inside its core has ceased,… Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on White dwarf supernovae

Halley’s Comet

Halley’s comet is a short-period comet, which can be seen from Earth every 75-76 years so that a person could see it at most twice during his or her lifetime. It is undoubtedly the most famous comet. The last time it returned was in 1986, and it will be back in 2061 as predicted. Halley’s… Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Halley’s Comet

Predicting Impact Events

In 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 created a large impact event on Jupiter, giving the scientific community a greater sense of urgency in detecting possible impact objects before they reached Earth. These efforts to detect near-Earth objects, known collectively as “Spaceguard”, have enjoyed both successes and failures. For example, in 2008, the Catalina Sky Survey discovered … Continue reading Predicting Impact Events Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Predicting Impact Events

Predicting Impact Events

In 1994, Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 created a large impact event on Jupiter, giving the scientific community a greater sense of urgency in detecting possible impact objects before they reached Earth. These efforts to detect near-Earth objects, known collectively as “Spaceguard”, have enjoyed both successes and failures. For example, in 2008, the Catalina Sky Survey discovered … Continue reading Predicting Impact Events Continue reading

Posted in Class | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Predicting Impact Events

New Horizons

Exploring Pluto Pluto, the small icy body at the edge of our planetary system, has been under scrutiny in scientific …

Continue reading

Continue reading

Posted in Dwarf Planets, Instruments | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on New Horizons