Daily Archives: April 6, 2016

Rocky Planets Shouldn’t Get This Big…

Posted on April 6, 2016 by andyastronomer

Planetary formation theorists are scratching their heads at the recent discovery of the largest rocky world found to date – BD+20594b. This exoplanet is a rocky world with a diameter half that of Neptune. With a planet that size, one may think that we were talking about a gas giant, but we’re not. According to our present […] Continue reading →

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Pluto’s Heart

Posted on April 6, 2016 by clharrell

The Tombaugh Regio, nicknamed “Pluto’s Heart” (pictured above), is one of the most extensively studied features of the dwarf planet. Thanks to NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft, we can get a closer glimpse into the heart-shaped bright spot on Pluto’s surface. More recently, New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern has theorized that Tombaugh Regio is the result of […] Continue reading →

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The Mystery of “Hot Jupiters”

Posted on April 6, 2016 by alecsolarsystem

Over the last decade, astronomers have discovered thousands of exoplanets, many of which have gone against our current understanding of planet formation. Most of these exoplanets orbit very close to their star, as these are the easiest to discover since they block out more light from their respective stars than planets orbiting farther out do. […] Continue reading →

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