Tag Archives: blog7

Explore Vesta with Vesta Trek

Today, NASA released Vesta Trek, a free web-based application that provides a detailed visualization of Vesta, one of the largest asteroids in the Solar System. This was made possible by NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which studied Vesta from July 2011 to September 2012. This application includes interactive maps, the ability to print Vesta in a 3-D printer, […] Continue reading

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Mercurial Art

“It appears that Mercury may well be a painted planet,” said Prof Peter Schultz, a co-author from Brown University. Mercury’s dull surface has long been a point of perplexion in the field of planetary geology. Scientists have thought that there must be a mystery darkening agent contributing to the planet’s low reflectance. A new study has given […] Continue reading

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Do we have Jupiter to thank for Earth?

A new study by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences revealed that Jupiter may just be more than the largest gas giant planet in our solar system. We little earthlings may be here thanks to Jupiter and its…

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Jovian s, the planets we can not touch

When we think of Planets we think of all of the ones that we have either stepped foot on or would like to step foot on someday.  Even though we haven’t visited any of the other planets due to their distances and weather we could hypothetically walk on all of them if we had the […] Continue reading

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Pluto’s moons

There has been much debate on the status of Pluto’s classification. It is now believed to be a “dwarf planet”. One reason that people are challenging this is because of its existence of moons and a moon system. This picture from NASA shows the layout of Pluto and its surrounding bodies .  Source There are […] Continue reading

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Io is Outrageously Hot

Io is known for being extremely volcanic. By just looking at images of Jupiter’s closest moon you can assume that this is a particularly hot world. Io’s scalding heat is caused by the extreme tidal forces that act upon it. Now when we compare the heat flow on Io to the heat flow on Earth it is possible to […] Continue reading

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Rosetta’s Trajectory

This photo found on NASA’s Solar Exploration page diagrams the trajectory for the European Space Agency’s mission Rosetta’s exploration of the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Launched in 2004, Rosetta has since flown-by Earth three times, Mars, and two asteroids, and is scheduled to arrive at the comet later this year.  It’s so how cool scientist are ale … Continue reading Rosetta’s Trajectory Continue reading

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Extra Solar Planets, Probable Cause for Life Elsewhere

  “Kepler Orrery (large and small systems)” An extra solar planet is define as an object in space that meets the formal definition detailed by the IAU with the exception that it orbits a star other than the Sun. As of April 4, 2014 there have 1780 planets discovered in 1103 planetary systems (460 of […] Continue reading

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“Games without rules have many possible outcomes.” – Andrew Knoll, Harvard

On a slightly more positive note to my other post about my reservations to the search for extraterrestrial life, NASA has recently confirmed that Saturn’s moon, Enceladus has been hiding a Lake Superior-sized ocean. It was discovered using data gathered by the Cassini spacecraft, and while suspicions have been around for a while, it has […] Continue reading

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Life in the Periphery

Sedna is a dwarf planet existing outside of the Kuiper Belt; in itself that makes it fairly distinct as there is only one other dwarf planet existing beyond the Kuiper Belt and that was only discovered in late March. The other thing that makes Sedna interesting is that it has ultra-red material which is indicative … Continue reading Life in the Periphery Continue reading

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