For decades, scientists have been debating how would it be if a piece of Earth broke down and shaped our Moon about 4.5 billion years ago. Now, new chemical evidence directs science to the theory that events were actually much more turbulent than we had imagined. Scientists describe the impact that “freed” the Moon using the metaphor “hammer struck a melon.” Science has established the theory that the Moon was once part of the Earth before it was cut off and sent into orbit, but the exact circumstances in which it happened were still unclear. So far, the popular theory...
Scientists have confirmed the presence of ice on the Moon, Agency France-Press reported. For years, researchers have reported such a possibility, but so far there was no clear evidence. “For the first time, scientists have clear evidence of the presence of frozen water on the surface,” said Shuai Li of the Institute of Geophysics and Planetology in Hawaii. The ice, which is mostly in craters of the moon’s poles, was spotted by the Indian probe Chandrayaan – 1, launched in 2008. NASA scientists have analyzed the chemical charts that “surely prove that there is frozen water on the surface of the moon,” he...
The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) is one of the closest dwarf galaxies circling the Milky Way. The SMC and his great sister, Large Magellanic Cloud, have fascinated mankind since the dawn of time. Now we can see them like never before. SMC is distorted by the gravitational attraction of other galaxies in the system. This makes it quite active, with many new stars. And because is only 200,000 light-years away, the SMC is a brilliant candidate for exploring stellar evolution. The problem so far has been interstellar dust, preventing us from getting a full picture. Fortunately, astronomers can now rely...
Scientists have long been aware of the fact that galaxies are growing in volume when they swallow up other, smaller galaxies. This process is part of the cosmic evolution. Evidence of this is the cosmic auras (halo) in which the stars of the cannibalized galaxies can be spotted, Science Alert writes. All this applies in full force for Andromeda (also known as M31) – our closest neighbor. The galaxy has a huge and virtually invisible halo of stars that is bigger than itself. For a long time, scientists thought it had come from a number of small mergers. However, thanks...
A dozen new Moons are found around Jupiter, and now the total number of moons known to be 79, most of any other Planet in our Solar System, astronomers said. One of the new moons was described as a “oddball” by researcher Scott Shepherd at the Carnegie Science Institute, due to its small size of almost one kilometer. It also “has orbit like no other known moon of Jupiter and is its smallest known moon,” he added. The strange moon takes about a year and a half to travel around Jupiter and its orbit is tilted that intersects with many...
David Paliwoda has created a really great website with the help of which you can very clearly see how far the Red Planet is from us. If the Earth is 100 pixels wide, where would Mars be? For begging – The Moon is 3000 pixels (the satellite is wide 27 pixels). But what about Mars? The Red Planet is only 428,000 pixels. It takes ages to get to it. Even in pixels. Check it out HERE
The question why the Sun is circle, only seems to be simple one. And confirmation of this is the fact that the answer to the “childish” question, scientists have only been able to find in the twentieth century. The complexity comes from the fact that, as the Sun represents a huge globe of hot gases, in the sky above us, instead of the round light we are accustomed to seeing, we should observe a blurry, shining spot with no pronounced boundaries. And we see a circle. And this circle is quite limited, leaving even the impression of a solid surface...
The Solar System is full of many strange moons. Our own, however, is probably the most unusual. For example – the Moon is really huge. Virtually as a Planet. The Earth’s satellite is a quarter of the size of the Planet. With the exception of Pluto and Chiron, it is larger than any other moon in the Solar System located in the orbit of a Planet. What’s more – the Moon is so big it does not even orbit the Earth. Both space objects are in the orbit of a point located between them, called barycentre. It is located...
