On Jan. 19, 2019, just 161 days after its launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe completed its first orbit of the Sun, reaching the point in its orbit farthest from our star, called aphelion. The spacecraft has now begun the second of 24 planned orbits, on track for its second perihelion, or closest approach to the Sun, on April 4, 2019. Parker Solar Probe entered full operational status (known as Phase E) on Jan. 1, with all systems online and operating as designed. The spacecraft has been delivering data from its instruments to...
The process responsible for the formation of the Earth does not imply the existence of key ingredients for life. New research, however, shows how our planet probably has acquired them. Scientists are saying a Mars-sized planet has hit the Earth about 4.4 billion years ago. On the one hand, it served as a “donor” to the important ingredients for life, as its core was rich in sulfur. On the other – it has led to the formation of the Moon, our natural companion. Experiments prove that much of the nitrogen and carbon of the Earth is the result of this...
A meteorite hit the moon during Monday’s total lunar eclipse The impact happened at 4:41:38 am GMT exactly, or 11:41:38 pm ET 21 January, 2019 The confirmation of the impact came this morning from the Moon Impacts Detection and Analysis System (MIDAS), a project developed by the University of Huelva and the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalucia. MIDAS uses three observatories to capture transient events happening on the surface of the Moon. Monitoring these impacts is very important. By learning about what is hitting the lunar surface we can better understand the space environment around the Earth-Moon system. Plus it...
Jupiter is not only the biggest planet in the Solar System. A new study of astronomers from Laurence Livermore’s Californian Laboratory, and the University of Munster in Germany, defines Jupiter as the oldest planet in the solar system, Space.com reports. The new analysis of the Planet calculates that the core of Jupiter was 20 times larger than the Earth only 1 million years after the formation of the Sun. This is a fairly short time because young stars usually throw a lot of energy in their first years, which is enough to blow dust and gas to prevent the formation...
If the sun appears a bit more intense than normal to you this week, you have a keen eye. The Earth has just made its closest approach to our nearest star for the year. The orbital milestone is known as “perihelion,” and it marks the time when the distance between the Earth and the Sun is at its smallest. The event occurs every year in early January, and in 2019 it took place Thursday, Jan. 3 at 12:20 a.m. EST (or at 05:20 GMT, depending on your time zone). On average, the Earth orbits the Sun at a distance of...
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft just barely reached its goal – the asteroid Bennu, but has already made significant discoveries. One of them is that there is water inside the asteroid, the space agency said. The data of the device show that in the structure of Bennu there are molecules of oxygen and hydrogen that are connected to each other. Scientists say they are abundant in the clay minerals of the asteroid. This means that at some point in its story, Bennu had a touch of water. The asteroid itself is too small to have ever had liquid water. But such was...
The Parker Spacecraft has successfully passed its first approach to the Sun, NASA reported. This happened on Monday 5th of November, when the device flew 24 million kilometers from the surface of the Star. This makes Parker the only spacecraft that was so close to the Sun. 24 million km. look very much from Earth’s point of view, but for the scale of the Sun and Space is very small. They have exposed Parker to serious heat, strong solar radiation and a solar wind. “The Parker Probe is designed to be able to take care of itself while approaching the...
According to NASA scientists, involved in the New Horizons project, the definition of Planet should be changed. They are ready with a new classification which, if accepted, will add more than 100 new Planets in the Solar System, reported the online edition of Science Alert. Currently as a “Planet” is defined a single cosmic body that orbits the Sun and meets certain orbital criteria. Scientists say this is not correct. “While respecting intelligent scientific classification and people’s intuition, we offer a geographically based definition of a “Planet” that focuses primarily on its physical properties rather than on orbital”, the...
The story of Pluto continues to become increasingly unclear. Some time ago, the space object lost its status on a Planet and it was put into the Dwarf Planet. Some science, however, dispute and this definition, and a new study points to the idea that Pluto might actually be a giant comet, reported the online edition of CNET. The study was done by scientists from the Institute “Southwest” (SwRI), which used data from the NASA’s ”New Horizons,” and the mission “Rosetta” from European Space Agency (ESA), which landed on the comet 67R. They compared the data with what is known...
