Using data collected over 18 years of observations, scientists now say that the planet Mars is wobbling. The planet’s wiggling results in its poles moving on a regular basis. Earth also has a wobble, but the Mars wobble is a bit more of a mystery than Earth’s since Mars has no oceans. When you think …
A small asteroid made an extremely close pass of Earth recently and wasn’t detected until after it had already passed. The asteroid known as 2020 VT4 flew by Earth at a distance of just 240 miles. It was closer to Earth during its flyby than many manmade satellites and even the International Space Station. Our …
An all-metal asteroid residing in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter called 16 Psych is worth an incredible amount of money. A new study revealed that the asteroid is likely entirely made of iron and nickel. Mining an asteroid isn’t yet possible, but that may change sooner rather than later. We don’t think about …
Images from NASA’s New Horizons probe have revealed what appears to be snow-capped peaks on Pluto, but they’re not what they seem. Researchers suggest that the “snow” is actually methane that condensed and froze on the peaks, making it look like snow. Pluto’s surface temperature is nearly 400 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. Ah, Pluto. The …
Scientists have used gravitational lensing to detect a so-called ‘rogue planet’ that doesn’t orbit a star and floats freely in space. The planet is relatively small, but researchers can’t tell for certain how far away it is from Earth. It’s possible that the Milky Way is home to trillions of these free planets. We think …
New research suggests that Venus was once potentially habitable, but that likely changed when Jupiter swooped in and messed things up. Venus once had a much more elliptical orbit, allowing its surface to cool off for extended periods of time. When Jupiter pushed up closer to the Sun, it may have changed the orbit of …
Astronomers have spotted an exoplanet orbiting a cool star that completes a year in just 3.14 days. Nicknamed the “Pi Planet” or “Pi Earth,” the roughly Earth-sized world is extremely hot. Its surface temperature is around 350 degrees Fahrenheit… which is a great temperature for baking pie. You don’t have to be a total math …
Astronomers have observed what they believe is a triple-star system in space surrounded by a chaotic disc of dust that could form planets. The stars orbit each other and the dust disc is shredded in different directions. The researchers believe there’s enough material orbiting these stars to make 30 Earths. On Earth, we see one …
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will be able to detect rogue planets by spotting their gravitational lensing. The telescope, which is slated to launch in 2025, could spot hundreds of free-floating planets that don’t orbit stars. Understanding free-floating worlds could help us to better understand how planets of all types form. We tend to …
Researchers have theorized that our Sun once had a binary companion or another star that was roughly the same size as itself. The binary pair may have been responsible for drawing in the wealth of material that became the planets and other objects that now orbit the Sun. This theory could also potentially explain how …
