Astronomers find these five chapters to be a handy way of conceiving the universe’s incredibly long lifespan.
Category: space – Page 782
Orbit the Moon From the Comfort of Your Home
One small step…just kidding, no steps are required.
New NASA Challenge Seeks Novel Food System Technologies
There is a prize purse of up to $500000 for the team that can keep the astronauts fed during deep space journeys. Read the details here.
First evidence that water can be created on the lunar surface
Before the Apollo era, the moon was thought to be dry as a desert due to the extreme temperatures and harshness of the space environment. Many studies have since discovered lunar water: ice in shadowed polar craters, water bound in volcanic rocks, and unexpected rusty iron deposits in the lunar soil. Despite these findings, there is still no true confirmation of the extent or origin of lunar surface water.
Astronomers Find a Planet Like Jupiter, but It Doesn’t Have any Clouds
Astronomers have found the first Jupiter-like exoplanet with no clouds or haze. It’s an ideal object for further study with the James Webb Space Telescope.
Can you picture Jupiter without any observable clouds or haze? It isn’t easy since Jupiter’s latitudinal cloud bands and its Great Red Spot are iconic visual features in our Solar System. Those features are caused by upswelling and descending gas, mostly ammonia. After Saturn’s rings, Jupiter’s cloud forms are probably the most recognizable feature in the Solar System.
Now astronomers with the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian (CfA) have found a planet similar in mass to Jupiter, but with a cloud-free atmosphere.