Tag

Solar System

All articles tagged with #solar system

space1 day ago•5 min saved

Voyager 1 nears a light-day from Earth, marking humanity’s farthest ongoing beacon

NASA’s Voyager 1 is set to reach exactly one light-day from Earth in November 2026, about 25.9 billion kilometers away, continuing to send science data despite aging power and limited instruments. It has already crossed the termination shock and heliopause into the interstellar medium, but remains far from the Solar System’s edge; by around 2036 it could become undetectable, after which it will drift through the Milky Way for eons as a relic of humanity’s first grand interstellar-leaning probes.

via BBC Sky at Night Magazine|

#astronomy #interstellar-medium #solar-system

space2 days ago•11 min saved

Earth’s Sub-Pixel Spotlight: Sagan’s Push Turns Voyager 1 Photo into a Timeless Icon

In 1990, after Carl Sagan urged it, Voyager 1 photographed Earth from about 6 billion kilometers away, capturing a sub-pixel Pale Blue Dot; though scientifically minimal, the image gained iconic status through Sagan’s writing and a 2020 processing update, and with Voyager’s cameras long since turned off, it stands as the mission’s last full-family portrait of the solar system.

via Space Daily|

#carl-sagan #pale-blue-dot #solar-system

science6 days ago•38 min saved

Antarctic stardust in ice could rewrite our solar system’s origin story

Scientists analyzing microscopic presolar dust grains trapped in Antarctic ice say these grains predate the sun and carry isotopic fingerprints from ancient stars. Studying them could illuminate the materials and processes present at the birth of the solar system, helping researchers understand how dust coagulated into planets and how interstellar material was delivered to early Earth.

via Yahoo|

#antarctic #cosmochemistry #presolar-grains

space-and-spaceflight11 days ago•16 min saved

Earth’s Ice Reveals Traces of a Local Interstellar Cloud

New Antarctic ice analyses show trace iron-60, a signature of stellar explosions, was delivered to Earth as the solar system moves through the Local Interstellar Cloud. The measured iron-60 levels are lower than some predictions, but the dating (about 40,000–80,000 years ago) aligns with recent estimates that our solar system has been passing through the cloud within roughly 40,000–124,000 years, meaning Antarctica preserves a geological record of this interstellar journey.

via Gizmodo|

#antarctica #astrophysics #interstellar-cloud

space16 days ago•34 min saved

Distant Solar System Visitor Illuminates Our Origins

Astronomers say comet C/2025 R3 PANSTARRS — a long-period visitor likely from the Oort Cloud — has been visible in the northern hemisphere for weeks, offering a rare glimpse at material from the solar system's birth. With such comets taking extremely elongated orbits, this one may not return for around 170,000 years, making its current pass a unique opportunity to study early solar-system building blocks and clues about how planets formed, as gravitational interactions could eventually eject it from the system.

via Yahoo|

#astronomy #comet #oort-cloud

science1 month ago•4 min saved

Hidden Fifth Force: Could Solar-System Tests Unveil Cosmic Gravity Clues

A NASA physicist argues that a proposed fifth force—potentially screened in dense environments—could explain cosmic acceleration while staying hidden in the Solar System; current observations align with general relativity locally, so any breakthrough would require a dedicated, falsifiable mission built on precise predictions and guided by cosmological survey data to bridge local gravity tests with the large-scale universe.

via Science Daily|

#dark-energy #fifth-force #gravity

space1 month ago•37 min saved

Bezos envisions a trillion humans living in space to spark breakthroughs

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said on the Lex Fridman Podcast that he would love to see a trillion humans living in the solar system, with giant rotating space stations capable of hosting cities, farms, and industry. He argues more people could drive breakthroughs—“1,000 Mozarts and 1,000 Einsteins”—and emphasizes moving beyond planetary surfaces while Earth remains a protected base. The plan centers on reducing the cost of getting materials into space (via Blue Origin and related efforts) to enable this long‑term expansion, though no timeline is provided.

via yahoo.com|

#blue-origin #jeff-bezos #solar-system

space2 months ago•2 min saved

NASA Unveils Ultra-High-Definition Portraits of the Solar System

NASA released a new batch of ultra-high-resolution images of Solar System planets, including Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Mercury, and Venus, showcasing extraordinary detail from Earth’s weather and continents to Jupiter’s storms and Saturn’s perfectly visible rings, while Uranus appears blue and desolate and Mercury/Venus are shown in vibrant color thanks to advanced imaging tech.

via supercarblondie.com|

#imagery #nasa #planets

astronomy2 months ago•53 min saved

Space snowmen in the Kuiper Belt: a new clue to their formation

New simulations show that spinning clouds of pebble-sized particles can form contact binaries—two linked bodies—and even triple planetesimals, offering a simple explanation for space snowmen in the Kuiper Belt; the study finds about 4% of simulated planetesimals become contact binaries, a share below the previously thought 10–25%, and notes that more detailed particle modeling could raise that fraction.

via Space|

#astronomy #kuiper-belt #planetesimals

astronomy3 months ago•50 min saved

Interplanetary Slopes: Where Could You Ski in the Solar System?

Space.com playfully imagines the Winter Olympics going interplanetary and explores which solar-system locales—particularly icy moons with subsurface oceans—could, in theory, host skiing, while delving into the science of ocean worlds and the extreme conditions of space.

via Space|

#astronomy #icy-moons #moon-skiing

space3 months ago•3 min saved

Juno Tightens Jupiter's Dimensions: Slightly Smaller Than Earlier Estimates

Juno's latest measurements refine Jupiter's equatorial diameter to 88,841 miles (142,976 km) and polar diameter to 83,067 miles (133,684 km), about 5 miles and 15 miles smaller than earlier estimates, confirming the planet's oblateness and aiding models of its interior and atmosphere.

via Reuters|

#juno #jupiter #nasa

astronomy4 months ago•47 min saved

Cosmic Planes: Why Our Solar System and Galaxy Are Flat

The Sun and planets all orbit in a single, flat disk aligned to the ecliptic because the solar nebula collapsed with rotation; similarly, the Milky Way and Local Group lie in near-planes (galactic and supergalactic), though these planes tilt relative to one another. “Down” isn’t universal in space—it depends on the reference plane—demonstrating how initial angular momentum during formation shapes the cosmos’s familiar flat structure from the solar system outward.

via Space|

#astronomy #cosmology #ecliptic

science4 months ago•43 min saved

What’s Below the Solar System’s Plane? A Cosmic Perspective

Earth’s planets orbit the Sun in a relatively flat plane called the ecliptic, and there is no universal 'down' in space—the direction depends on the scale and frame of reference: beyond the solar system, stars lie in a galactic plane inclined about 60° to the ecliptic, and galaxies lie in the supergalactic plane; traveling in the apparent 'down' would eventually take you to other stars and galaxies, illustrating that spatial orientation in the cosmos is relative rather than fixed.

via Yahoo|

#ecliptic #galactic-plane #milky-way

space4 months ago•73 min saved

New simulations suggest Jupiter harbors 1.5 times the Sun’s oxygen

A detailed set of simulations modeling Jupiter’s interior atmosphere finds the gas giant contains about 1.5 times more oxygen than the Sun, likely due to Jupiter’s early accretion of icy material beyond the snow line. The models couple atmospheric chemistry with hydrodynamics, explaining why deep oxygen (mostly in water) is hidden from direct measurement and suggesting slower deep atmospheric circulation (gas movement taking weeks). The findings support formation scenarios for Jupiter and offer insight into the solar system’s history, with the study published Jan 8 in the Planetary Science Journal.

via Space|

#jupiter #oxygen #planetary-formation

science4 months ago•12 min saved

Down in Space Is Relative: Planes, Orbits, and the Cosmic Bearings

There isn’t a universal ‘down’ in space. The solar system lies in a flattened disk (the ecliptic) because the collapsing rotating solar nebula shaped planets to orbit in roughly the same plane. The Milky Way has its own galactic plane (tilted about 60° to the ecliptic), and the Local Group sits in a nearly perpendicular supergalactic plane (about 84.5° to the galactic plane). Orientation of these planes comes from the initial rotation of matter when clouds collapsed, so every star, planet, and galaxy can have its own plane and direction depending on where you’re looking.

via The Conversation|

#astronomy #cosmology #galaxy