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A mini planetary parade will see Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn align above the horizon Astronomy enthusiasts are in for a celestial treat at dawn tomorrow, as a stunning mini planetary parade is set to grace our skies. The early hours of the morning will witness Jupiter, Mercury, Uranus, Mars, Neptune and Saturn aligning just above the horizon. The prospects of catching Uranus with the naked eye might be slim, but it's anticipated that avid sky-gazers across Britain could capture glances of other planets, with some spotted even without the need for binoculars. Shedding light on this space...

Explanation: Why does Jupiter have rings? Jupiter's main ring was discovered in 1979 by NASA's passing Voyager 1 spacecraft, but its origin was then a mystery. Data from NASA's Galileo spacecraft that orbited Jupiter from 1995 to 2003, however, confirmed the hypothesis that this ring was created by meteoroid impacts on small nearby moons. As a small meteoroid strikes tiny Metis, for example, it will bore into the moon, vaporize, and explode dirt and dust off into a Jovian orbit. The featured image of Jupiter in infrared light by the James Webb Space Telescope shows not only Jupiter and its...

All four of the sun’s giant planets emit more energy than they receive from the sun. Like the sun’s other giant worlds, Uranus (seen in this 1986 photo from the Voyager 2 spacecraft) radiates more energy than the sun gives it, though not nearly as strongly as its massive peers do. JPL/NASA ===================================================================== Uranus emits more energy than it gets from the sun, two new studies report — a discovery that contradicts findings from the venerable Voyager spacecraft. When Voyager 2 sped past Uranus on January 24, 1986, the spacecraft detected no significant excess heat from the planet, making it...

Explanation: Why are there so many cyclones around the north pole of Jupiter? The topic is still being researched. NASA's robotic Juno mission orbiting Jupiter took data in 2018 that was used to construct this stunning view of the curious cyclones at Jupiter's north pole. Measuring the thermal emission from Jovian cloud tops, the infrared observations are not restricted to the hemisphere illuminated by sunlight. They reveal eight cyclonic features that surround a cyclone about 4,000 kilometers in diameter, just offset from the giant planet's geographic north pole. Similar data show a cyclone at the Jovian south pole with five...

Research led by Burkhard Militzer, University of California Berkeley This false color photograph of Neptune was made from Voyager 2 images taken through three filters: blue, green, and a filter that passes light at a wavelength that is absorbed by methane gas. (Credit: NASA/JPL) In a nutshell Uranus and Neptune have weird, disorganized magnetic fields because their interiors naturally separate into two distinct layers—a flowing water-rich upper layer and a stable hydrocarbon-rich lower layer. Using advanced simulations of 540 atoms under extreme pressure and temperature, Berkeley physicist Burkhard Militzer discovered that planetary ices (water, methane, and ammonia) spontaneously separate rather...

The best chance to see as many planets as possible will be just after sunset on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Four of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, and Mars - will be visible to the naked eye. Saturn will be harder to see because it will be low in the horizon. You will need a telescope to spot the other two planets - Uranus and Neptune. A good view of the horizon and clear skies will offer the best chance of spotting them all. However, the window to see all seven planets will be very brief. Dr Edward...

A NASA spacecraft orbiting Jupiter has just witnessed some of the most extreme volcanic eruptions ever seen in the solar system, coming from a giant underground magma chamber on the "tormented" Jovian moon Io. The energy pouring from this record-breaking hot spot far exceeds the amount of power we are producing on Earth, researchers say. Io is Jupiter's third-largest moon, spanning roughly 2,300 miles (3,700 kilometers) across, which makes it slightly bigger than Earth's moon. It orbits Jupiter at a distance of around 262,000 miles (422,000 km) — also similar to how far away the moon orbits Earth — but...

A massive hotspot — larger the Earth’s Lake Superior — can be seen just to the right of Io’s south pole in this annotated image taken by the JIRAM infrared imager aboard NASA’s Juno on December 27, 2024, during the spacecraft’s flyby of the Jovian moon. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/ASI/INAF/JIRAM NASA’s Juno spacecraft has uncovered an immense volcanic hot spot on Jupiter’s moon Io, surpassing any previously recorded eruptions in the solar system. This fiery inferno, detected by the JIRAM instrument, radiates over 80 trillion watts and dwarfs the infamous Loki Patera. Even by the standards of Io, the most volcanic celestial...

New measurements of Neptune's atmosphere by a European space telescope suggest that a comet may have crashed into the gas giant about 200 years ago.Scientists analyzed the composition of Neptune's atmosphere using data from the Herschel space observatory. They found a peculiar distribution of carbon monoxide in the gas giant's atmosphere, which could be an indication of an earlier comet impact...Other similar collisions between comets (or asteroids) and planets helped the astronomers detect the telltale signs of cometary impacts.When pieces of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 slammed into Jupiter in 1994, scientists were able to examine the trajectory and debris to...

Jupiter as seen by Hubble. Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Simon (Goddard Space Flight Center) and M.H. Wong (University of California, Berkeley) ================================================================= The Great Red Spot is a storm larger than our whole planet. It is clearly visible on the Southern Hemisphere of Jupiter, even to small telescopes, and we have been observing it for centuries. It became clear in the last few years that it is shrinking. Now, new research suggests that the cause of this is a change in diet. Simulations suggest that the growth of the larger storm depends on continuously incorporating smaller storms that get...

A Florida man accused of making threats against former President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. JD Vance and their families on social media was arrested on Friday, police said. The Jupiter Police Department said in a news release that officers arrested Michael W. Wiseman on charges of written threats to kill. SNIP Detectives said Wiseman had made multiple written threats on Facebook against Trump and Vance, who became the Republican presidential and vice presidential nominees, respectively, this week. Threats were also made "concerning bodily harm" against members of the Trump and Vance families, according to police. Multiple people notified local police...

The massive swirling storm system was originally thought to have been discovered by astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini in 1665, but a new study found it was not the most recent spot.That means the Great Red Spot is roughly 190 years old since it was last documented in 1831.Researchers from Spain also discovered that the storm system is shrinking each year, dropping from 24,200 miles wide when it was observed in 1879 to just 8,700 miles wide today - suggesting it could also disappear one day.Researchers looked at early observations dating back to Cassini’s discovery, including his drawing of the celestial...

The Jovian moon Io as seen by the New Horizons spacecraft. The mission's camera caught a view of one of this moon's volcanos erupting. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio) The Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), located on Mount Graham in Arizona and run by the University of Arizona, is part of the next generation of extremely large telescopes (ELTs). With two primary mirrors measuring 8.4 m (~27.5 ft), it has a collecting area slightly greater than that of a 30-meter (98.4 ft) telescope. With their resolution, adaptive optics, and sophisticated instruments, these telescopes are expected to probe deeper...

Around a star in our Milky Way galaxy, astronomers have discovered an extremely low-density planet that is as light as cotton candy. The new planet, named WASP-193b, appears to dwarf Jupiter in size, yet it is a fraction of its density. CREDIT: K. Ivanov ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A team of astronomers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) say they have discovered a distant planet that they can’t explain with current planet evolutionary theories. The newly discovered WASP-193b is a gas giant 50 percent larger than Jupiter, the largest gas giant in our solar system. However, it is only one-tenth as dense,...

Mathematicians think abstract tools from a field called symplectic geometry might help with planning missions to far-off moons and planets. In October, a Falcon Heavy rocket is scheduled to launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida, carrying NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The $5 billion mission is designed to find out if Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, can support life. But because Europa is constantly bombarded by intense radiation created by Jupiter’s magnetic field, the Clipper spacecraft can’t orbit the moon itself. Instead, it will slide into an eccentric orbit around Jupiter and gather data by repeatedly swinging by Europa—53 times in total—before...

Watch live as a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta 4 Heavy rocket flies for the final time Liftoff from Space Launch Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 UTC) on Thursday, March 28. The three-core liquid hydrogen fueled rocket is carrying a top secret payload for the U.S. military's spy satellite agency, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Our live coverage from Cape Canaveral, with commentary by Will Robinson-Smith, will begin about 90 minutes prior to launch. It will be the 16th launch for the Delta IV Heavy rocket.

NASA has announced that its Europa Clipper space probe, set to explore Jupiter’s moon Europa, will carry with it a unique “message in a bottle,” blending science, art, and human aspiration into its groundbreaking expedition. The Europa Clipper mission, scheduled for launch later this year, hopes to unveil the secrets hidden beneath Europa’s icy shell. Europa, the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter, is thought to possess a vast liquid ocean beneath its smooth frozen surface, potentially holding over twice the volume of water than Earth’s oceans. Since water is essential to all life on Earth, Europa is...

(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SETI Institute) NASA's Juno spacecraft made a close flyby of Jupiter's intriguing moon Europa in 2022, revealing potential hints of present day surface activity. The spacecraft's Stellar Reference Unit (SRU), which is a star camera designed to assist Juno's onboard attitude determination, was used to image Europa's surface with high resolution while being lit up by Jupiter-shine, or sunlight scattered off Jupiter. The SRU image from the flyby is explored in an article published in the journal JGR Planets on Dec. 22, 2023. The image shows an oddly-shaped area of the icy surface, measuring 23 miles by 42...

Jupiter’s moon Io, its night side illuminated by reflected sunlight from Jupiter, or “Jupitershine.” Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS, Emma Wälimäki © CC BY NASA’s Juno spacecraft has conducted the closest flybys of Jupiter’s moon Io in over two decades, capturing detailed images with its JunoCam instrument. NASA’s Juno spacecraft just made the closest flybys of Jupiter’s moon Io that any spacecraft has carried out in more than 20 years. An instrument on this spacecraft called “JunoCam” returned spectacular, high-resolution images—and raw data are now available for you to process, enhance, and investigate. On December 30th, 2023, Juno came within about 930 miles...

There never has been an independent, self-governed national entity called "Palestine." In Biblical times, the region now encompassing Israel was known as Canaan, which included the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The term "Palestine" originally referred to a small area occupied by the Philistines (as one theory has it), from whence comes the name "Palestine." In Roman times, the area was known as Judea and was ruled by Jewish kings, and, under the Roman Emperor Constantine, became a Christian province generally known in Europe simply as "The Holy Land." The name "Palestine" was not legally applied until the British occupation...