Tag Archives: blog7

Exoplanet in Four Star System

Posted on April 6, 2015 by revanth111

Source: Discovery News Astronomers recently discovered the second exoplanet known to be part of a four star system. To find a planet in such a system is rare because the gravitational interaction between the stars are likely to remove planets from any sort of stable orbit. Four star systems are fairly rare themselves, making up […] Continue reading →

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Planet Discovered with Four Parent Stars

Posted on April 6, 2015 by conorastr201

Binary star systems, like the one featured in the Tatooine system of Star Wars are common in the universe with half of all systems being comprised that way. Ternary system, or systems with three stars, are more rare, and even more rare are quaternion systems. Planets within these four star systems are also rare, so much so […] Continue reading →

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Blog Post #7: Comets Can Be Artists Too

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Elizabeth D.

bbc.com A new study shows that Mercury may have been “painted” black by passing comets. In class, we have learned to compare …

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Could our Solar System have once had Super Earths?

Posted on April 5, 2015 by agiantchicken

New research appears to suggest that the early solar system might have been home to several “Super Earths,” terrestrial planets which are between 1 to 10 times the mass of Earth. One of the lingering questions about the formation of the solar system involves exactly how is it that the terrestrial planets of our solar system are so […] Continue reading →

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Colliding with Jupiter

Posted on April 5, 2015 by willymanng

The Shoemaker–Levy 9 collision with Jupiter was the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects. Shoemaker–Levy 9 disintegrated in to 21 fragments during a close encounter with Jupiter in July 1992 and finally collided with Jupiter two years later in July 1994. The remarkable collision lasted a week and left large, … Continue reading Colliding with Jupiter → Continue reading →

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Colliding with Jupiter

Posted on April 5, 2015 by willymanng

The Shoemaker–Levy 9 collision with Jupiter was the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision of Solar System objects. Shoemaker–Levy 9 disintegrated in to 21 fragments during a close encounter with Jupiter in July 1992 and finally collided with Jupiter two years later in July 1994. The remarkable collision lasted a week and left large, … Continue reading Colliding with Jupiter → Continue reading →

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WASP-12b

Posted on April 5, 2015 by alephnulluniverse

WASP-12b is an HUGE planet that orbits extremely closely to its star. Due to the close distance (at 1/44 the distance compared to the distance between Earth and the Sun), WASP-12b has a very low densities from the flux of energy from the star and is being distorted into an egg shape. The most interesting […] Continue reading →

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Ganymede’s Ocean

Posted on April 5, 2015 by pgolemanska

When we think of Earth we tend to associate it very strongly with water and life. It makes sense since water covers up 75% of Earth’s surface. Water in liquid form seems to be unique to our world … or does it? … As it turns out, Earth’s salty water oceans may not be the […] Continue reading →

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The Cosmic Snowball

Posted on April 5, 2015 by jamej00

Halley’s Comet This video tells us about the history of Halley’s Comet, which turns out to have actually been documented in medieval history in previous passes by the sun.  Because of the rarity with which comets actually appear in our night sky, they used to be tied to ancient superstitions; for example, to the ancient Chinese they signaled a… Continue reading →

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Comet Brightness – Not Related to Test Scores

Posted on April 5, 2015 by dillonkoval

A comet is an icy Solar System body with very elliptical orbit that takes it close to the Sun on one end and far from the Sun on the other. When it gets close to the Sun it begins to outgas, forming a visible atmosphere called a coma and often also a tail. One noticeable […] Continue reading →

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