A new study of Mars’ smallest moon Deimos, by scientists from the SETI Institute and Purdue University, suggests that the planet used to have rings a few billion years ago. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/did-ancient-mars-have-rings-deimos…
Tag: Kuiper belt
Why these astronomers now doubt there’s a Planet Nine
In the search for the hypothetical 9th planet in our solar system, these scientists may have uncovered another explanation for the patterns in the orbits of Kuiper Belt objects. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/astronomer-doubt-planet-nine-9…
Are these 19 eccentric asteroids from other star systems?
In the first discovery of its kind, researchers in France have found 19 asteroids in our solar system – between the planets Jupiter and Neptune – that they say are likely of interstellar origin. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/19-interstellar-asteroids-in-our-solar-system-centaurs…
A beloved exoplanet turns to dust
Fomalhaut b was thought to be one of the few exoplanets photographed so far, but new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope show it’s really an expanding dust cloud. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/fomalhaut-b-not-an-exoplanet-instead-a-dust-cloud…
The birth of a ‘snowman’ at the edge of the solar system
A model developed at the Faculty of Physics at the Technion, in collaboration with German scientists at Tübingen, explains the unique properties of Arrokoth, the most distant object ever imaged in the solar system. The research team’s results shed new light on the formation of Kuiper Belt objects, asteroid-like objects at the edge of the solar system, and for understanding the…
Ripples on Pluto hint at subsurface ocean
A new study of unusual ripples on Pluto’s far side add to the evidence for a subsurface ocean on this distant and cold dwarf planet. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/pluto-subsurface-ocean-new-horizons…
Jupiter gives us Pluto in 2020
Jupiter and Pluto are near each other on the sky’s dome right now, and they will rendezvous 3 times in 2020. In fact, the 2020 triple conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto may well present the best Jupiter-Pluto alignment for centuries to come. Source: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/how-to-see-pluto-in-the-night-sky…
Why does Arrokoth look like a snowman?
Meet Arrokoth – the most distant object yet visited by earthlings – seen by the New Horizons spacecraft in early 2019. It’s very old, one of the first generation of objects in our solar system. Here’s why it looks like a snowman. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/arrokoth-nowman-peanut-shape-new-horizons-distant-object…
Arrokoth rewrites theory of planet formation
New Horizons’ encounter with a Kuiper belt object has turned what we know of planet formation on its head. With a mass approximately 10,000 times that… Source: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/news/334591/arrokoth-rewrites-theory-of-planet-formation…
Ultima Thule renamed to avoid Nazi link
The distant Kuiper Belt object formerly known as 2014 MU69 – later known as Ultima Thule – has been renamed again. Its new name is Arrokoth. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/ultima-thule-renamed-to-avoid-nazi-link…