Where's Tyche, the 10th 9th planet? Getting the full story. John Matese and Daniel Whitmire of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette recently made the news when they announced the possible discovery of a gas giant planet they named
Tyche in the Oort Cloud, at the extreme edge of the Solar System (
previously). Now ars electronica breaks down the evidence behind the announcement, what can be done to confirm or disprove its existence & how long it could take.
posted by scalefree
on Mar 3, 2011 -
17 comments
People have been
upset about Pluto's demotion for some time now. (While
classical music fans have just had a love/hate relationship with this whole process.) But
astronomical hate mail has never been as cute as the missives Neil deGrasse Tyson has received over the years from tots upset at poor Pluto's ouster.
posted by greekphilosophy
on Mar 15, 2010 -
46 comments
Tonight NASA is scheduled to launch the
Kepler Mission (named after planetary legislator
Johannes Kepler) with the goal of finding Earth size planets in orbit around stars in the
Cygnus-Lyra region of the sky. Over the next 3 and a half years it will maintain a nearly unblinking gaze on the approximately 100 thousand stars in the region. NASA expects it to find about
50 Earth size planets, as well as hundreds that are larger. You can watch the launch live on
NASA TV.
[more inside]
posted by borkencode
on Mar 6, 2009 -
42 comments
Mars and Beyond - 50 years ago, this animated episode of Tomorrowland aired on Disneyland a few months after the launch of Sputnik - an entertaining melange of astronomy, sci-fi, pop culture, science, speculation, and surreality. Walt himself and Wernher von Braun make guest appearances and clip 5 is particularly trippy. (Parts
2,
3,
4,
5,
6)
posted by madamjujujive
on Jun 10, 2007 -
9 comments
Scientists have discovered a planet composed of
scorching hot ice. Originally thought to be a gas giant due to its mass, its actually only four times the size of Earth and most likely composed of exotic forms of ice, such as
Ice VII and Ice X with s surface temperature of 300° C.
posted by Artw
on May 16, 2007 -
30 comments
Hubble harvests 100 new planets during a 7-day sweep of the bulge of the Milky Way.. If confirmed it would almost double the number of known planets to about 230. "I think this work has the potential to be
the most significant advance in discovering extra-solar planetary systems since the first planets were discovered in the mid-1990s."
posted by stbalbach
on Jul 1, 2004 -
17 comments
Chasing Venus Transits of Venus occur every 130 years or so when Venus can be observed passing across the face of the sun.
Chasing Venus is an online exhibition by Smithsonian Institution Libraries that tells the story of how the transit has been observed since the 17th century, with
early observations in England, illustrated accounts of
expeditions by 18th century astronomers to various parts of the world, and
early uses of photography to record observations in the 19th century. Includes links to
animations of transits reconstructed from Victorian photographs, and
details of a lecture series on Thursdays in April and May (first one April 8). The first transit since 1882 is this year.
posted by carter
on Apr 4, 2004 -
5 comments
Reflections on a Mote of Dust "We succeeded in taking that picture [from deep space], and, if you look at it, you see a dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam."
Carl Sagan "Pale Blue Dot"
posted by crasspastor
on Sep 11, 2001 -
15 comments
A Mars Lander is set to touch down on Mars sometime between December 1st and December 20th of this year. Keep your eyes peeled on this mars site, it will be the primary location of new information about the mission. I doubt if they find water on Mars though...
posted by mathowie
on Nov 16, 1999 -
0 comments
We are not alone.... a new planet outside of our solar system was found today. It's only a matter of time before the little green men come down to greet us.
posted by mathowie
on Nov 13, 1999 -
0 comments
