Solar System – Page 49

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Titan Is Old-Age Problem, Despite News Media Coverage

February 15, 2008

A paper in Geophysical Research Letters1 about Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, reads like a good-news, bad-news joke. The good news is that Titan appears to have more hydrocarbons than Earth. The bad news is that it is not enough to save the assumption that Titan is 4.5 billion years old. Several science news […]

Solar System

Something is Cooking Under Enceladus

February 9, 2008

Planetary scientists have been puzzling over Enceladus, a small moon of Saturn, since geysers were discovered erupting from its south pole three years ago. Some models suggested that eruptions could occur without liquid water, but others were not sure. Opinion now seems to be shifting back to the necessity of a wet interior, […]

Physics

Are Long-Term Climate Models Trustworthy?

February 5, 2008

Everything from global warming policy to evolutionary history depends on long-term climate models. Textbooks make it seem like earth keeps reliable recordings that allow scientists to simply read off the record of years, decades, centuries, millennia and millions of years objectively. It’s not that simple, wrote Maureen E. Raymo and Peter Huybers in Nature last […]

Intelligent Design

Explorer 1 Chief Discovers Design

January 31, 2008

On this day 50 years ago, America entered the space race. On January 31, 1958, America gave its answer to Sputnik: a civilian satellite named Explorer 1. Within a few hours of the time of day these words are being written, von Braun’s Jupiter-C rocket at Cape Canaveral, Florida, successfully launched a JPL satellite into […]

Solar System

The Geologists Were Wrong

January 25, 2008

More examples of collapsing theories have appeared in the literature this week (compare last week, 01/21/2008): Dirty Comet: The Stardust spacecraft that collected comet samples in 2006 was so named because it was believed comets contained pristine material from the birth of the sun. That has all changed. National Geographic News summarized a paper in […]

Solar System

Messenger Sends Postcards from Mercury

January 17, 2008

Images downloaded from MESSENGER’s first flyby of Mercury on January 14 are starting to be published. The Science Images page of the MESSENGER website (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) posted the first image January 16, with more being added from time to time. Launched in 2004 (07/27/2004, bullet 3), the spacecraft has unveiled […]

Amazing Facts

Solar System Super Snapshots

January 12, 2008

Here are some of the most fascinating new images coming from spacecraft out there on duty – but they didn’t just come in on their own. They are brought to you by highly intelligent and dedicated human beings: the navigators, instrument teams, deep space network engineers, flight controllers and scientists who gather and distribute the […]

Physics

Comet Woes Lamented

December 27, 2007

Space.com posted an article on “The enduring mysteries of comets.” The mysteries include: Where did earth’s oceans come from? For a long time, scientists expected comets delivered the water, until measurements showed a discrepancy in the hydrogen/deuterium ratios. It’s also highly improbable there was enough wet stuff in those assumed delivery vehicles. No secular scientist […]

Solar System

Stretching Saturn’s Rings in Time

December 13, 2007

An expert on planetary rings proposes a new way to keep them billions of years old.

Solar System

Is Making Planets Child’s Play?

December 5, 2007

Are star children good at child's play? Like making mudballs, it should be easy to roll up dust into planets.

Solar System

Active Moons Challenge Old-Age Beliefs

December 3, 2007

The best planetary scientists in the world, constrained within their chosen billions-of-years mindset, have many questions and few answers.

Physics

Moon Dust Can Kill

November 27, 2007

Future astronauts preparing to operate on the moon, beware. High-speed dust is deadly, reports PhysOrg. With no atmosphere on the moon to slow its path, dust flying from rocket engines can blast anything in its path. “Small grit can travel enormous distances at high speeds, scouring everything in its path,” the article says – at […]

Origin of Life

No Salt, Please: Europa Life Needs It Bland

November 23, 2007

Salt may taste good on human food, but for life trying to emerge in the sea, it is toxic. Astrobiologists have long wondered if life could exist at Jupiter’s moon Europa, where an ocean is believed to exist miles deep under the icy crust. They must have been presuming the water is pure, but an […]

Solar System

Give Thanks for Our Rare Moon

November 22, 2007

Our moon is a rare treat, says a press release from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, based on findings from the Spitzer Space Telescope. The telescope looked for indications of dust from collisions in other planetary disks thought to be the age of our solar system when our moon formed. According to the leading theory, our moon […]

Amazing Facts

Photo: Earthrise 2007

November 15, 2007

The Japanese Kaguya spacecraft has taken a series of “Earthrise” photos from lunar orbit, including this sequence. The complete set of new hi-resolution photos is available at Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency. (Due to the orbital path of the spacecraft, Antarctica is at the top.) “Earth-rise is a phenomenon seen only from satellites that […]

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