OUTERPLANETS

845 articles

Jupiter's auroras powered by alternating current
Jul 11, 2019 (UPI)
Jupiter, a the largest planet in the solar system, boasts an aurora with a radiant power of 100 terawatts, or 100 billion kilowatts. It's the brightest aurora i...
Study Shows How Icy Outer Solar System Satellites May Have Formed
Jun 27, 2019 (SPX)
Like many solar system bodies, including the Earth, TNOs often have their own satellites, which likely formed early on from collisions among the building blocks...
Kuiper Belt Binary Orientations Support Streaming Instability Hypothesis
Jun 27, 2019 (SPX)
"One of the least understood steps in planet growth is the formation of planetesimals, bodies more than a kilometer across, which are just large enough to be he...
Astronomers See Warm Glow of Uranus's Rings
Jun 21, 2019 (SPX)
The thermal glow gives astronomers another window onto the rings, which have been seen only because they reflect a little light in the visible, or optical, rang...
Table salt compound spotted on Europa
Jun 13, 2019 (JPL)
The discovery suggests that the salty subsurface ocean of Europa may chemically resemble Earth's oceans more than previously thought, challenging decades of sup...
Neptune's moon Triton fosters rare icy union
May 23, 2019 (SPX)
Extreme conditions can produce extreme results. In this case, it's the uncommon pairing of two common molecules - carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen (N2) - froze...
On Pluto the Winter is approaching, and the atmosphere is vanishing into frost
May 21, 2019 (SPX)
This study1 was published in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics and had the participation of Pedro Machado, of Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco...
Juno Finds Changes in Jupiter's Magnetic Field
May 21, 2019 (JPL)
The discovery will help scientists further understand Jupiter's interior structure - including atmospheric dynamics - as well as changes in Earth's magnetic fie...
Gas insulation could be protecting an ocean inside Pluto
May 21, 2019 (SPX)
Computer simulations provide compelling evidence that an insulating layer of gas hydrates could keep a subsurface ocean from freezing beneath Pluto's icy exteri...
NASA's New Horizons Team Publishes First Kuiper Belt Flyby Science Results
May 17, 2019 (SPX)
In addition to being the farthest exploration of an object in history - four billion miles from Earth - the flyby of Ultima Thule was also the first investigati...
Brazilian scientists investigate dwarf planet's ring
May 08, 2019 (SPX)
Haumea was officially recognized as a dwarf planet in 2008. Its ellipsoidal shape resembles that of the ball used in rugby or American football. It has two moon...
Next-Generation NASA Instrument Advanced to Study the Atmospheres of Uranus and Neptune
Apr 26, 2019 (SPX)
A NASA scientist and his team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, are taking advantage of those advances to mature a smaller, more capabl...
Public Invited to Help Name Solar System's Largest Unnamed World
Apr 10, 2019 (SPX)
Schwamb writes, "It's time to give 2007 OR10 a name. We're asking your help to pick a suitable name for 2007 OR10 to submit to the International Astronomical Un...
Scientists to Conduct Largest-Ever Hubble Survey of the Kuiper Belt
Apr 03, 2019 (SPX)
"The Kuiper Belt is a unique remnant of the solar system's primordial planetesimal disk," said Dr. Alex Parker, the SwRI planetary scientist leading the survey....
Europa Clipper High-Gain Antenna Undergoes Testing
Apr 01, 2019 (SPX)
In fact, it's not a satellite dish at all. It's a high-gain antenna (HGA), and a future version of it will send and receive signals to and from Earth from a loo...
Jupiter's unknown journey revealed
Mar 24, 2019 (SPX)
Now researchers from Lund University and other institutions have used advanced computer simulations to learn more about Jupiter's journey through our own solar ...
A Prehistoric Mystery in the Kuiper Belt
Mar 19, 2019 (SPX)
Analyzing the data New Horizons has been sending home since the flyby of Ultima Thule (officially named 2014 MU69), mission scientists are learning more about t...
Ultima Thule in 3D
Mar 11, 2019 (SPX)
The 3D effects come from pairing or combining images taken at slightly different viewing angles, creating a "binocular" effect, just as the slight separation of...
More support for Planet Nine
Mar 06, 2019 (SPX)
The papers offer new details about the suspected nature and location of the planet, which has been the subject of an intense international search ever since Bat...
SwRI-led New Horizons research indicates small Kuiper Belt objects are surprisingly rare
Mar 04, 2019 (SPX)
The evidence for the paucity of small Kuiper Belt objects (KBOs) comes from New Horizons imaging that revealed a dearth of small craters on Pluto's largest sate...
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