Exoplanet

Dic 15 2021

Le cinture di ghiaccio all’equatore sono più comuni delle calotte di ghiaccio ai poli

Ci piace andare a sud, verso l'equatore, per sfuggire al freddo. Ai due poli della terra c'è gelo e ghiaccio permanente. Per quanto riguarda l'intero universo, questa non è affatto la regola, come hanno scoperto gli astronomi in un lavoro scientifico. Per farlo, un team dell'Università di Washington e dell'Università di Berna ha simulato computazionalmente più di 200.000 mondi ipotetici simili alla Terra - pianeti che hanno le stesse dimensioni, massa, composizione atmosferica e geografia della Terra moderna - tutti in orbita attorno a stelle simili al nostro Sole, una stella di tipo G. Così hanno voluto scoprire quali…

Life

Dic 1 2021

Pianeti con un guscio d’uovo

Apri la porta della camera di equilibrio. Il tuo primo passo sulla superficie di un nuovo pianeta! Fa caldo, ma la tua tuta spaziale ti protegge. Un sottile strato di nuvole nasconde il sole. Ma c'è qualcosa che non va. Scendi la scala. Cosa c'è? Giri intorno al tuo asse. Ovunque guardi, l'orizzonte è alla stessa distanza. Questo pianeta non ha alcuna elevazione. È come se vi trovaste all'esterno di un guscio d'uovo. Probabilmente tali pianeti esistono davvero. I "pianeti guscio d'uovo", come dimostra un recente studio, sono da aspettarsi in un sistema solare in determinate circostanze. E poiché…

Space

Nov 6 2021

Is our Earth an oddity in space?

When you think of the rocks that make up our home planet (but also all the other rocky planets in the solar system), you probably immediately think of the fact that olivine and orthopyroxene are the predominant minerals in the Earth's mantle. If not, you are probably not a geologist. I confess, I didn't know that either. But is this actually normal? Are all rocky planets in the universe composed primarily of these minerals? That's an important question, because other rock types absorb more water than Earth's rocks, for example, which would affect the development of oceans. Others melt…

Astrophysics

Set 23 2021

A planet at maximum fluffiness

It's not often that the word "fluffy" appears in a press release about a new astronomical discovery. It refers to the exoplanet WASP-127b, which orbits a star a good 500 light-years from Earth that is slightly larger than the Sun. An international team of astronomers has now not only detected clouds there, but also measured their height with unprecedented precision. WASP-127b is a so-called "hot Saturn" - a giant planet with a similar mass to Saturn, but unlike our (cold) Saturn, it orbits very close to its sun. During one orbit around its star, WASP-127b therefore receives 600 times more radiation…

Interesting planetary system in our neighborhood

Life

Ago 6 2021

Interesting planetary system in our neighborhood

At a distance of 34 light-years, the red dwarf L98-59 belongs to the closer neighborhood of the solar system. The fact that three rocky planets orbit it was discovered two years ago by the planet hunter TESS. The three inner planets are relatively close to their parent star. It is probably too warm there for life. The innermost planet is only about half the size of our Venus and thus one of the smallest planets discovered so far. Technically, it is easier to find large and heavy planets than small and light ones, so the true distribution of planet…

Space

Lug 12 2021

Lonely wanderers not uncommon

In my upcoming novel "Andromeda: The Encounter," an Earth-sized planet is wandering lonely through space. Planets far from any star - how common are they? Apparently, this is not an uncommon phenomenon. Star systems can become dynamically unstable and eject single planets. This could have happened to our solar system in early times. That it is a normal sight is also shown by a research work of British scientists. They have discovered evidence of a mysterious population of such free-floating planets. The findings were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The study, led by Iain…

Space

Apr 30 2021

Watching a planet grow

Astronomers usually detect exoplanets based on irregularities in the glow of the parent star. Although more than 4,000 exoplanets have been cataloged to date, only 15 have been imaged directly by telescopes. Even in their best photos, the planets are just dots, simply because they are so far away and quite small. A new technique from the Hubble team is now expected to help image planets directly. The researchers have used it to catch a rare glimpse of a Jupiter-sized planet, still forming, that feeds on material surrounding a young star. They report it in the Astronomical Journal. "We…

What a volcano would look like on a metal world

Space

Mar 20 2021

What a volcano would look like on a metal world

On Earth it rains water, on Titan liquid methane comes from the sky. On some planets it rains iron or even diamonds. Such differences also exist in volcanology. On Ceres, researchers have discovered ice volcanoes, while terrestrial volcanoes spew cinders of liquid rock. On the asteroid Psyche, which consists primarily of metal, there may once have been iron volcanoes. Perhaps elsewhere, too. But what would such volcanoes look like? Knowing that is important for detecting them on distant celestial bodies. A team of researchers led by Arianna Soldati of North Carolina State University has studied this in a very…