Tag: Planets
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Planet Sizes and Locations in Our Solar System
Our solar system has eight planets, and five officially recognized dwarf planets. Which planet is biggest? Which is smallest? What is the order of the planets as we move out from the Sun? This is a simple guide to the…
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Hubble Helps Determine Uranus’ Rotation Rate with Unprecedented Precision
An international team of astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made new measurements of Uranus’ interior rotation rate with a novel technique, achieving a level of accuracy 1,000 times greater than previous estimates. By analyzing more than a…
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20-Year Hubble Study of Uranus Yields New Atmospheric Insights
The ice-giant planet Uranus, which travels around the Sun tipped on its side, is a weird and mysterious world. Now, in an unprecedented study spanning two decades, researchers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have uncovered new insights into the planet’s…
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NASA’s Webb Captures Neptune’s Auroras For First Time
Long-sought auroral glow finally emerges under Webb’s powerful gaze For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured bright auroral activity on Neptune. Auroras occur when energetic particles, often originating from the Sun, become trapped in a planet’s…
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NASA’s Curiosity Rover Detects Largest Organic Molecules Found on Mars
Lee esta historia en español aquí. Researchers analyzing pulverized rock onboard NASA’s Curiosity rover have found the largest organic compounds on the Red Planet to date. The finding, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests…
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Planetary Alignments and Planet Parades
On most nights, weather permitting, you can spot at least one bright planet in the night sky. While two or three planets are commonly visible in the hours around sunset, occasionally four or five bright planets can be seen simultaneously…
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NASA’s Hubble Celebrates Decade of Tracking Outer Planets
Encountering Neptune in 1989, NASA’s Voyager mission completed humankind’s first close-up exploration of the four giant outer planets of our solar system. Collectively, since their launch in 1977, the twin Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft discovered that Jupiter, Saturn,…
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Old Data Yields New Secrets as NASA’s DAVINCI Preps for Venus Trip
How NASA’s DAVINCI mission to Venus uses old data to reveal new secrets.
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NASA’s Hubble, New Horizons Team Up for a Simultaneous Look at Uranus
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and New Horizons spacecraft simultaneously set their sights on Uranus recently, allowing scientists to make a direct comparison of the planet from two very different viewpoints. The results inform future plans to study like types of…
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NASA’s Hubble Watches Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Behave Like a Stress Ball
Astronomers have observed Jupiter’s legendary Great Red Spot (GRS), an anticyclone large enough to swallow Earth, for at least 150 years. But there are always new surprises – especially when NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope takes a close-up look at it.…