Since the explosion of exoplanet science in the late 1990s, our entire understanding of the universe beyond our own solar system has changed. We have confirmed over 1,000 planets orbiting other stars, with another 3500 waiting to be confirmed by subsequent observations. As we search, our prime directive has always been to improve our technology to determine if other Earths exist, and to seek them out. Every year we have added another discovery that brings us closer to finding a twin of the planet Earth in space. Today we have come one step closer, and it is indeed a big step....
Since it entered Saturnian orbit on July 1st, 2004, the Cassini spacecraft has changed our view of Saturn and its moons. It is a dynamic gas giant with unique and fascinating moons that have their own characteristics that make them seem more like small, rocky, planets than moons of a gas giant. Cassini has been delivering amazing science for over a decade, and it’s next journey lies in a polar orbit of Saturn, where it will dive through Saturn’s rings, giving the most detailed and close up views of the tiny ice particles that compose them. Before this journey, Cassini...
How do we measure the rotation speed of a planet? Exactly as you would expect. Watch the surface, look for markable features, and time how long it takes until those features pass the same point again in the future. But how can we possibly nail down this information when the planet has little to no visible surface features. Gas giant planets are great examples of this. Jupiter is a bit easier since it has plenty of storms and separated cloud layers along the planet’s rotation axis, but the other three are much tougher. Aside from hard-to-spot features, gas giants also...
I’ve always been a fan of data visualization. We have so much raw data in the world that can reveal incredible information about our Universe, and the only thing stopping us is the time to analyse it all. Sometime data visualizations pop up that really put things into perspective, help us see trends that we didn’t know of before, and offer insights into where we should look in the future. I feel like I find something amazing that someone has produced on a daily basis, and being able to visualize complex data can give anyone a deeper understanding of the...
This amazing video from animator Alphonse Swineheart gives us an idea of the vastness of space, showing how incredibly large our solar system is. There are a few long trips between planets, but some fun facts keep it interesting. Plus the point is that we are getting an idea of the scale of it all. One thing to keep in mind is that each second the viewer is travelling 300,000 Km, equivalent to circumnavigating the Earth almost 8 times! A good thing to remember is that if we were seeing the distance to the next star, proxima centauri, this video...
As the Kepler Space Telescope continues work on its second mission, the slow trickle of new exoplanet discoveries has begun. In the past few weeks scientists working with Kepler data have been able to identify new planets, and of course the variation continues to surprise us all. Most Recently, Kepler discovered a system of three planets orbiting the nearby red dwarf star EPIC 201367065, which is about half the size and mass of the Sun. The planets are all super-Earths, being only 2.1, 1.7, and 1.5 times the size of Earth and receiving 10.5, 3.2 and 1.4 times the light intensity of Earth...
A set of questions I get from kids and adults alike while doing my Astronomy in Action planetarium shows consists of the following: Does the Universe have an end? How big is the Universe? Where is the center of the Universe? What is the ‘Observable Universe?’ How is it different from just saying ‘the Universe?’ First of all, let me say that it is really hard to imagine the Universe as it is, even with a solid understanding of large-scale Physics. This is because there is no analogy in our lives, no reference point in our everyday experience. It’s very...
Space is Big. I say this often, but it is so vast we can’t even comprehend the emptiness of it. We see Billions upon Billions of stars, all taunting us with their shine, seemingly close but completely unreachable. How do we know which stars we should spend our time looking at? We don’t really have the time to scan through each star in detail, so what are the criteria for taking a closer look? Generally we look at a population of stars to gain an understanding of each life stage, and then we look at the oldest and youngest to determine...
