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Tag Archives: planets

Out-of-this-world atmospheres

By Stephen Ornes / March 29, 2013

This illustration depicts the planet HR 8799c (foreground) orbiting its star. Two other planets in the system can also be seen in the drawing.
Credit: Image courtesy of Dunlap Institute for Astronomy & Astrophysics; Mediafarm

Light from a distant, giant world offers clues to the gases in its atmosphere

Posted in Space | Tagged astronomy, atmosphere, Ben Oppenheimer, Earth, exoplanets, getinvolved, HR 8799, infrared, Jonathan Fortney, light, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Neptune, planets, Quinn Konopacky, radiation, Santa Cruz, Saturn, Smithsonian Institution, space, spectral lines, spectrometry, topstories, University of California, University of Toronto

Martian microbes, maybe

By Stephen Ornes / March 21, 2013

The first sample of Martian rock drilled by the rover Curiosity. Scientists say the rock provides evidence that microbes could have once lived on Mars. Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, MSSS

Permission: press photo, NASA public domain

Billions of years ago, Mars could have been teeming with very small Martians

Posted in Space | Tagged aliens, astrobiology, California Institute of Technology, Caltech, chemicals, crater, Curiosity, elements, environment, extraterrestrial life, getinvolved, habitability, John Grotzinger, Mars, Martian water, Michael Meyer, minerals, NASA, planets, space, topstories

Ice on Mercury

By Stephen Ornes / December 17, 2012

This image of Mercury’s north pole region shows areas in shadow (red) according to new MESSENGER data and the location of bright spots (yellow) that are likely exposed ice deposits.

Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington/National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center, Arecibo Observatory

MESSENGER spacecraft provides evidence for frozen water on planet closest to sun

Posted in Space | Tagged aliens, altimetry, asteroids, astronomy, carbon, comets, craters, David Paige, extraterrestrial life, getinvolved, ice, laser altimeter, mercury, MESSENGER, NASA, planetary science, planets, space environment, sun, University of California Los Angeles