Category: Planets and exoplanets

Pluto

Pluto: NASA plans to send an orbiter

– News of November 5, 2019 – Pluto was explored four years ago by the American space probe New Horizons. This speed meeting allowed to make some beautiful photos that generated many questions. Pluto’s surface seems much more active than previously thought, which makes some people think that the dwarf planet could even have an…
Read more

planet venus

All about Venus and news

A new simulation suggests that Venus has had favorable conditions for life during a long time – News of September 24, 2019 – Venus, our closest neighbor, is often referred to as the twin sister of the Earth. Venus has a diameter and mass very close to those of our planet, but there is not…
Read more

habitable exoplanets

Habitable exoplanets : all you need to know and news

Water vapor detected on K2-18b, a habitable exoplanet ? – News of September 17, 2019 – Of the 4000 planets discovered outside the solar system, the vast majority are completely hostile to life. Whether they are too massive, too close or too far from their star, it is hard to imagine how liquid water and…
Read more

earth

All about Earth and news

The essential about Earth Earth is probably the jewel of the solar system. Endowed with incredible diversity, it is remarkable in many ways. Earth is the densest planet in the solar system. Some experts consider it a double planet. Earth is indeed the only rocky planet in the solar system to have a massive satellite.…
Read more

planet mars

Planet Mars : all you need to know and news

The Curiosity rover detects a powerful methane peak on the planet Mars – News of June 25, 2019 – We often talk about methane detection on the planet Mars. On Earth, methane is a gas associated with life. In the atmosphere of the planet Mars, it is easily broken by the ultraviolet radiation of the…
Read more

earth

Earth MOOCs (free online courses)

These courses are free if you only want to read the content of the course and to watch the videos. You will have to pay a few dollars if you want to access all of the course, including rating homework, and to have an official certificate to print or to share (on LinkedIn for example).…
Read more

super-Earth

All about the super-Earths and news

A new super-Earth in the planetary system of Proxima Centauri – News of April 16, 2019 – We know that Proxima Centauri is home to at least one planet in its habitable zone, Proxima b. Proxima b was discovered in 2016. Its mass is greater than the mass of the Earth. It could potentially have…
Read more

planet x

All about planet X / planet 9 and news

The observation of another planetary system could explain the orbit of a planet X – News of March 12, 2019 – FarFarOut is part of a class of objects named extreme transneptunians objects. Other objects in this category all have a very eccentric orbit. This is why some researchers believe that a massive object has…
Read more

exoplanets

All about exoplanets and news

A collision of planets would explain the characteristics of the exoplanet Kepler-107 c – News of March 5, 2019 – Most of the time, only very limited information can be obtained about exoplanets, worlds that orbit distant stars. By combining detection methods, it is possible to know more or less accurately the diameter, mass and…
Read more

neptune

All about the planet Neptune and news

A new moon of Neptune has just been discovered – News of February 24, 2019 – A new moon of Neptune has been known since 2013, but sometimes it takes time to formalize a discovery. It was named called Hippocamp. This moon is very small, so it looks like an asteroid. However, it could teach…
Read more

dwarf planets

All about dwarf planets and news

The solar system could contain 200 dwarf planets – News of January 27, 2019 – The differentiation between planets and dwarf planets is very recent. Until the mid-2000s, schoolchildren learned that Pluto was the ninth planet in the solar system. This changed with the discovery of many Pluto-like bodies in the Kuiper belt. With the…
Read more

Saturn

All about the planet Saturn and news

The rings of Saturn could disappear – News of December 23, 2018 – The rings of Saturn are superb but we are more and more certain that they are only temporary. They could have disappeared in a few hundred million years. A new study published December 17, 2018 describes how the inner part of the…
Read more

ceres

All about Ceres and news

The dwarf planet Ceres could shelter life Ceres is a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter and its density is relatively low. We assumed that Ceres was relatively rich in water, and the space probe Dawn confirmed it during its flights over Ceres from 2015, with its spectrometers. The discovery of ammonia reinforces the…
Read more

vesta

All about Vesta and news

6% of meteorites on Earth would come from Vesta In the early 2010s, the data collected by the three scientific instruments embarked on the Dawn space probe revealed the complexity of Vesta, a celestial body that could be classified between an asteroid and a planet. Like a planet, the structure of Vesta is differentiated, because…
Read more

jupiter

All about Jupiter and news

Astronomers discover 12 new moons in orbit of Jupiter – News of July 24, 2018 – We may think that if we try to discover planets in other systems, it is because we found all that there was to find in the solar system. However, it is a misconception : the objects of the solar…
Read more

rogue planets

All about rogue planets and news

A huge space object has been named a rogue planet – News of August 14, 2018 – Several rogue planets have already been discovered since the early 2000s. These would be very common objects in the universe. Some researchers even think that there are more rogue planets than stars in our galaxy. An American university…
Read more

earth twins

All about Earth twins and news

New telescopes search Earth twins – News of January 30, 2018 – ExTRA is a new set of three telescopes that will focus on the detection of Earth twins orbiting around red dwarfs. It is installed at the La Silla Observatory, located in northern Chile. It has just started its observations. The three telescopes that…
Read more

mercury

All about the planet Mercury and news

Mercury would house more water than expected – News of September 26, 2017 – When we think of Mercury, the planet closest to the sun, we imagine a dry and desolate hell. The surprise was great when, in 2012, the Messenger space probe detected ice water at the pole of Mercury. It is currently estimated…
Read more