Exciting news! NASA’s planet-hunter TESS Space Telescope (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) has discovered its first Earth-sized exoplanet in its star’s habitable zone. The discovery was announced by NASA on January 7, 2020. The planet is named “TOI 700 d”.
Using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers confirmed the discovery and have modeled the planet’s potential environments to help inform future observations.
Today is the last day of the 2010s – and what a decade it has been for space science and space exploration! Here is a timeline of the top 20 major (and exciting!) advances in space science in the 2010s.
NASA Goddard Planetary Scientist Dr. James O’Donoghue (@physicsJ) created another beautiful video showing the relative rotation speeds of Solar System planets.
This incredible 4k time-lapse, published by Oliver Schmid shows sunrises, sunsets, clouds, and the Milky Way from Mount Pilatus, Switzerland. A breathtaking video that reminds us of how amazing a place our planet is. Enjoy!
You can download and print NASA’s “Solar System and Beyond” Poster Set for free. The posters are best printed on 11”x17” paper.
Elizabeth Tasker (@girlandkat on Twitter), the UK astrophysicist working at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the author of the popular science book “The Planet Factory” (see notes 1) says “the habitable zone is the worst name ever in the history of naming anything” in her perfect doodly she published on Twitter.
On October 12, 2019, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope provided astronomers with their best look yet at the first confirmed interstellar comet – the 2I/Borisov (originally designated C/2019 Q4).
Did you know that the Moon and space itself have a smell? Space has a lot of surprises. Here are the 10 lesser-known space facts.
Today, on average, the Moon is 384,400 km (238,000 miles) away from the Earth. But that was not always the case. Our satellite was much closer in the past. Now, Dr. James O’Donoghue (@physicsJ on Twitter) created the animation below showing the ancient distances and apparent size of the Moon.
The animation also includes the current distance and apparent size of the moon in the Earth’s sky.
The amazing video below is a showcase of spectacular imagery obtained by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s (JAXA) Kaguya/SELENE spacecraft which orbited the Moon for a year and eight months and returned stunning views from its HDTV camera suite. A must-watch!