For the last month and change, you might’ve seen the headlines about the planetary alignment, or a planetary parade, going on in our solar system. And that’s true. In January 2025, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune were all visible in the night sky. And in February, 2025, Mercury will join the fun, with … Read more
Planets are born in swirling disks of gas and dust around young stars. Astronomers are keenly interested in the planet formation process, and understanding that process is one of the JWST’s main science goals. PDS 70 is a nearby star with two nascent planets forming in its disk, two of the very few exoplanets that … Read more
Scientists believe that two asteroids might be fragments of long-lost “planetary embryos” from the early solar system. These embryos, somewhere between small planetesimals and fully formed planets, were abundant during the solar system’s formative stages and played a critical role in planetary formation. Two asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, (246) … Read more
When will we be able to see the planets at their best during this upcoming year of 2025? This guide will tell you. It will also provide information as to when a particular solar system planet might be passing near to another, or a bright star, as well as the constellation that each will occupy … Read more
Every year, you can ring in the new year by going out at midnight and finding the dazzling star Sirius, sometimes called the New Year’s Star. In 2025, Sirius will be joined by the bright planets Jupiter and Mars. And of course, the bright constellation Orion the Hunter makes them easy to find. You can’t … Read more
Exomoons are a hot topic in the science community, as none have been confirmed with astronomers finding new and creative ways to identify them. But while astronomers have searched for exomoons orbiting exoplanets around single stars like our Sun, could exomoons exist around exoplanets orbiting binary stars? This is what a recent study submitted to … Read more
Do we have a planetary bias when it comes to understanding where life can perpetuate? It’s only natural that we do. After all, we’re on one. However, planets may not be necessary for life, and a pair of scientists from Scotland and the USA are inviting us to reconsider the notion. We focus on planets … Read more
When Oumuamua traversed our Solar System in 2017 it was the first confirmed Interstellar Object (ISO) to do so. Then in 2019, Comet 2l/Borisov did the same thing. These are the only two confirmed ISOs to visit our Solar System. Many more ISOs must have visited in our Solar System’s long history, and many more … Read more