Science is a dynamic process of questioning, hypothesizing, discovering, and changing previous ideas based on what is learned. Scientific ideas are developed through reasoning and tested against observations. Scientists assess and question each other’s work in a critical process called peer review. Continue reading
Category: Universe
Beyond Our Solar System
Our sun is one of at least 100 billion stars in the Milky Way, a spiral galaxy about 100,000 light years across. The stars are arranged in a pinwheel pattern with four major arms, and we live about two-thirds of the way up one of them. Many if not most of the stars host their own families of planets. More than a thousand of these extrasolar (or exoplanets) have been discovered and thousands more are awaiting confirmation. Continue reading
Oort Cloud
The Oort Cloud is believed to be a thick bubble of icy debris that surrounds our solar system. This distant cloud may extend a third of the way from our sun to the next star — between 5,000 and 100,000 astronomical units. Earth is about one astronomical unit from the sun (roughly 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers). Continue reading
Hypothetical ‘Planet X
Caltech researchers have found evidence suggesting there may be a “Planet X” deep in the solar system. This hypothetical Neptune-sized planet orbits our sun in a highly elongated orbit far beyond Pluto. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed “Planet Nine,” could have a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbit about 20 times farther from the sun on average than Neptune. It may take between 10,000 and 20,000 Earth years to make one full orbit around the sun. Continue reading
Kuiper Belt
The Kuiper Belt is a disc-shaped region beyond Neptune that extends from about 30 to 55 astronomical units (compared to Earth which is one astronomical unit, or AU, from the sun). This distant region is probably populated with hundreds of thousands of icy bodies larger than 100 km (62 miles) across and an estimated trillion or more comets. Continue reading
Comets
In the distant past, people were both awed and alarmed by comets, perceiving them as long-haired stars that appeared in the sky unannounced and unpredictably. Chinese astronomers kept extensive records for centuries, including illustrations of characteristic types of comet tails, times of cometary appearances and disappearances, and celestial positions. These historic comet annals have proven to be a valuable resource for later astronomers. Continue reading
Dwarf Planets
Dwarf planets are a lot like regular planets:
- They both have enough mass and gravity to be nearly round – unlike odd-shaped asteroids.
- They both travel through space in a path around the sun.
Meteors & Meteorites
Shooting stars, or meteors, are bits of interplanetary material falling through Earth’s atmosphere and heated to incandescence by friction. These objects are called meteoroids as they are hurtling through space, becoming meteors for the few seconds they streak across the sky and create glowing trails.
Asteroids
Asteroids, sometimes called minor planets, are rocky remnants left over from the early formation of our solar system about 4.6 billion years ago.
