http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/solar_system/ Solar System Planets. Astronomy articles on the eight planets, plus the two dwarf planets, Pluto and Eris. Great pictures of everything in the solar system. Updated daily. en-us Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:05:02 EST Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:05:02 EST 60 http://www.sciencedaily.com/images/logosmall.gif http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/space_time/solar_system/ For more science articles, visit ScienceDaily. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209144657.htm Some of 'the major ingredients for life' are present on one of Saturn's moons, according to scientists. A team working on the Cassini-Huygens mission have found negatively charged water ions in the ice plume of Enceladus. Their analysis of data gathered during the spacecraft's plume fly-throughs in 2008 provide evidence for the presence of liquid water. Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100209144657.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100124162151.htm Differences in the number and speed of cometary impacts onto Jupiter's large moons Ganymede and Callisto some 3.8 billion years ago can explain their vastly different surfaces and interior states, according to new research. Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100124162151.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129221050.htm After six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful. Sat, 30 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129221050.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129220939.htm Sixteen days after last visiting Saturn's largest moon, NASA's Cassini spacecraft returns for another look-see of the cloud-shrouded moon -- this time from on high. The flyby on Thursday, Jan. 28, referred to as "T-66" in the hollowed halls of Cassini operations, places the spacecraft within 7,490 kilometers (4,654 miles) above the surface during time of closest approach. Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129220939.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129092410.htm On 26 January, Mars Express completed its 7777th orbit around the Red Planet, an auspicious milestone as the satellite is readied for the closest-ever flyby of Phobos, scheduled for just a few weeks from now. Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100129092410.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125172816.htm NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, has spotted its first never-before-seen near-Earth asteroid, the first of hundreds it is expected to find during its mission to map the whole sky in infrared light. There is no danger of the newly discovered asteroid hitting Earth. Tue, 26 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125172816.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125173141.htm Hills with a wrinkly radial pattern stand out in a new radar image of Saturn's moon Titan captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 28, 2009. Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100125173141.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121170142.htm NASA's Mars exploration rover Opportunity is allowing scientists to get a glimpse deep inside Mars. Perched on a rippled Martian plain, a dark rock not much bigger than a basketball was the target of interest for Opportunity during the past two months. Dubbed "Marquette Island," the rock is providing a better understanding of the mineral and chemical makeup of the Martian interior. Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100121170142.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100119085221.htm Dunes of sand-sized materials have been trapped on the floors of many Martian craters. A new view captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows dunes inside a crater in Noachis Terra, west of the giant Hellas impact basin in Mars' southern hemisphere. Thu, 21 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100119085221.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100120131149.htm For decades, astronomers have analyzed the impact that asteroids could have on Earth. New research examines the opposite scenario: that Earth has considerable influence on asteroids -- and from a distance much larger than previously thought. The finding helps answer an elusive, decades-long question about where most meteorites come from before they fall to Earth and also opens the door to a new field study of asteroid seismology. Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100120131149.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100115204423.htm On 14 January 2005, ESA's Huygens probe descended to the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Planetary scientists from around the world have gathered in Barcelona to discuss the legacy of Huygens and to consider future Titan exploration missions. Wed, 20 Jan 2010 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100115204423.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100118091812.htm ESA and NASA are inviting scientists from across the world to propose instruments for their joint Mars mission, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Scheduled for launch in 2016, the spacecraft will focus on understanding the rarest constituents of the martian atmosphere, including the mysterious methane that could signal life on Mars. Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100118091812.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112141400.htm Blobs of warm ice that periodically rise to the surface and churn the icy crust on Saturn's moon Enceladus explain the quirky heat behavior and intriguing surface of the moon's south polar region, according to a new paper using data from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112141400.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112171811.htm Ever since NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission scientists released the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system's edge in particles, solar physicists have been busy revising their models to account for the discovery of a narrow "ribbon" of bright emission that was completely unexpected and not predicted by any model at the time. Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112171811.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112141155.htm Beginning Jan. 18, NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter will listen for possible, though improbable, radio transmissions from the Phoenix Mars Lander, which completed five months of studying an arctic Martian site in November 2008. Wed, 13 Jan 2010 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100112141155.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100106193444.htm The most Earth-like planet yet found around another star may be the rocky remains of a Saturn-sized gas giant. Sun, 10 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100106193444.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100106093642.htm When scientists confirmed in October that they had detected the first rocky planet outside our solar system, it advanced the longtime quest to find an Earth-like planet hospitable to life. The rocky planet CoRoT-7 b is, however, a forbidding place. If its orbit is not almost perfectly circular, then the planet might be undergoing continuous, fierce volcanic eruptions. Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100106093642.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100105161540.htm In their quest to find solar systems analogous to ours, astronomers have determined how common our solar system is. They've concluded that about 10 percent of stars in the universe host systems of planets like our own, with several gas giant planets in the outer part of the solar system. Wed, 06 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100105161540.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100105170934.htm The quest to discover whether Mars ever hosted an environment friendly to microscopic forms of life has just gotten a shot in the arm. An experiment -- added to the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument on a mobile NASA laboratory that will land on Mars in 2012 -- will enhance SAM's ability to analyze large carbon molecules if the mission is fortunate enough to find any. Wed, 06 Jan 2010 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100105170934.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104131643.htm NASA's Kepler space telescope, designed to find Earth-size planets in the habitable zone of sun-like stars, has discovered its first five new exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104131643.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104092452.htm Spectacular satellite images suggest that Mars was warm enough to sustain lakes three billion years ago, a period that was previously thought to be too cold and arid to sustain water on the surface, according to new research. Mon, 04 Jan 2010 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100104092452.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230183710.htm Several decades ago scientists discovered that the Moon, long thought to have no atmosphere, actually does have an extremely thin exosphere. Scientists generally believe that the ions that make up the lunar exosphere are generated at the Moon's surface by interaction with solar photons, plasma in the Earth's magnetosphere, or micrometeorites. However, scientists have been uncertain about which processes are the main contributors of lunar exosphere ions. Sat, 02 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230183710.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091231144656.htm NASA's Mars rover Spirit will mark six years of unprecedented science exploration and inspiration for the American public on Jan. 3, 2010. However, the upcoming Martian winter could end the roving career of the beloved, scrappy robot. Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091231144656.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230184120.htm Understanding the motion and source of the plasma around Saturn is important for understanding the dynamics of the magnetosphere. Researchers present a theory that describes plasma transport in Saturn's magnetosphere, including processes that add new mass to the plasma and those that remove momentum from the plasma without changing plasma mass. Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230184120.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230183350.htm Some land formations on Mars suggest the presence of water ice. These features could have been created by viscous creep of ice below the surface in Martian permafrost. To determine how much ice would be needed to form the observed topography on Mars, researchers conducted laboratory experiments to simulate the frozen Martian sand. Thu, 31 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230183350.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230183755.htm Saturn emits "auroral hiss," a whistler-mode electromagnetic emission observed in the magnetosphere at high latitudes. This emission is similar to auroral hiss emitted by Earth. However, unlike Earth's auroral hiss, researchers have found that Saturn rotates in a beam-like matter around the planet. Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091230183755.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091223222226.htm The inner regions of young planet-forming disks offer information about how worlds like Earth form, but not a single telescope in the world can see them. Yet, for the first time, astronomers using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii have measured the properties of a young solar system at distances closer to the star than Venus is from our sun. Fri, 25 Dec 2009 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091223222226.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091223221937.htm Like sugar plum fairies in "The Nutcracker," the moons of Saturn performed a celestial ballet before the eyes of NASA's Cassini spacecraft. New movies frame the moons' silent dance against the majestic sweep of the planet's rings and show as many as four moons gliding around one another. Thu, 24 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091223221937.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091218094637.htm Saturn's largest moon, Titan, looks to be the only place in the solar system -- aside from our home planet, Earth -- with copious quantities of liquid (largely, liquid methane and ethane) sitting on its surface. According to a planetary astronomer Earth and Titan share yet another feature, which is inextricably linked with that surface liquid: common fog. Sun, 20 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091218094637.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091218131604.htm NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt, a vast ring of icy debris that is encircling the outer rim of the solar system just beyond Neptune. Sat, 19 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091218131604.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217183444.htm In the new blockbuster Avatar, humans visit the habitable -- and inhabited -- alien moon called Pandora. Life-bearing moons like Pandora or the Star Wars forest moon of Endor are a staple of science fiction. With NASA's Kepler mission showing the potential to detect Earth-sized objects, habitable moons may soon become science fact. Fri, 18 Dec 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217183444.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217200441.htm NASA's Cassini Spacecraft has captured the first flash of sunlight reflected off a lake on Saturn's moon Titan, confirming the presence of liquid on the part of the moon dotted with many large, lake-shaped basins. Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217200441.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091215141510.htm Planetary scientist Francis Nimmo will outline the impact of ice dynamics on the habitability of the moons of Saturn and Jupiter on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. Wed, 16 Dec 2009 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091215141510.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214121523.htm Planet hunters have discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two "super-Earths" with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth. These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars, according to researchers. Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091214121523.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210173611.htm Iapetus is often called Saturn's most bizarre moon, due to its starkly contrasting hemispheres -- one black as coal, the other white as snow. Images taken by the Cassini-Huygens spacecraft, orbiting Saturn since 2004, offer the most compelling evidence to date of why and how the moon got its yin-yang appearance, as well as clues to how other such satellites might have formed in the early universe. Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091210173611.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091208132351.htm ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory is celebrating its 10th anniversary. During its decade of operation, this remarkable space observatory has supplied new data for every aspect of astronomy. From our cosmic backyard to the further reaches of the Universe, XMM-Newton has changed the way we think of space. Thu, 10 Dec 2009 23:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091208132351.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091209151244.htm After waiting years for the sun to illuminate Saturn's north pole again, cameras aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft have captured the most detailed images yet of the intriguing hexagon shape crowning the planet. Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091209151244.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091208132349.htm Scientists have ruled out the possibility that methane is delivered to Mars by meteorites, raising fresh hopes that the gas might be generated by life on the red planet, in new research. Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091208132349.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091129153401.htm Researchers suggest that the eccentricity of Saturn's orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of methane and ethane lakes over the northern and southern polar regions of the planet's largest moon, Titan. On Earth, similar "astronomical forcing" of climate drives ice-age cycles. Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091129153401.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125231252.htm In the first video showing the auroras above the northern latitudes of Saturn, Cassini has spotted the tallest known "northern lights" in the solar system, flickering in shape and brightness high above the ringed planet. Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091125231252.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110070107.htm Winter images of NASA's Phoenix Lander showing the lander shrouded in dry-ice frost on Mars have been captured with the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE camera, aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Thu, 26 Nov 2009 02:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091110070107.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123185639.htm NASA's Cassini spacecraft is helping to rewrite our understanding of the shape of our solar system as it moves through the local Milky Way galaxy. Previous models pictured our solar system as having a comet-like appearance. The new results suggest a picture more like a bubble. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123185639.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123185902.htm NASA's Cassini spacecraft has sailed seamlessly through the Nov. 21 flyby of Saturn's moon Enceladus and started transmitting uncalibrated temperature data and images of the rippling terrain. These data and images will be processed and analyzed in the coming weeks. They will help scientists create the most-detailed-yet mosaic image of the southern part of the moon's Saturn-facing hemisphere and a contiguous thermal map of one of the intriguing "tiger stripe" features, with the highest resolution to date. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123185902.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123094122.htm Scientists have used an innovative computer program to produce a more detailed global map of Mars' valley networks. It shows the networks are much more extensive than had been previously depicted. Regions that are most densely dissected by the valley networks roughly form a belt around the planet, consistent with a past climate scenario that included precipitation and the presence of an ocean covering a large portion of Mars' northern hemisphere. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091123094122.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104122526.htm Is there such a thing as "weather" on Mars? There are some doubts, considering the planet's atmosphere is only 1 percent as dense as that of the Earth. Mars, however, definitely has clouds, drastically low temperatures and out-of-this-world dust storms. A professor of atmospheric sciences now hopes to analyze and forecast Martian weather. Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091104122526.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091111110045.htm Contrary to preconceived notions, the atmosphere and the oceans were perhaps not formed from vapors emitted during intense volcanism at the dawning of our planet. Scientists now suggest that water was not part of the Earth's initial inventory but stems from the turbulence caused in the outer solar system by giant planets. Ice-covered asteroids thus reached the Earth around one hundred million years after the birth of the planets. Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091111110045.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102110228.htm A new image from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows channels to the southeast of Hale crater on southern Mars. Taken by the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera, this view covers an area about 3 kilometers (2 miles) wide. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102110228.htm http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091108215449.htm A NASA spacecraft gliding over the battered surface of Mercury for the second time this year has revealed more previously unseen real estate on the innermost planet. The probe also has produced several science firsts and is returning hundreds of new photos and measurements of the planet's surface, atmosphere and magnetic field. Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:00:00 EST http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091108215449.htm