Tag Archive for 'Gas giant'

Astronomers Peer Deep into Turbulent Atmosphere of Jupiter

Aug 23, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has managed to peer deep into the Jovian atmosphere using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA)...

An artist’s impression of a collision between the proto-Jupiter and a massive protoplanet in the early Solar System. Image credit: K. Suda & Y. Akimoto, Mabuchi Design Office / Astrobiology Center, Japan.

Massive Planetary Embryo Crashed into Jupiter 4.5 Billion Years Ago

Aug 15, 2019 by News Staff

An energetic head-on collision between a large planetary embryo and the proto-Jupiter about 4.5 billion years ago could explain puzzling gravitational...

This new Hubble image of Jupiter, taken on June 27, 2019, reveals the giant planet’s Great Red Spot, and a more intense color palette in the clouds swirling in Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere than seen in previous years. The colors, and their changes, provide important clues to ongoing processes in Jupiter’s atmosphere. The bands are created by differences in the thickness and height of the ammonia ice clouds. The colorful bands, which flow in opposite directions at various latitudes, result from different atmospheric pressures. Lighter bands rise higher and have thicker clouds than the darker bands. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M.H. Wong, University of California, Berkeley.

Hubble Snaps Super-Sharp Image of Jupiter

Aug 9, 2019 by News Staff

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope obtained a detailed image of Jupiter on June 27, 2019, when the gas giant was approximately 400 million miles (644...

This artist’s illustration shows WASP-121b, an alien world that is losing magnesium and iron gas from its atmosphere. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Olmsted, STScI.

Metal-Rich Gas Seen Streaming from Hot Jupiter WASP-121b

Aug 1, 2019 by News Staff

WASP-121b is about two times bigger than Jupiter and 1.2 times more massive. Discovered in 2016, the planet is located 881 light-years away in the constellation...

An artist’s rendering of a gas giant in a binary stellar system. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / T. Pyle.

TESS Finds Still-Forming Gas Giant in Binary Star System

Jul 25, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered an exoplanet planet larger than Neptune but smaller than Saturn...

An artist’s impression of the gas giant Kepler 1625b with its large moon, Kepler 1625b-i; the pair has a similar mass and radius ratio to the Earth-Moon system but scaled up by a factor of 11. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Large Moons around Extrasolar Gas Giants Could Become ‘Ploonets’

Jul 18, 2019 by News Staff

Ploonets — large regular moons ejected from orbits around close-in gas giant exoplanets — could explain many baffling astronomical observations,...

An artist’s impression of the circumplanetary disk around PDS 70c. Image credit: NRAO / AUI / NSF / S. Dagnello.

ALMA Spots Moon-Forming Disk around Young Gas Giant PDS 70c

Jul 16, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have spotted a circumplanetary disk around a still-forming gaseous exoplanet...

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft in orbit around Saturn. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Cassini Team Delivers New Findings on Saturn’s Ring System

Jun 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Although NASA’s Cassini mission ended in 2017, science continues to flow from the data collected. In a series of papers in the journal Science, planetary...

Artist’s impression of a potentially habitable exomoon orbiting a giant planet. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Exomoons Could Host Alien Life, Astrophysicist Says

Jun 6, 2019 by News Staff

Exomoons — natural satellites of planets outside our Solar System — could offer another clue about the pool of alien worlds that may be home...

This artist’s illustration shows two gas giant exoplanets orbiting the young star PDS 70. Image credit: J. Olmsted, STScI.

Astronomers Directly Image Two Protoplanets around PDS 70

Jun 4, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) spectrograph on ESO’s Very Large Telescope have directly imaged two still-forming gas...

An artist’s impression of NGTS-4b and its star. Image credit: Mark Garlick / University of Warwick.

Astronomers Discover ‘Forbidden’ Short-Period Neptune-Sized Exoplanet

May 30, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of astronomers has discovered a Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting NGTS-4, a K-dwarf star located 922 light-years from Earth. Named...

This image of Jupiter was taken on February 12, 2019, as Juno performed its 18th close flyby of the planet. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill.

Jupiter’s Winds Interact with Its Magnetic Field, Scientists Say

May 22, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers from NASA’s Juno mission made the first detection beyond Earth of an internal magnetic field that changes over time — a phenomenon...

This infrared image was recorded by Subaru Telescope’s COMICS instrument. Sinclair et al used red, blue and yellow to infuse this image; regions of the atmosphere that are more yellow and red indicate the hotter areas. This highlights the auroral heating that occurs at Jupiter’s poles, where energy from the solar wind and magnetosphere are deposited. This image was captured on January 12, 2017. Image credit: NAOJ / NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Subaru Telescope Finds Evidence of Auroral Heating at Jupiter’s Poles

Apr 15, 2019 by News Staff

New observations with the Subaru Telescope, a Japanese 8-m telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii, show that aurorae at Jupiter’s poles are heating the atmosphere...

Juno Gets Close Look at Jupiter’s Turbulent Clouds

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

NASA has released new images taken by the Juno probe of Jupiter, featuring giant storms and swirling clouds in the gas giant’s atmosphere. This image...

Various groupings of Jupiter’s moons with the recently-discovered ones. Image credit: Roberto Molar-Candanosa / Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Invite Public to Help Name Jupiter’s New Moons

Feb 26, 2019 by News Staff

In 2018, Carnegie Institution for Science astronomer Scott Sheppard and colleagues discovered twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter. The discovery brought...

An artist’s impression of the planetary system around TOI-216. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Discovers Pair of Warm Giant Exoplanets

Feb 26, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered two ‘warm’ gas giants orbiting a nearby dwarf star. An...

Neptune and Uranus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Simon, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / M. Wong & A. Hsu, University of California, Berkeley.

Hubble Spots New Dark Storm on Neptune, Giant Polar Cap on Uranus

Feb 8, 2019 by News Staff

Since its launch into orbit in 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has helped astronomers to amass an album of outer planet images. Yearly monitoring...

This image was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft as it performed its most recent close flyby of Jupiter on December 21, 2018. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstaedt / Sean Doran.

NASA Video Shows Massive Storm in Jupiter’s Southern Hemisphere

Feb 5, 2019 by News Staff

A giant Jovian storm called Oval BA is captured in an amazing new video from NASA’s Juno mission. Oval BA and the famed Great Red Spot. Image credit:...

Saturn’s Great Northern Storm churning through the atmosphere in the planet’s northern hemisphere overtakes itself as it encircles the planet in this true-color view from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft. This picture, captured on February 25, 2011, was taken about 12 weeks after the storm began, and the clouds by this time had formed a tail that wrapped around the gas giant. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science Institute.

Length of Saturn’s Day Revised: 10 Hours 33 Minutes and 38 Seconds

Jan 22, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft observed Saturn’s ring system in unprecedented detail, and a team of planetary researchers from the University of California...

Juno Sees Two Massive Storms in Jupiter’s Southern Hemisphere

Jan 21, 2019 by News Staff

A stunning new image from NASA’s Juno robotic orbiter shows the famed Great Red Spot and a smaller storm called Oval BA. This image was captured by NASA’s...

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