The year was 2015. After traveling billions and billions of miles through the Erebus, New Horizons encounters the boatman, and the somber lord of the departed. The spacecraft could have been called Orpheus. The story of Pluto is a fascinating chapter in the history of astronomy. Discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh (later illustrious Las […]
Tag: planet
Could photos of a platypus on the surface of Jupiter’s moon ‘Europa’ be the key to discovering life beyond planet Earth?
Recent photographs taken by NASA’s Juno spacecraft have revealed that Jupiter’s fourth largest moon, Europa, has been hiding a rather large secret underneath its icy crust. Europa is actually closer to a planet than a moon. It has a magnetic field, a fragile oxygen atmosphere, and a liquid iron core. It has an icy crust […]
Real-life ‘Star Trek’ planet was actually just an illusion caused by a ‘jittery’ star
A planet beyond the solar system that has been compared to Spock’s homeworld Vulcan in the Star Trek franchise may have been nothing more than an illusion caused by a jittery star. The extrasolar planet or “exoplanet” (a term for a planet outside of our solar system) was proposed to orbit a star called 40 […]
Six planets will be aligning in June. Here’s how you can view the 2024 ‘planet parade’ in Tennessee
Didn’t catch the solar eclipse in April? Still bummed you missed the northern lights? You’re in luck, the skies will demand our attention again soon and this time you won’t need to travel elsewhere to experience the celestial event. On June 3, six planets — Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune — will align […]
Turn on Bobbie Gentry at dawn on June 3 and look for the ‘planet parade.’ What to know
Many Mississippians know the third of June as the day Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge as Bobbie Gentry sang in her 1967 smash “Ode to Billie Joe.” This year the date will coincide with a “parade of planets” in the early morning hours. Far from “another sleepy, dusty Delta day,” the celestial […]
How one of the world’s most successful indoor pests took over the planet
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. The cockroach that emerged from your sink drain and scuttled under the fridge? The nocturnal critter was most likely a German cockroach, and its ancestors were pestering people more than 2,000 years ago in southern Asia, […]
First Glimpse Inside Bizarre Planet Reveals What Makes It So Puffy
For the first time, the JWST has given us a detailed breakdown of the interior of a world outside our Solar System. The extremely strange exoplanet WASP-107b has an atmosphere surprisingly low in methane, which suggests that the interior of the exoplanet must be significantly hotter than we thought – and its core more massive […]
Another planet discovered that may support human life — and it’s not that far away
Move over, Mars. We could be one step closer to becoming a multi-planetary species. Scientists have discovered another planet that has the potential to support human life, per a study outlined in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Dubbed Gliese 12 b, the potential intergalactic oasis boasts an average estimated surface temperature of 107 […]
A potentially habitable Earth-size planet was discovered just 40 light-years away
A potentially habitable exoplanet that is roughly similar in size to Earth has been found in a system located 40 light-years away, according to a new study. The planet is about the size of Venus, so slightly smaller than Earth, and may be temperate enough to support life, the researchers said. Dubbed Gliese 12 b, […]
Scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable, Earth-size planet
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Two teams of scientists have discovered a theoretically habitable planet, smaller than Earth but bigger than Venus, orbiting a small star about 40 light-years away. The exoplanet, named Gliese 12b, orbits a cool red dwarf […]
The man who almost destroyed the planet (twice)
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more. Facing a crowd of journalists, inventor Thomas Midgley Jr. poured a lead additive over his hands and then proceeded to inhale its fumes for about a minute. Unfazed, he said, “I could do this every day […]
‘He’s playing with the most powerful man on the planet’
Jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money trial were shown a series of damning emails that appear to show Rudy Giuliani-linked attorney Robert Costello pressuring Michael Cohen to stay loyal to the former president while the one-time “fixer” was under federal investigation. In April 2018, Cohen’s office and home were raided by the FBI and his […]