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Found 275 results for dwarf planet
Asteroid impact event. Lateral sectioned view of an asteroid impact, similar to that which is thought to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs around 65 million years ago. The impact took place at sea near the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, forming the Chicxulub crater (around 200 kilometres across). The impact threw trillions of tons of dust into the atmosphere and sent tsunamis (massive waves) around the globe, destroying coastal areas. Dust and water vapour in the atmosphere lowered global temperatures. Plant and then animal life began to die off. The dinosaurs never recovered, and mammals rose to become the dominant form of life.

Could Earth sustain life without having been hit by a dwarf planet?

6 March 2024

There are lots of ideas about how life got started on Earth, say our readers, but if an object hadn’t crashed into Earth to form the moon, as per the giant-impact hypothesis, life may not have begun

Weird floating crystals can stop stars ageing for billions of years

6 March 2024

Some white dwarfs seem to stop ageing for billions of years, and this may be due to the behaviour of unusual ice crystals that heat up the stars
JWST will officially begin searching for exomoons around other planets

JWST will officially begin searching for exomoons around other planets

5 March 2024

Five exomoon programmes have been picked for the James Webb Space Telescope, raising the hopes of finding moons around exoplanets for the first time

Why space dust is key to everything from star birth to life on Earth

1 March 2024

Cosmic dust grains may be small, but they are mighty – it turns out dust is crucial to just about every process that occurs in space
earth and sunbeam in galaxy space element finished by nasa; Shutterstock ID 280760417; purchase_order: -; job: -; client: -; other: -

How heavy is Earth and how much weight could it take before caving in?

14 February 2024

Earth’s mass is about 6 million million million million kilograms, say our readers – and it wouldn’t be a great idea to be in the vicinity if too much mass were added
In this Voyager 2 image of Saturn, obtained Aug. 11, 1981, from a range of 14.7 million kilometers (9.1 million miles), north is at the upper right edge of the disc. Seen above the planet are the satellites Dione (right) and Enceladus. This false-color print shows a green spot at the south edge of a yellow band; in true color, the spot would appear brown and the band white. A bright yellow spot slightly above and to the left in this image moves eastward relative to the green spot at a rate that allows it to pass the green feature in about 50 days. The convective clouds that appear between the two spots are typical of the region. Here, the smallest visible structures measure about 270 kilometers (170 miles). The Voyager project is managed for NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia01959-voyager-2-image-of-saturn

What is the probability that Voyager 1 or 2 will hit a planet or star?

10 January 2024

The likelihood of this happening is extraordinarily low, say our readers, because interstellar space is so vast
Possibly the smallest stars ever discovered

Astronomers have spotted what may be the smallest stars ever seen

15 December 2023

The James Webb Space Telescope has found three objects about a thousand light years away that may be the least massive brown dwarf stars ever seen – though it is unclear how they formed
Artist's impression of a planet around a red giant star

Strange alien worlds suggest Earth could survive the death of the sun

12 December 2023

We thought there was no chance our world could survive the fiery death of the sun in another 5 billion years. Now sightings of strange "orphan planets" might force us to rewrite the story
FG10H1 JUPITER: EUROPA, 1979. /nJupiter's moon, Europa. Photographed by Voyager 2, 1979.

How excited should we be by signs of life spotted on alien worlds?

21 November 2023

We keep spotting molecular “biosignatures” in the atmospheres of planets beyond Earth, but it isn't clear if any of them can provide definitive evidence that we’re not alone
Seven wonders of the Milky Way: An astronomer’s guide to the galaxy

Seven wonders of the Milky Way: An astronomer’s guide to the galaxy

16 October 2023

Join us on an exhilarating tour of the Milky Way’s most spectacular sights – from a monstrous black hole and a river of dark matter to a diamond planet, primordial stars and a cosmic hall of mirrors

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