Planetary Science

  1. Planetary Science

    A solar forecast

    Solar activity, which waxes and wanes in an 11-year cycle, will most likely begin its next round in March 2008 and peak sometime between late 2011 and mid 2012.

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  2. Planetary Science

    In the Zone: Extrasolar planet with the potential for life

    Astronomers this week announced that they had found Earth's closest known analog outside the solar system, an object with an average temperature that may allow water to be liquid on its surface.

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  3. Planetary Science

    A hexagon on the ringed planet

    NASA scientists are puzzled by a giant, hexagon-shaped feature that covers Saturn's entire north pole.

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  4. Planetary Science

    Northern Exposure: The inhospitable side of the galaxy?

    Our solar system's periodic motion from one side of the galaxy to the other could expose life on Earth to massive amounts of cosmic rays and cause recurring, catastrophic mass extinctions.

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  5. Planetary Science

    Little Enceladus disturbs Saturn’s magnetic field

    Saturn's tiny moon Enceladus is acting as a brake on the giant planet's magnetic field.

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  6. Planetary Science

    Cavernous findings from Mars

    Images taken by a Mars-orbiting spacecraft show what appear to be caves on the Red Planet.

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  7. Planetary Science

    No Escape: There’s global warming on Mars too

    The overall darkening of Mars' surface in recent decades has significantly raised the Red Planet's temperature, a possible cause for the substantial, recent shrinkage of the planet's southern ice cap.

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  8. Planetary Science

    Radar probes frozen water at Martian pole

    If all the frozen water stored near the south pole of Mars suddenly melted, it would make a planetwide ocean 11 meters deep.

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  9. Planetary Science

    Solar-staring spacecraft shows its flare

    A new image of the sun's chromosphere, a layer sandwiched between the sun's visible surface and its outer atmosphere, shows a surprisingly complex structure of filaments of roiling gas that promises to shed new light on why the sun erupts.

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  10. Planetary Science

    Radar reveals signs of seas on Titan

    The northernmost reaches of Saturn's moon Titan appear to be covered with hydrocarbon lakes or seas that are at least 10 times as large as those predicted by earlier studies.

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  11. Planetary Science

    Saturn’s rings: A panoramic perspective

    Sailing high above Saturn's equator, NASA's Cassini spacecraft took the most sweeping views of the planet's icy rings ever recorded.

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  12. Planetary Science

    A crack at life

    New images of ancient cracks on Mars suggest that liquid may have percolated through underground rock on the Red Planet, providing a possible habitat for primitive life.

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