solar-system | ABS-CBN News

Water in asteroid dust offers clues to life on Earth

Kyoko Hasegawa, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Sep 23 07:45 AM

Specks of dust retrieved by a Japanese space probe from an asteroid some 300 million kilometers from Earth have revealed a surprising component: a drop of water, scientists said Friday. Read more »

LOOK: Neptune's delicate rings captured in Webb image

Daniel Lawler, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Sep 22 03:05 AM

The last time astronomers had such a clear view of Neptune was when NASA's Voyager 2 became the first and only space probe to fly past it in 1989. Read more »

Webb telescope captures its first image of exoplanet

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Sep 03 09:28 AM

Webb's infrared gaze and coronagraphs – telescopic attachments that block out starlight – enable it to take direct images of exoplanets. Read more »

Asteroids may have brought water to Earth — research

Kyodo News
Posted at Aug 16 03:31 AM

It remains a mystery how the Earth, which consisted almost entirely of molten magma in its initial formation, came to be covered in water. Read more »

LOOK: PAGASA shares photos of sunspot clusters

ABS-CBN News
Posted at Apr 21 05:52 PM

The state weather bureau explains sunspots are cooler areas of the sun's surface and are roughly the size of Earth. Read more »

Asteroid riding along in Earth’s orbit poses no danger

Will Dunham, Reuters
Posted at Feb 02 05:50 AM

Trojan asteroids can be wanderers in the solar system or material left over from their home planet's formation. Read more »

Hot little planet as dense as iron zips around red dwarf star

Will Dunham, Reuters
Posted at Dec 03 07:01 AM

Scientists have spotted one of the smallest planets ever discovered outside our solar system, a scorching-hot world a bit larger than Mars. Read more »

Comet 'most pristine' object from outer space seen in Solar System, say studies

Marlowe Hood and Patrick Galey, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 31 06:01 AM

Pristine, in astronomical terms, describes a comet that has never passed close enough to a star to be transformed by its searing heat.   Read more »

A 'starter kit' for supermassive black holes?

Marlowe Hood, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 30 12:53 PM

Scientists have reported the discovery of a rare, medium-sized black hole that may help answer one of the more tantalising questions in astronomy: how do their supermassive counterparts come into being?   Read more »

Scientists look beyond solar system for traces of life

Lucie Aubourg, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 06 03:13 AM

Searching for traces of life on Mars, like NASA is doing, is one thing. But scientists are also looking further afield.  Read more »

Scientists look beyond solar system for traces of life

Lucie Aubourg, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Mar 05 07:21 AM

Searching for traces of life on Mars, like NASA is doing, is one thing. But scientists are also looking further afield. Could it be found beyond our solar system? A study published on Thursday in the prestigious journal Science reveals the discovery of a new exoplanet that could be instrumental in the hunt. Read more »

Neptune’s weird dark spot just got weirder

Shannon Stirone, The New York Times
Posted at Dec 24 04:07 AM

Neptune boasts some of the strangest weather in the solar system. The sun’s eighth planet holds the record for the fastest winds observed on any world, with speeds cutting through the atmosphere upward of 1,100 mph, or 1 1/2 times the speed of sound.    Read more »

On Venus, cloudy with a chance of microbial life

Dennis Overbye, The New York Times
Posted at Sep 23 07:02 AM

It has been a while — like, forever — since anyone claimed to have discovered life on Venus. Read more »

Life on Venus? Astronomers see a signal in Its clouds

Shannon Stirone, Kenneth Chang and Dennis Overbye, New York Times
Updated as of Sep 15 11:29 AM

High in the toxic atmosphere of the planet Venus, astronomers on Earth have discovered signs of what might be life. Read more »

Blue planet: Study proposes new origin theory for Earth's water

Issam Ahmed, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Aug 28 06:26 AM

WASHINGTON - Water covers 70 percent of the Earth's surface and is crucial to life as we know it, but how it got here has been a longstanding scientific debate. Read more »

Massive meteor shower 'hit Earth and Moon' 800 million years ago

Agence France-Presse
Posted at Jul 22 03:53 AM

A giant meteor shower bombarded Earth and the Moon 800 million years ago with more than 30 times the force of the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs, new research showed Tuesday. Read more »

Solar Orbiter gives scientists unprecedented look at Sun

Patrick Galey, Agence France-Presse
Posted at Jul 16 11:02 PM

Scientists said Thursday they had obtained the closest ever images taken of the Sun, part of a mission to study solar winds and flares that could have far-reaching impacts back on Earth. Read more »

Surviving core of ill-fated Jupiter-like planet spotted near distant star

Will Dunham, Reuters
Posted at Jul 02 05:19 AM

A rocky planet 39 times as massive as Earth has been spotted orbiting a distant star at breakneck speed, with astronomers concluding it may be the surviving core of a planet once perhaps larger than Jupiter that was stripped of its gaseous atmosphere.   Read more »

Collision of galaxies may have spurred our solar system's formation

Will Dunham, Reuters
Posted at May 27 08:27 AM

A violent event on a colossal scale - the crash of two galaxies - may have paved the way for our solar system's birth. Read more »