As many of us know, NASA is consistently making new discoveries. The newest discovery has me quite intrigued. The findings that imply that the planet, Ceres, has a weak interior. This is evaluated by monitoring the variations in Ceres’ gravity fluctuations, even though they are subtle it is enough of a clue to determine the internal structure. This new data proposes that Ceres has a weak interior, and water and light particles of unknown material separated from rock in the early years during a heating phase.
Ceres, is the largest object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is approximately 587 miles in diameter, this also makes it the largest of the minor planets within the orbit of Neptune. This planet is composed of rock and ice; Ceres is estimated to take up at least one third of the mass of the entire asteroid belt. Its round shape is contributing to the weak interior and gravity. The magnitude of Ceres from Earth ranges from 6.7 to 9.3 explaining why it is too dim to see with the naked eye.
The dwarf planet Ceres, which is larger yet less dense, is believed to have a large amount of ice and may even have subsurface liquid water. Ceres was the first dwarf planet discovered by the spacecraft Dawn whom is now studying it in great detail. Scientists with NASA’s Dawn mission have identified with multiple photos that
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Ceres is much less dense than Earth, the moon, and many other rocky bodies within the solar system. It has been suspected that Cere’s contained low density materials such as water ice, which has been shown to rise to the outer layer along with other light material. This division of layers is less pronounced inside Ceres than the moon or many other planets in our Solar System, which is what separates these other structures from planets like Earth, which is made up of a metallic core, semi fluid mantle, and outer
Ultimately the development of previous inferences and observations which have developed our current model for the Earth’s composition and interior structure are a key concept in understanding our future developments towards resourcing our planet and understanding how it works to a further degree.
GEOS1001: Assignment 1 – Topic 1: Discuss the role of mantle/core convection and plate tectonics as a life-support system on Earth, and outline other factors that make our planet unique in the Solar System.
The Kuiper Belt is an icy-bodied disc shapes area of the Solar System. Kuiper Belt has a circular shape, to be exact, it is a curved plane. It is over 4.5 to 7.4 billion kilometers from Sun. This is roughly 30 to 50 times the distance of Earth from Sun. The Kuiper Belt has been said to resemble the Asteroid Belt that lies between Mars and Jupiter. The difference between the Kuiper Belt and the Asteroid Belt is that the bodies are icier due to their distance from the Sun. The Kuiper Belt objects includes Pluto and other comets that orbit beyond Neptune. Most Kuiper Belt objects are made up of frozen volatiles such as methane, water and ammonia. In 1950 astronomer Gerald Kuiper predicted the existence of the Kuiper Belt and the find was named
Trappist-1 is a white dwarf , having a mass equivalent to only 8% of the mass of our sun. A white dwarf surrounded by seven planets all rocky and of a size similar to the Earth. The discovery of such a system is a first for NASA, which used the Trappist telescope in Chile to study it and the Spitzer
While studying the solar system in our eighth grade science class, we were each assigned a constellation to research. The constellation that was assigned to me was Cepheus. In this paper my goal is to explain the myth behind this constellation and describe its features.
This liquid water, in combination with a rocky silicate sea floor and radiolytically produce surface oxidants, may provide for a chemically rich ocean that would be considered habitable. While the surface of Europa may contain clues about the composition of an interior ocean, debate still continues about the surface’s chemistry and how exogenous radiation processing and endogenous oceanic emplacement play a role on this moon. One way of understanding Europa is determining if the external composition reflects the internal ocean chemistry. Results from the NIMS (Near Infrared Mapping Spectrograph) instrument on Galileo inferred that the surface of Europa was dominated by hydrated sulfate salts that would be probable in evaporates from an internal ocean. In finding that these spectral signatures are more predominant in what seems to be younger terrains, it strengthens the hypothesis that these are more newly sited evaporates. Further Study of the spectra, however, showed that these same NIMS surface spectra could be explained just as well by a surface dominated by hydrated sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid is a probable outcome of bombardment of a frozen surface by sulfur ions. These sulfur ions are ultimately come from volcanoes located on Io, and then dissociated, ionized, and accelerated by Jupiter’s quickly spinning magnetic field until they hit Europa. Such radiolysis could also clarify the sulfur dioxide and sulfur allotropes seen on the surface of Europa and their favored appearance on the more heavily bombarded trailing hemisphere. The existence of sulfuric acid and other sulfur products appears to be nearly unavoidable, but the salt hypothesis is still convincing (Brown 1).
Although Pluto was discovered in 1930, limited information on the distant planet delayed a realistic understanding of its characteristics. Today Pluto remains the only planet that has not been visited by a spacecraft, yet an increasing amount of information is unfolding about this peculiar planet. The uniqueness of Pluto's orbit, rotational relationship with its satellite, spin axis, and light variations all give the planet a certain appeal.
Findings on Earth and other planets suggest extraterrestrial life could live in outer space, further encouraging scientists to proceed with their research. Discovering water is a great step for finding habitable planets. According to new studies, “Mars had a shallow pool of briny water on its surface long ago, NASA said in announcing what could be the strongest evidence yet that the now-dry Red Planet was once hospitable to life. ‘If we are correct in our interpretation, this was a habitable environment,’ Mr. Squyres said. These are the kinds of environments that are very suitable for life” (Bridges). Little evidence proves beings live on Mars now, but this dried up water source provides strong proof that Mars could have inhabited life in the past. Water is a key element of survival, and can also house marine life. Marine life could have simply died out when the water dried up. If Mars was truly inhabited by extraterrestrials long ago, then scientists cannot rule out living beings on any other planet in the universe, and must continue searching. Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons houses...
Comets and asteroids. They are some of the first celestial bodies that humans observed and truly thought about. From ancient cultures interpreting these near-Earth objects as signs of disaster, to 18th century Europeans studying their paths, to even the extinction of the dinosaurs, comets and asteroids have always been prevalent in the majority of Earth’s history. These objects have intrigued the human race for generations, and continue to do so today. These similar subjects of fascination have many unique and interesting characteristics and a rich history with Earth.
air are the highest type these include Ariel, Ceres, Iris, Juno, as well as the
This is the Scholarly Journal Archive. 2. Letters Planet Pluto Gerard P. Kuiper Science, New Series, Vol. 124, No. 2 -. 3216. The. Aug. 17, 1956, p. 322.
Asteroids can be found orbiting the Sun in a belt between Mars and Jupiter; this is called the Asteroid belt or Main belt. The asteroid belt has been said to probably contain millions of asteroids that are all different. There are more than 20,000 numbered asteroids. Some times asteroids get knocked off the asteroid belt. As asteroids revolve around the Sun in elliptical orbits, Jupiter’s gravity and getting to close to Mars or another asteroid can change an asteroids path, this could send an asteroid out of the asteroid belt and into space across the orbits of other planets. An example of asteroid orbits changing is Mar’s moons Phobos and Deimos. These were asteroids that went to close to Mars and got caught in its orbit.
Achenback, Joel., Heide, Schultz. “Signs From Earth: The Heat Is On.” National Geographic. National Geographic Society. n. d. n. pag. Web. 28 November 2015.
Pluto is located 7.5 billion kilometers from Earth and is only over 2,000 km in diameter. Pluto has been labeled both a planet and a dwarf planet over the years. As said by USA Today, “a planet is a celestial body that: is in orbit around the sun, is round or nearly round, and has "cleared the neighborhood" around its orbit, meaning it is not surrounded by objects of similar size and characteristics.” Pluto only follows two of the three rules of a planet. Pluto crosses over Neptune’s orbit and is near other dwarf planets like it. Even though it breaks one rule it was officially named a dwarf planet in “August 2006”, as stated by the Library of Congress. After this event Pluto still only has one correct classification. Pluto is a planet because
The fourth planet from the sun is Mars. “Mars is named after a mythological figure-the Roman God of War. Due to Mars color it is also known as the red planet. Mercury is the tiniest planet then Mars. Scientist have found that mars has the largest mountain compared to the other planets. Furthermore, this mountain is named Olympus Mons, it is a shield volcano, it is 21 km high and 600 km in diameter. Scientist have discovered recent lava on the planet, therefore the volcano may still be active.