Wednesday: May 12, 2010
- Scientists have discovered that Jupiter somehow managed to lose a stripe.
The band was present at the end of 2009, right before Jupiter moved too close to the sun in the sky to be observed from Earth. When the planet emerged from the sun's glare again in early April, its south equatorial belt was nowhere to be seen.
Thursday: April 8, 2010
- Hubble discovers mysertious giant planet orbiting a tiny nearby star.
The team reports the '2M044144' brown dwarf possesses a companion about 5-10 times heavier than Jupiter. The companion orbits some 2.25 billion miles from the small star, and must be less than 1 million years old, roughly the age of the brown dwarf.
Wednesday: March 17, 2010
- The great big red spot over on Jupiter has brand new glow about it.
Turns out that great big red spot is not just a plain old oval after all. It seems to act as a mood ring of sorts to indicate weather and circulation patterns for nearby storms systems. You can see this glow for yourself at home, assuming you have your very own infrared telescope facility.
Wednesday: February 3, 2010
- Rare asteroid collision caught via Hubble space telescope.
Have a glimpse of what it looks like when two asteroids crash into each other in wide open deep space. Well, not so deep really - this event occured in an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Thursday: November 19, 2009
- Jupiter's moon might be home to a variety of aquatic fish-like life.
That amount of oxygen would be enough to support more than just microscopic life-forms: At least three million tons of fishlike creatures could theoretically live and breathe on Europa, said study author Richard Greenberg of the University of Arizona in Tucson.
Tuesday: September 15, 2009
- Turns out that Jupiter had a twelve year love affair with a passing comet.
For all those years in question Jupiter had an extra moon. The comet decided to break it off sometime in 1961, Jupiter hasn't been the same since.
Monday: August 10, 2009
- Something may have punched a hole through Jupiter's rings.
It’s not exactly clear what’s going on here, even in this slightly zoomed shot. But it looks for all the world - or worlds — like some small object on an inclined orbit has punched through Saturn’s narrow F ring, bursting out from underneath, and dragging behind it a wake of particles from the rings.
Monday: July 27, 2009
- Jupiter is Earth's favorite asteroid prevention unit.
...Jupiter’s overbearing gravity acts as a gravitational shield deflecting incoming space junk, mainly comets, away from the inner solar system where it could do for us what an asteroid apparently did for the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Tuesday: July 21, 2009
- Black spot on Jupiter discovered by backyard astronomer.
...Nasa confirmed Mr Wesley’s discovery and released their own images. The pictures, taken by the American space agency's infrared telescope in Hawaii, show a scar in the atmosphere near Jupiter's south pole.