Posts Tagged ‘orbit’

Why track Saturn’s ‘propeller moons’?

CORNELL (US)—Researchers have been tracking what are likely dozens of small moons orbiting within the outer edge of Saturn’s A ring—the outermost of the planet’s large, dense rings—searching for new clues about how planets form and grow around stars in young solar systems. Continue…

Tuesday, July 13, 2010 13:25 - 0 Comments

Science & Technology - Jun 3, 2010 9:20 - 0 Comments

Searching for exoplanets that stay in the zone

U. WASHINGTON (US)—New computer models suggest that some planets orbiting nearby stars similar to the sun might fluctuate between being habitable and being inhospitable to life because of the forces exerted by giant neighbors with eccentric orbits. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 9, 2010 18:22 - 2 Comments

These two dwarfs orbit close and quick

U. WARWICK (UK)—The stars in HM Cancri, the smallest known binary, revolve around each other in just 5.4 minutes—the shortest known orbital period for any binary. (more…)

Science & Technology - Nov 30, 2009 14:21 - 4 Comments

Saturn’s oblong orbit linked to Titan’s lakes

CALTECH (US)—The eccentricity of Saturn’s orbit around the sun may be responsible for the unusually uneven distribution of lakes over the northern and southern polar regions of the planet’s largest moon, Titan. (more…)

Science & Technology - Sep 29, 2009 11:52 - 0 Comments

Messenger makes final Mercury flyby

U. COLORADO (US)—NASA’s Messenger spacecraft will zip by Mercury for the third and final time today, September 29, cruising within 142 miles of the planet’s surface at more than 100,000 mph. Messenger will take high-resolution color images of the surface terrain before making a clever gravity-assist maneuver that will steer it into orbit around the rocky planet beginning in March 2011. (more…)