Planets

NASA reveals that the Milky Way Galaxy may contain over 400 Earth-mass rogue planets. These rogue planets drift in space and they do not orbit any star at all, which makes them special. It is speculated that these planets are hidden in the Milky Way Galaxy and NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could spot over 400 of these rogue planets.According to NASA's report, the unknown planets were from outside the galaxy, but drifted into it with some unknown mechanism. “We estimate that our galaxy is home to 20 times more…

Astronomers using an array of 66 radio telescopes have discovered what may be the first example of a star with two exoplanets circling it that share the same orbit, something that was thought to be theoretically possible but never seen until now.If you read enough science fiction or bad pseudoscience, sooner or later you'll run across the idea that there's another planet sharing the same orbit as the Earth, but 180 degrees away, so it is always hidden by the Sun.It's a concept that inspired the 1969 feature film…

Astronomers reported Wednesday the discovery of what could be two planets sharing the same orbit around their star.They said it's the strongest evidence yet of this bizarre cosmic pairing, long suspected but never proven.Using a telescope in Chile, the Spanish-led team spotted a cloud of debris in the same orbit as an already confirmed planet circling this star, 370 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. They suspect it's either a planet in formation or remnants of a planet that once was.Asteroids are known to…

NASA’s Starling mission will test new technologies for autonomous swarm navigation on four CubeSats in low-Earth orbit. Credit: Blue Canyon Technologies/NASASending a swarm of small satellites into orbit …The first views from NASA’s newest storm-watching mission …And making the grade for investing in small business …A few of the stories to tell you about – This Week at NASA!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJMjTKix-e4NASA’s Starling Mission Sends Swarm of Satellites into OrbitA Rocket Lab Electron rocket launched from New…

NASA and Osaka University scientists suggest that rogue planets, which roam space unattached to stars, are far more numerous than star-orbiting planets. The impending launch of NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope could lead to the discovery of hundreds of such rogue planets, adding critical insights into planetary formation mechanisms. Credit: NASANew research conducted by scientists from NASA and Japan’s Osaka University suggests that rogue planets, or worlds that drift through space untethered to a star,…

A joint research by scientists from NASA and Japan’s Osaka University suggests that the US space agency's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, set to launch by May 2027, could find 400 Earth-mass rogue planets. Rogue planets, unlike regular planets, are not associated with any star and drift through space. In simpler terms, rogue planets are free-floating planets that are not bound to the gravitational force of a star. Earth is bound to the Sun. These are also said to far outnumber planets that orbit stars. “We estimate…

According to recent research, Trojan planets that are the same size as Jupiter, which are orbiting around the same star, have been found for the first time.According to Live Science report, the new discovery is located around 370 light-years from Earth. Scientists believe that they must be debris of a shattered dead planet or they might be building blocks of a new one. For about two decades, the existence of Trojan planets with shared orbits around a star has been a subject of speculation among astronomers. This…

The Solar System is a fairly tidy place. Each planet stays in its lane, at its own orbital distance from the Sun, minding its own business.Most planetary systems we've found out there in the wider galaxy also seem to follow this trend. According to theory, though, two planets could share the same orbit – and now, for the first time, astronomers think we might have evidence of this in a baby planetary system some 370 light-years from Earth.These orbit-sharing worlds are known as Trojan planets, or, for exoplanets,…

Using the ALMA, astronomers have discovered a debris cloud in the PDS 70 system, potentially indicating two planets sharing the same orbit. This marks the most substantial evidence of this phenomenon to date, leading to new inquiries about the existence and nature of Trojans in various planetary systems. Credit: ESO/L. CalçadaAstronomers have detected a debris cloud that could indicate a ‘sibling’ planet sharing the orbit of an existing planet around a distant star, using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array…

The first open-world Star Wars game is on the way from Ubisoft, but just how open are those worlds? According to developer Massive Entertainment, Star Wars Outlaws will feature several "hand-crafted" planets to explore, each one being roughly the size of two "zones" in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey."It's a crude analogy, but the size of one planet might be about two of the zones in Assassin's Creed: Odyssey, for example," creative director Julian Gerighty said to Edge magazine (via Eurogamer). "It could be…