Citizen scientists sifting through data collected by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered a record-breaking world and given it a memorable nickname: Percival, after the father of Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter books. In more official terms, however, the extrasolar planet, or ‘exoplanet’, is called TOI 4633 c. … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. An unusual asteroid traveling near Earth is believed to be part of the moon, but exactly how it zoomed through the solar system has remained a mystery. Now researchers say they have made an important … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. An unusual asteroid traveling near Earth is believed to be part of the moon, but exactly how it zoomed through the solar system has remained a mystery. Now researchers say they have made an important … Read more
Yet more evidence for a hypothetical perk planet lurking in the most remote corners of us solar system has come to light – and the clues are linked to icy bodies crossing the planet’s orbit Neptune as you traverse long, winding paths the sun. Planet Nineas the predicted planet is called, was first postulated in … Read more
The moon is connected to the Earth for the vast majority of its 4.5 billion year dance around the sun. Astrophysicists speculate that the moon’s origins are due to an ancient collision in which an object the size of Mars collided with our planet, sending enormous amounts of debris into space. The resulting materials flowed … Read more
It seems that the so-called ‘great instability’ event that caused chaos among the planets and the gas giants their journey through space until they settled into the orbits we know today took place between 60 and 100 million years after the birth of the solar system. This is the conclusion of careful scientific detective work … Read more
Earth’s ‘quasi-moon’ probably rocketed away from the actual moon relatively recently in the solar system’s history, a new study suggests. Kamo’oalewa, a 131- to 328-foot-wide (40 to 100 meters) Near Earth Object (NEO), was liberated between 1 million and 10 million years ago by an asteroid impact, an impact that destroyed the 13.7-mile-wide ( 22 … Read more
Indianapolis, IN – For the past few weeks, Kaleb Boone, 9, has been mapping the sky. He has mapped, he has measured, he has made plans and he has carefully watched the weather. The reason why is simple. It’s what every astronomer should do in anticipation of a major cosmic event. When the comet 12P/Pons-Brooks … Read more
Clouds can block and ruin the total solar eclipse.Laurie Ambrose/Getty Images People have been studying total solar eclipses for thousands of years to better understand the cosmos. Total eclipses helped prove Einstein’s theory of relativity and led to the discovery of helium. Here are seven examples where total solar eclipses have helped advance our knowledge … Read more
Don’t get stuck at work during the total solar eclipse on Monday! It’s an event you don’t want to miss.Kohei Hara/LeoPatrizi/Getty Images/Business Insider You don’t want to miss April’s total solar eclipse. The US won’t see another one until 2044. But this rare astronomical event occurs in the middle of working hours on a Monday. … Read more