Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, and is also the smallest planet. But, this planet is shrinking due to cooling of its core. Specifically, as the core of Mercury cools, it pulls on its mantle and crust inward, thereby, resulting in shrinkage of the planet. This effect is not seen on Earth as … More Cooling of Mercury’s core resulted in shrinking of the planet
Transit method is by far the most important technique for detecting exoplanets orbiting other stars given the preponderance of exoplanets identified by the technique. In brief, transit detection operates by observing the small dip in starlight when the exoplanet moves in front of the host star from our point of view. Given the intensity of … More Advent of sensitive detectors enabled detection of exoplanets via the transit method
Currently, transit of exoplanet in front of its host star is the dominant technique for the detection and discovery of exoplanets. But, there exists other approaches for exoplanet discovery, particularly on a serendipitous basis. One approach is gravitational microlensing effect. Specifically, in gravitational microlensing, the brightness of the star under observation brightens due to the … More Exoplanets could be detected by gravitational microlensing effect
Earth is constantly bombarded by high energy particles emitted by our Sun. Known as the solar wind, the high energy particles collide with molecules in the Earth’s atmosphere, and could potentially strip away, albeit slowly, our atmosphere. But, this did not happen. Why? This comes about because Earth is protected by a global magnetic field … More Solar wind could strip away a planet’s atmosphere unprotected by a global magnetic field
Exoplanets around other star systems were hypothesized many years before they were first discovered in the mid-1990s. Specifically, the first exoplanet discovered was via the radial velocity technique that measured the wobble in the parent star as the planet orbits around the host star. Determined to be a hot Jupiter which has a close-in orbital … More Most exoplanets are discovered by the transit method
Neptune and Uranus are relatively inaccessible outer planets of the Solar System. Having been visited by the Voyager 2 spacecraft in the 1980s, research on both planets rely on imaging from both ground-based telescopes and the Hubble Space Telescope. However, spectroscopic measurements could not yield deep planetary secrets such as the possible formation of diamonds … More Lab experiments helped unveil the planetary secrets of inaccessible Neptune and Uranus
Until the advent of space telescopes, ground-based telescopes are the only means by which humans could peer into the distant cosmos. But inability to completely remove atmospheric blurring effects meant that developing space telescopes able to observe distant galaxies in space without distortion from atmospheric turbulence is a top priority. To this end came the … More Large ground-based telescopes complement space-based observatories
Close-in tidally-locked exoplanets around other stars are commonly found in the past two decades of exoplanets research. Such planets have size typically much larger than Earth and orbits their parent star at a distance much closer than Mercury is to our Sun. More importantly, these exoplanets are usually tidally-locked with one side of the planet … More Strong winds help ameliorate temperature difference between the day and nightside of tidally-locked planets
With the planning and construction of three extremely large telescopes at various sites around the world, astronomy has entered a new age where large telescopes would extend the reach of our observation into earlier parts of the universe. Specifically, European Extremely large telescope, Thirty meter telescope, and Giant Magellan Telescope would see first light sometime … More Utility of large telescopes in astronomy
New Horizons spacecraft flyby of Pluto in July 2015 has returned new understanding of the surface topography of the planet, which reveals greater details of icy crusts previously postulated to exist. Ideas concerning the possibility of life on the icy planet have surfaced and will be discussed here. Surface temperature at Pluto is very … More Possibility of life on Pluto
Looking at life with a scientific lens 