Label: Planets

July 21, 2009

Comet may have hit Jupiter - Rare Photographs

Comet may have hit Jupiter - Rare Photographs

There are news reports today that a comet slammed into the planet Jupiter on Monday. Scientists have drawn this conclusion based on  images captured by NASA’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii.

This is not the first time this has happened. In my book, DESTINATION JUPITER,

there is a a series of photographs showing a comet (named Shoemaker-Levy 9)  slamming into the surface of Jupiter in July, 1994. Fifteen years later, astronomers have photographed what may have been another comet crashing into the planet. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and has a strong gravitational pull. That’s one of the reasons Jupiter has captured so many comets and moons that circle around it.  Scientists are always excited when they are able to photograph such an impact. It tells them much about the composition of the planet.

 

Posted by: Seymour Simon

(0) Comments  •   Labels: science news, space books, Solar System, planets, Jupiter   •  Permalink (link to this article)

March 9, 2009

Planet Earth (Views From Space)


 

Posted by: Seymour Simon

(0) Comments  •   Labels: planets, Earth Science Books, Earth   •  Permalink (link to this article)

March 9, 2009

Kepler - A Search for Habitable Planets

Are there are Earth-like planets in outer space? The Kepler mission aims to find out. We’re looking for a "Goldilocks" planet—not too hot and not too cold.

 

Posted by: Seymour Simon

(1) Comments  •   Labels: science news, space books, Solar System, planets, video   •  Permalink (link to this article)

January 30, 2009

JUPITER, 399 YEARS AFTER GALILEO


Nearly 400 years ago, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei constructed a tiny   astronomical telescope and looked at the night sky. He peered at the planet Jupiter, then a strange and mysterious object. Galileo discovered three faint dots around the planet and wondered what they might be.

Over the following year, Galileo observed Jupiter and these tiny pin-pricks of light. He discovered a fourth and saw that they were in motion around Jupiter. Could they be moons, other worlds in their own right? Galileo had discovered the first satellites circling around a planet other than our own. In future years they were named Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. They are now known as the Galilean Satellites, in honour of the great scientist.

Galileo realized that these four moons were orbiting Jupiter. His observations cast doubt on the accepted view (at that time) that the Earth was the center of the Universe. Years later,  the Galilean moons would be used by science to support Copernicus’s theory of a heliocentric, sun-centered universe, which we now know is much closer to the truth.

With a small telescope or a pair of binoculars, you too can see Jupiter and its moons, much as Galileo did nearly 400 years ago. On a crisp and cloudless night, find a safe and dark location to look to the night sky. The best places to look at the sky are away from street lights. The best observing time for Jupiter this year is in the summer. Jupiter is bright during the month of August, making this a good time to view its moons.

Focus your telescope or binoculars on Jupiter and try to pick out the dots of light on either side. These are the moons, just as Galileo saw them! You can even track their positions over consecutive nights, as he did. Even if you don’t observe Jupiter and the Galilean moons during 2009, it’s still worth looking up on a starry night and remembering how, nearly 400 years ago, history was made by Galileo doing the same thing. 

Posted by: Seymour Simon

(1) Comments  •   Labels: space books, planets, Jupiter   •  Permalink (link to this article)

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