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Post by auntym on Feb 25, 2014 14:58:12 GMT -6
www.space.com/24799-solar-system-stamp-idea-leaked.html?cmpid=514648_20140225_19100244 'Solar System' on Leaked List of US Postage Stamp Subjects for 2014By Robert Z. Pearlman, collectSPACE.com February 25, 2014 The "Solar System" is among the "approved subjects" for United States Postal Service (USPS) stamps in 2014, according to a list leaked to the press. Fictional stamp created by collectSPACE.com for article illustration only. Credit: collectSPACE.com/NASA The United States Postal Service is planning to put its stamp on the solar system — or rather the solar system on its stamps. A confidential document shared with The Washington Post includes the "Solar System" on a list of U.S. stamp topics that have not yet been announced publicly but are planned for release later this year. The "approved subjects" include the "Solar System" among the postage stamps "in design development" as of Jan. 7, 2014. www.collectspace.com/news/news-022414a-usps-solar-system-stamps.htmlAlthough some work on the list's stamps has started, the United States Postal Service's (USPS) executive director for stamp services, Susan McGowan, told the newspaper that the topics are "subject to change" at any time. [Photos: Space Age Postage Stamps www.space.com/24798-space-age-postage-stamps-photos.html The inclusion of the "Solar System" on the list though, is consistent with the minutes from a 2013 meeting leaked to the weekly magazine Linn's Stamp News last May. In that report, the space stamps were targeted for this October. Both the meeting's minutes and subject list originated with the Citizens' Stamps Advisory Committee, a panel tasked with reviewing stamp ideas and making recommendations to the U.S. Postmaster. In the past, the Postal Service announced most of its next year's stamp schedule at once. In recent years, the USPS has chosen to reveal new issues as the year progresses. To date, the USPS has released information about stamps it plans to issue this year through July. No other details about the planetary-themed postage have been made public. The leaked reports do not stipulate how many different stamp designs would comprise the set. If they are released this year, the "Solar System" stamps will be the first U.S. space or astronomy-topical stamps in three years. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/24799-solar-system-stamp-idea-leaked.html?cmpid=514648_20140225_19100244
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Post by auntym on Dec 28, 2014 14:01:27 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Dec 28, 2014 14:21:27 GMT -6
www.space.com/56-our-solar-system-facts-formation-and-discovery.html?adbid=548931347792666625&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856&cmpid=514648_20141227_37143847 Solar System Facts: A Guide to Things Orbiting Our Sunby Charles Q. Choi, Space.com Contributor December 09, 2014 Our solar system is a vast place, with lots of mostly empty space between planets. But out there are comets, asteroids and more rocky, frozen objects (including dwarf planets) yet to be discovered in the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. Credit: NASAThe solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits around it, including planets, moons, asteroids, comets and meteoroids. It extends from the sun, called Sol by the ancient Romans, and goes past the four inner planets, through the Asteroid Belt to the four gas giants and on to the disk-shaped Kuiper Belt and far beyond to the giant, spherical Oort Cloud and the teardrop-shaped heliopause. Scientists estimate that the edge of the solar system is about 9 billion miles (15 billion kilometers) from the sun. DiscoveryFor millennia, astronomers have followed points of light that seemed to move among the stars. The ancient Greeks named these planets, meaning "wanderers." Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn were known in antiquity, and the invention of the telescope added the Asteroid Belt, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and many of these worlds' moons. The dawn of the space age saw dozens of probes launched to explore our system, an adventure that continues today. The discovery of Eris kicked off a rash of new discoveries of dwarf planets. [Infographic: Structure of the solar system] www.space.com/10900-solar-system-planets-scale-infographic.htmlFormationMany scientists think our solar system formed from a giant, rotating cloud of gas and dust known as the solar nebula. As the nebula collapsed because of its gravity, it spun faster and flattened into a disk. Most of the material was pulled toward the center to form the sun. Other particles within the disk collided and stuck together to form asteroid-sized objects named as planetesimals, some of which combined to become the asteroids, comets, moons and planets. The solar wind from the sun was so powerful that it swept away most of the lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, from the innermost planets, leaving behind mostly small, rocky worlds. The solar wind was much weaker in the outer regions, however, resulting in gas giants made up mostly of hydrogen and helium. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/56-our-solar-system-facts-formation-and-discovery.html?adbid=548931347792666625&adbpl=tw&adbpr=15431856&cmpid=514648_20141227_37143847
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Post by auntym on Jan 25, 2015 14:33:55 GMT -6
www.ancient-code.com/100-facts-solar-system/ 100 Facts about our Solar Systemby Ivan Petricevic 24/01/2015 I am going to go off topic with this article a little bit but I really feel it is an article worth sharing here, and it is an article that I’ve spent some time doing research, even though the article is a bit long its very much worth the read, so here it is. Our Solar system is made up of the sun and everything that orbits around it; planets, moons, and space rock. Scientists estimate that the edge of our solar system is located around 15 billion kilometers from our Sun; or Sol as the ancient Romans called it. The planets located within our solar system have been the main interest for ancient civilizations throughout thousands of years; who followed them across the sky and recorded their positions, and based every-day life in accordance with the stars. There are many things that few people know about the solar system, in this article we will introduce you further more to the solar system with a few facts, so lets start. CONTINUE READING: www.ancient-code.com/100-facts-solar-system/
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Post by auntym on Jul 28, 2015 15:19:19 GMT -6
www.universetoday.com/121551/faces-of-the-solar-system/ Faces of the Solar Systemby David Dickinson / www.universetoday.com/author/david-dickinson/ July 28, 2015 Move over, Pluto… Disney already has dibs on Mercury as seen in this MESSENGER photo. Image credit: NASA/JHAPL/Carnegie institution of Washington “Look, it has a tiny face on it!” This sentiment was echoed ‘round the web recently, as an image of Pluto’s tiny moon Nix was released by the NASA New Horizons team. Sure, we’ve all been there. Lay back in a field on a lazy July summer’s day, and soon, you’ll see faces of all sorts in the puffy stratocumulus clouds holding the promise of afternoon showers. This predilection is so hard-wired into our brains, that often our facial recognition software sees faces where there are none. Certainly, seeing faces is a worthy survival strategy; not only is this aspect of cognition handy in recognizing the friendlies of our own tribe, but it’s also useful in the reading of facial expressions by giving us cues of the myriad ‘tells’ in the social poker game of life. And yes, there’s a term for the illusion of seeing faces in the visual static: pareidolia. We deal lots with pareidolia in astronomy and skeptical circles. As NASA images of brave new worlds are released, an army of basement bloggers are pouring over them, seeing miniature bigfoots, flowers, and yes, lots of humanoid figures and faces. Two craters and the gash of a trench for a mouth will do. Now that new images of Pluto and its entourage of moons are pouring in, neural circuits ‘cross the web are misfiring, seeing faces, half-buried alien skeletons and artifacts strewn across Pluto and Charon. Of course, most of these claims are simply hilarious and easily dismissed… no one, for example, thinks the Earth’s Moon is an artificial construct, though its distorted nearside visage has been gazing upon the drama of humanity for millions of years. CONTINUE READING: www.universetoday.com/121551/faces-of-the-solar-system/
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Post by auntym on Jun 6, 2017 13:05:34 GMT -6
www.space.com/37090-vacation-guide-solar-system-book-author-interview.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit 'Vacation Guide to the Solar System': Where Would YOU Go?By Sarah Lewin, Staff Writer June 6, 2017 “Vacation Guide to the Solar System” by Olivia Koski and Jana Grcevich Credit: Random HouseOlivia Koski and Jana Grcevich want to send everyone to space — on vacation. In "Vacation Guide to the Solar System" (Penguin Books, 2017), the science writer and astronomer team up to take readers through the finer points of a future where a relaxing trip to float in the clouds of Venus is commonplace, and where daring travelers ski on Mercury or skydive on Saturn. Just remember to sign up for years of time off at work! Space.com caught up with Koski and Grcevich about their new book, and discussed the Intergalactic Travel Bureau it sprung from and the best (and most dangerous) places to visit in the vacationer's solar system. [See more vivid art from "Vacation Guide to the Solar System" (Gallery)] www.space.com/37089-vacation-guide-to-the-solar-system-book-in-pictures.html Space.com: So why a solar system vacation guide?Olivia Koski: It all started with something called the Intergalactic Travel Bureau, a pop-up agency where the organization Guerilla Science invites members of the public to come and plan their vacation with an astronomer. Guerilla Science does all kinds of events and performances at festivals — all with the mission to imbue science into culture, so planning vacations to space was an idea that we had to make astronomy and space science relevant to the average person. Guerilla Science had done this in London for the Royal Astronomers' Ball back in 2011, and then in 2012 we brought the Intergalactic Travel Bureau to New York, and recruited Jana as one of our first space travel agents. Jana Grcevich: I was a graduate student in astronomy at the time, and that sounded like a lot of fun — and it was. It's very different from sitting at a computer all day long; I was finishing my thesis, hard at work alone in my room. It's like translating [science] in a way that's far more vivid and interesting. I kind of got caught up with it as well, in doing this — just thinking about what it would be like to go low-gravity hiking, or skiing on Pluto. There are so many different places where you can go and think about the human experience of being there. Koski: As we started talking to people about what they want to do on vacation, we realized that there was definitely the need for a guide to vacationing in space … It just felt like doing the book would be a natural extension of the experience. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/37090-vacation-guide-solar-system-book-author-interview.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social#?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=2016twitterdlvrit
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Post by auntym on Jun 22, 2017 15:41:22 GMT -6
gizmodo.com/a-mysterious-mars-sized-object-could-be-hiding-at-the-e-1796343294?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow A Mysterious Mars-Sized Object Could Be Hiding at the Edge of Our Solar Systemby Rae Paoletta / kinja.com/raepaoletta6-22-2017 Image: Heather Roper/LPL It’s been about 11 years since Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet status, leaving a 1,473 mile (2,370 kilometers)-size void in our hearts. Since then, the hunt for Planet X—aptly renamed Planet 9—has grown into an international movement to find such an object in the Kuiper Belt beyond Neptune’s orbit. Now, scientists Kat Volk and Renu Malhotra from the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory are upping the ante—they suggest that a completely different, tenth planetary-mass object is hiding somewhere in the Kuiper Belt as well. Is someone keeping track of all these *bleep* hypothetical planets? Here’s what we know about this undiscovered, maybe-planet: According to the researchers’ work, which has been published in the Astronomical Journal, this so-called “Planet 10" would be located at about 55 astronomical units (AU), if it’s real. That’s significantly closer than the estimated location of Planet 9, which is thought to be in the Kuiper Belt as well, but at about 700 AU. The team posits Planet 10's mass is somewhere between Mars’ and Earth’s, which they determined by studying the orbital tilts of roughly 600 icy bodies in the region, known as Kepler Belt Objects (KBOs). KBOs orbit the Sun at an incline that’s different from the eight known planets in our solar system, but according to the researchers’ calculations, the orbital tilts of these particular KBOs were so unusual that something else would have to be at work. The researchers assert the gravitational tug of a tenth planet with roughly the mass of Mars could be responsible for their unusual orbital plane. “The most likely explanation for our results is that there is some unseen mass,” Volk, a postdoctoral fellow at University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory and the lead author of the study, said in a statement. “According to our calculations, something as massive as Mars would be needed to cause the warp that we measured.” While we’d all love to ride the Planet 10 hype train, Caltech astronomer Konstantin Batygin—who co-authored a paper last year proposing the existence of Planet 9—says we should pump the breaks, at least for now. CONTINUE READING: gizmodo.com/a-mysterious-mars-sized-object-could-be-hiding-at-the-e-1796343294?utm_campaign=socialflow_io9_twitter&utm_source=io9_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
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Post by lois on Jul 11, 2017 19:52:06 GMT -6
Hope you do not mind Auntym. I could not find a place to stick this. Could not find Nasa.
Sounds from our solar system. I'm sure this has been here before. Somewhere!! but it was one planet at a time as they would do by where voyager was at the time.
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Post by auntym on Jul 12, 2017 12:15:16 GMT -6
Hope you do not mind Auntym. I could not find a place to stick this. Could not find Nasa. Sounds from our solar system. I'm sure this has been here before. Somewhere!! but it was one planet at a time as they would do by where voyager was at the time. looks like the perfect place to me lois...
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Post by auntym on Aug 15, 2018 11:59:33 GMT -6
mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/08/nasa-detects-mysterious-wall-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-system/ NASA Detects Mysterious Wall at the Edge of the Solar Systemby Sequoyah Kennedy / mysteriousuniverse.org/author/skennedy/August 16, 2018 We live inside a cosmic bubble. Far beyond Pluto, at the edge of the vast expanse of interstellar space between our solar system and all the others is a wall. It’s a thin wall, like the surface of a soap bubble, made up of compressed interstellar matter that is held their by the energy emanating from our sun. As the sun’s solar winds push out into deep space, interstellar matter—molecules of hydrogen and other elements—meet the force of the solar winds and, too small to fight them, compress into an interstellar shield of sorts, a bubble surrounding our solar system as it careens through the Milky Way. According to a paper published on August 7, NASA believes that they may have detected the mass that makes up this mysterious boundary between us and the rest of the universe. www.sciencenews.org/article/new-horizons-may-have-seen-glow-solar-systems-edgeNASA’s New Horizons probe flew past Pluto in 2015, and researchers are still receiving data from it, and likely will for a long time to come. The latest data New Horizons has sent back includes an increase of ultraviolet light that scientists say is likely due to the compressed hydrogen that makes up the interstellar wall. Similar findings were reported by the Voyager probes 30 years ago, and getting the same findings in 2018 strengthens the case that what they’ve found is, in fact, the boundary area where the sun’s influence begins to drop off. mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/06/nasas-golden-record-might-give-aliens-a-bizarrely-warped-view-of-humanity/ Diagram of solar winds.Diagram showing the bubbles created by the force of solar winds and galactic rays.Like most scientific findings, the team is quick to say that it is not confirmed yet. They say there’s a chance that the increased light may not be coming from the hydrogen wall, but might be another, as of yet unknown, source in interstellar space. They say that the telltale sign will be whether or not the New Horizons probe keeps detecting light after it passes where the wall should be. If it stops detecting light, then it means that it was actually detecting the wall. If the readings remain the same, then it has to be something else. it takes a long time to do things in space, and it will likely take another 10 years before they can know for sure. Luckily, the instrument known as Alice that New Horizons is outfitted with has enough power to be operational for another 15 to 20 years. The sun It’s only fitting that the giant ball of fire responsible for all life keeps a nice little bubble around its children. Unfortunately, its a bubble that only stops very small things. The object named Oumuamua broke through it not so long ago, and one day something bigger is going to crash through like the Kool-Aid man on a bender and it’ll be game over. Thanks for nothing, sun. mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/08/nasa-detects-mysterious-wall-at-the-edge-of-the-solar-system/
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Post by auntym on Feb 29, 2020 16:10:54 GMT -6
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Post by auntym on Jan 13, 2021 1:18:16 GMT -6
astronomy.com/news/2021/01/what-to-expect-for-spaceflight-and-astronomy-in-2021?utm_source=asytwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=asytwitterWhat to expect for spaceflight and astronomy in 2021Whatever craziness may be happening on Earth, the coming year promises to be a spectacular one across the solar system.By Corey S. Powell / Published: Monday, January 4, 2021 The IM-1 lander, built for NASA by Intuitive Machines, is headed to Vallis Schröteri, close to the site where Apollo 18 would have landed if the mission had not been canceled. It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. On Earth, almost every aspect of life over the past year was dominated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken nearly two million lives and shredded the global economy. In space, humans have racked up one triumph after another: First landing on the lunar farside, two impressive successes in gathering samples from asteroids, the first new pieces of the Moon brought home in 44 years, close-up explorations of the Sun, and major advances in low-cost reusable rockets. It may seem callous to celebrate such distant, cerebral events while so many people are suffering on Earth. But the international collaborations, scientific stretches, and goal-oriented research that enabled those space missions are exactly the same techniques that enabled the deveopment of multiple COVID vaccines at unpredecented speed. Images of the OSIRIS-REx probe kissing asteroid Bennu, or Chang'e-4's rover rolling across the Moon's hidden face, also reminded us of the deeper things that we live for. Food, water, and energy, and information are essential. Everyone deserves fair access to them. That said, devoting just a tiny (truly tiny) portion of the economy to the exploration of space reminds us of the wonder that we are all born with — the sense that we are individuals who belong to a species, a species that belongs to a planet, and a planet that is part of a vast, gorgeous, mysterious universe. In finding what is out there, we find a little more of ourselves, every bit as much as we do through music or art or laughter. Space exploration also offers its rhythmic certainties. Grand missions require long-term planning and set celestial schedules. Whatever unforeseeable events may happen down here, good or bad, we know that 2021 will offer some grand new adventures up there. Even if there are accidents or malfunctions, the coming year promises to be a banner one in our ongoing peek into the solar system. And no matter what we say or do or think, the cosmos will continue its steady dance, delivering eclipses and conjunctions and other visual delights to anyone willing and able to look up. Herewith, then, some space highlights for 2021, focusing on the stunning robotic missions on the way. First Visit to Jupiter's Trojan AsteroidsIn October, NASA is set to launch the Lucy spacecraft. Over its 12-year primary mission, Lucy will visit eight different asteroids. One target lies in the asteroid belt. The other seven are so-called Trojan asteroids that share an orbit with Jupiter, trapped in points of stability 60 degrees ahead of or behind the planet as it goes around the sun. These objects have been trapped in their locations for billions of years, probably since the time of the formation of the solar system. They contain preserved samples of water-rich and carbon-rich material in the outer solar system; some of that material formed Jupiter, while other bits moved inward to contribute to Earth's life-sustaining composition. As a whimsical aside: When meteorites strike carbon-rich asteroids, they create tiny carbon crystals. So yes: Lucy will be in the sky with diamonds. NASA's Lucy probe will follow a looping path to visit seven different Trojan asteroids — ancient, mysterious objects that share an orbit with Jupiter. First privately built landers on the MoonThe Israeli Beresheet probe, built by the company SpaceIL, made it to the lunar surface last year, but it ended with a crash landing. This coming year will very likely see the first fully successful commercial lander touch down on the Moon. NASA has contracted with two companies, Astrobotic and Intuitive Machines, to create the Peregrine-1 and IM-1 landers.Astrobotic's Peregrine will carry 11 instruments, measuring the chemistry, magnetism, and radiation levels on the lunar surface. It will also bring along a Lunar Library: a set of nickel disks etched with an encyclopedia of human knowledge, replicating a set that was lost with Beresheet. Intuitive Machine's IM-1, meanwhile, will have 5 instruments that focus on navigation experiments and a radio detector designed to do unique studies of low-frequency astronomical sources. CONTINUE READING: astronomy.com/news/2021/01/what-to-expect-for-spaceflight-and-astronomy-in-2021?utm_source=asytwitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=asytwitter
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Post by auntym on Dec 9, 2022 13:26:34 GMT -6
www.space.com/hubble-space-telescope-solar-system-glow?utm_content=space.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.comHubble Space Telescope spots haunting glow surrounding the solar systemBy Robert Lea / www.space.com/author/robert-lea12-9-2022 It's equivalent to the glow of 10 fireflies spread across the entire night sky.An illustration showing a hypothetical cloud of dust that could come from infalling comets. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, Andi James (STScI)) Did someone leave a light on? The solar system is surrounded by an eerie ghostly glow that persists after all known light sources are accounted for, according to new research from the Hubble Space Telescope. The discovery suggests that models of the solar system's structure may have to be revised. "It may be a new element to the contents of the solar system that has been hypothesized but not quantitatively measured until now," Tim Carleton, an astronomer at Arizona State University and lead author of the research, said in a statement. The findings came about when astronomers attempted to answer the question, "How dark is dark?" As part of a project called SKYSURF, the team sorted through 200,000 images from the Hubble Space Telescope, systematically eliminating the glow from planets, stars, galaxies, and from dust in the plane of our solar system and making tens of thousands of measurements to detect the residual glow in the night sky after these sources were removed. They found a tiny excess of light, equivalent to the glow of 10 fireflies spread across the entire sky. In a statement, NASA officials described this as being similar to walking into a room at night, turning out all the lights and closing the shades. Despite the darkening of the room, an eerie glow comes from the walls, ceiling and floor even after all light sources have been eliminated. While this might sound like a haunting scene facing a protagonist in a classic ghost tale, the eerie glow discovered around the solar system has a rational and definitely non-supernatural explanation. The team thinks that one possible explanation for this solar system glow is reflected sunlight from a sphere of dust left behind by comets that are falling into the solar system. The solar system's background glow is smoothly distributed, which would match an origin with the innumerable snowballs of ice and dust that approach the sun from all directions. As comets approach, heat from the sun causes solid material within comets to instantly transform into gas, or sublimate, causing an exhaust of dust and ice to burst free from the cosmic snowballs; this exhaust could then reflect back sunlight to create the eerie glow. Such a shell of dust would represent a new addition to what astronomers know about the architecture of the solar system. CONTINUE READING: www.space.com/hubble-space-telescope-solar-system-glow?utm_content=space.com&utm_campaign=socialflow&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com
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