solar system Archives

Book Review: The Planet Factory

September 26, 2017May 2, 2021 Science Connectedastronomy, book reviews, solar system

The Planet Factory is a guide to real-life Tatooines, planets made of diamonds, and possible Earth twins. It’s a story 3,439 stardust babies! Title: The Planet FactoryAuthor: Elizabeth TaskerPublisher: Bloomsbury SigmaOn sale: Sept. 7, 2017 in UK; Nov. 7, 2017 in USABest for: Enthusiastic 17-plus-year-olds, readers interested in popular science and space Exo is the new black The Planet Factory is a guide to real-life Tatooines, planets made of diamonds, and possible Earth twins. Since the 1995 discovery of the first planet outside the solar system, exoplanetology has become one…

Astronomy and Astrophysics

New Horizon’s Pluto Flyby

July 14, 2015September 2, 2015 Science Connectedastronomy, NASA, solar system, space, spacecraft

NASA’s spacecraft New Horizons entered its closest approach with Pluto yesterday, as part of its nine-year mission to study the last of the nine “classical” planets in our solar system. Later today, we will receive the first “phone home” communication from the spacecraft. Here on Earth, scientists are eagerly awaiting today’s transmission from New Horizons. One of them is Noemi Pinilla-Alonso, an astrophysicist at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and formerly of NASA. Our friends at ResearchGate recently chatted with Pinilla-Alonso about her hopes and plans for the long-awaited data.…