Planets

Planets on parade: 5 will be lined up in night sky this week

Keep an eye to the sky this week for a chance to see a planetary hangout. Five planets Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus and Mars will line up near the moon. WHERE AND WHEN CAN YOU SEE THEM? The best day to catch the whole group is Tuesday. You'll want to look to the western horizon right after sunset, said NASA astronomer Bill Cooke. The planets will stretch from the horizon line to around halfway up the night sky. But don't be late: Mercury and Jupiter will quickly dip below the horizon around half an hour after sunset. The five-planet spread can be seen from anywhere on Earth, as long as you have clear skies and a view of the west. That's the beauty of these planetary alignments. It doesn't take much, Cooke said. DO I NEED BINOCULARS? Maybe. Jupiter, Venus and Mars will all be pretty easy to see since they shine brightly, Cooke said. Venus will be one of the brightest things in the sky, and Mars will be hanging out near the moon with a reddish glow. Mercury and Uranus could

Jupiter to be closest to Earth in 59 years today; here's how to watch

Jupiter is coming closer to Earth than it has since 1963. This is due to Earth and Jupiter's differing orbits around the sun, they do not pass each other at the same distance each time

Astronomers find new Saturn-like planet hiding in disc through novel method

All astronomers concur that planets are created in protoplanetary discs, which are the bands of gas and dust that encircle newly formed, young stars. Even though the universe has hundreds of these discs, it has been challenging to observe genuine planetary birth and development in these settings.Currently, astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian have created a novel method to find these elusive newborn planets, along with "smoking gun" proof of a small Neptune or Saturn-like planet hiding in a disc. The Astrophysical Journal Letters today published a description of the findings.According to Feng Long, a postdoctoral scholar at the Center for Astrophysics and project leader, "directly finding young planets is highly tough and has thus far only been effective in one or two situations." Because they are encased in substantial amounts of gas and dust, planets are always too dim for us to see them.Instead, they must look for signs that a planet is forming ..

Solar storm hits Earth amid global outage fear, aurora shows at many places

A solar storm hit the Earth on Tuesday amid fear of global outages that could have impacted radio and GPS signal and aurora were witnessed at high-latitude regions

James Webb telescope captures images of universe: How astronomy will change

Unveiled by US president Joe Biden, the stunning image of SMACS 0723, a cluster of thousands of galaxies, was released on July 11

James Webb Space Telescope can help astronomers in search for alien life

Many astronomers believe there's a good chance that life exists on planets orbiting other stars, and it's possible that's where life will first be found

Voyager missions: Twins that changed how we discern space giants

Who knows, someday, sometime, that might intrigue an intelligent al­ien if it does meet one and gets hacked

Star system with right-angled planets surprises astronomers

Two planets orbit the poles while another revolves around the star's equator, suggesting a mysterious force

Aliens and civilisations beyond Earth: Pentagon report adds to UFO enigma

Report references 144 incidents since 2004 where US service personnel reported close encounters with unidentifiable aerial objects

Jupiter, Saturn to come close to each other on December 21 after 397 years

The planets will next come comparably close on March 15, 2080

Looking beyond for life

The recent announcement of the presence of phosphine - a biosignature - in the upper part of Venus' thick atmosphere has revived the age-old question: Are we alone?

Some planets may have more suitable conditions for life than Earth: Study

Scientists have identified 24 planets outside our solar system that they say may have conditions more suitable for life than the Earth

Possibility of life on Venus: Remote hope with need for ample caution

A team of astronomers led by Jane Greaves of Cardiff University discovered that the planet has a high concentration of phosphine gas (Ph3)

Astronomers find potential sign of life high in Venus's atmosphere

Two telescopes in Hawaii and Chile spotted in the thick Venutian clouds the chemical signature of phosphine, a noxious gas that on Earth is only associated with life

NASA's planet hunter TESS completes two-year-long primary mission

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, on July 4, finished its primary mission imaging about 75% of the starry sky as part of a two-year-long survey

Surprising number of exoplanets could host life, new study reveals

Our solar system has one habitable planet -- Earth. According to a new study, other stars could have as many as seven Earth-like planets in the absence of a gas giant like Jupiter.

Youngest hot Jupitar offers new clues to formation of exotic worlds

HIP 67522 b was identified as a planet candidate by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which detects planets via the transit method

Four Jupiter, Saturn-sized planets around young star discovered: Know more

The star, CI Tau, is located about 500 light years away in a highly-productive stellar 'nursery' region of the galaxy