Topic: Jupiter (Planet)
Top galleries, list articles, quizzes
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What makes a planet livable? Five things scientists look for.
Scientists have so far detected at least 550 planets outside the solar system – and another 2,000-plus await confirmation. But how to pick out the ones that may be Earth-like havens for life? Here's what one team looks for in assessing any planet's potential habitability and its similarity to Earth's properties.
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Quadrantid meteors and 11 other big skywatching events of 2012
What lies ahead sky-wise for 2012? Joe Rao, SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist, selected what he considers to be the top 12 "skylights" for this coming year,
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In Pictures: Timeline of American rockets
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Dwarfs
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In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Uranus
All Content
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4,700 asteroids capable of catastrophic damage lurk near Earth
The survey found there are likely 4,700 potentially hazardous asteroids in orbits that occasionally bring them close enough to Earth to pose a concern.
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NASA mission confirms: Ex-asteroid Vesta is a planet that almost was
Data from the orbiter DAWN confirm theories about the history of Vesta, which dates to the early days of planet formation. The protoplanet is also home to the solar system's second largest mountain.
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Asteroid Vesta: Is it really an asteroid?
The humongous asteroid Vesta is actually a protoplanet left over from the early days of our solar system, new observations from a NASA space probe suggest.
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Planetary wrecking balls: how Jupiter might have destroyed Earth
'Hot Jupiters' are Jupiter-mass planets orbiting close to stars. A study suggests that they might have been kicked inward from their original orbit, destroying or ejecting other planets.
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European Space Agency to explore Jupiter's moons (+video)
The ESA has given the go-ahead for a solar-powered space probe that will examine the icy Jovian moons of Ganymede and Europa, along with Jupiter's upper atmosphere.
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Google billionaires announce scheme to mine asteroids (+video)
A new company backed by some of the world's most prominent billionaires, including three Google executives, plans to mine near-Earth asteroids for precious metals.
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Why James Cameron and Larry Page want to mine asteroids (+video)
Google execs and filmmaker Cameron are investing in a space mining venture. The goal: create space-based refueling stations on asteroids
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Mars, moon, and star form brilliant sky triangle tonight
The moon, Mars and the star Regulus will combine to form a very bright triple play Tuesday night.
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Planets found at dawn of universe, but their existence is a mystery
Scientists have found two planets orbiting a star that formed only a billion years after the big bang. But the universe had few planet-making elements then, so how did the planets form?
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Astronomers say that there are billions of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy (+video)
A team of European astronomers say that about 40 percent of red dwarf stars - the most common type of star in the Milky Way - have at least one planet whose temperatures would allow liquid water on the surface.
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Photos of asteroid Vesta reveal bright, ancient rock and dark, melted stone
The new photos of Vesta from NASA's Dawn spacecraft highlight odd, shiny spots that are nearly twice as bright as other parts of the asteroid — suggesting it is original material left over from the space rock's birth 4 billion years ago, NASA officials said today.
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Scientists explain pileups of gigantic alien worlds
Researchers say they have apparently discovered the secret behind the mysterious clumping of massive alien worlds: high-energy radiation from their stars.
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Stars create gaps devoid of gas giants, study finds
Computer simulations of young solar systems suggest that gas giants seem to avoid certain orbital regions around stars, a phenomenon caused by intense radiation emanating from young stars.
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Jupiter and Venus to dance together this week
Beginning tonight, the two brightest planets in the sky will be so close together that you'll be able to block both of them out with a few fingers held at arm's length.
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Saturn's frigid moon holds wisps of oxygen, scientists say
After the Cassini probe's flyby over Dione, Saturn's cratered icy moon, scientists have found strong evidence of a thin layer of oxygen in its atmosphere.
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Venus, Jupiter, Mercury, and moon to put on rare spectacle in sky
This past weekend, three planets joined the moon in a rare alignment. On Monday, these celestial bodies will be joined by Mercury.
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Could free-floating 'nomad' planets carry seeds of life in the universe?
A 'nomad' planet of the right mass, with the right atmosphere, and some source of heat – perhaps radioactive decay or tectonic activity – could allow for life either on the surface or underground.
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Obama's NASA budget: Mars takes a hit, but space science isn't dead
Two major Mars missions lost out to the James Web Space Telescope in Obama's proposed NASA budget, but there's still money for other ambitious space-science missions.
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Is NASA giving up on Mars? (+video)
NASA's 2013 budget includes deep cuts to its planetary science mission, particularly its efforts to send spacecraft to Mars. Instead, the space agency will focus on human spaceflight and infrared astronomy. Is NASA now heading down the wrong path?
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What makes a planet livable? Five things scientists look for.
Scientists have so far detected at least 550 planets outside the solar system – and another 2,000-plus await confirmation. But how to pick out the ones that may be Earth-like havens for life? Here's what one team looks for in assessing any planet's potential habitability and its similarity to Earth's properties.
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Putin hails Antarctic lake discovery as 'great event,' promises awards
On national television, Russia's natural resources minister gave Putin a canister of water from melted ice at the bottom of the boreshaft near the surface of Lake Vostok.
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Enormous subglacial Lake Vostok could hold clues for alien life
Since drilling through miles of ice to reach the massive underground lake, scientists have begun to speculate on what exists, or lives, in the frigid freshwater.
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Why you should care about Lake Vostok
If scientists find life in Antarctica's Lake Vostok, an ancient freshwater body locked beneath two miles of ice, it will greatly boost hopes of the existence of life on other worlds.
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How Lake Vostok could transform our understanding of life as we know it
Russian researchers in Antarctica say they have successfully drilled through more than two miles of ice to reach a vast lake that has been sealed off from light or air for at least 14 million years. If living organisms are found in the lake, it would greatly boost hopes of finding life on other worlds.
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Ancient Antarctic lake thought to harbor prehistoric life, Hitler clones
In its reporting on the efforts of a Russian drilling team to reach a subglacial lake in Antarctica, Russian state media has revived an old conjecture about a secret Nazi cloning facility on the southern continent.
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