Topic: Venus (Planet)

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Transit of Venus: Early 'tape measure' for size of our solar system (+video)

The next transit of Venus occurs June 5. Astronomers once used the transit of Venus across the sun to come up with the 'astronomical unit' – the distance from Earth to our sun.
Venus to have its final day in the sun for the 21st century

The planet Venus is due to pass in front of the sun on June 5th and 6th. It won't do so again until 2117.
Chapter & Verse
How the transit of Venus opened the planet to our forefathers

Author Mark Anderson of 'The Day the World Discovered the Sun' explains how the transit of Venus allowed 18th-century astronomers to create an early GPS system.
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.
Bright Venus to show in daytime sky

Effulgent Venus will show just beside the moon today. Also, some cues on how to observe this rare and beautiful event.
Mercury: Unusual insides and active history

New information collected by NASA's Messenger shows that Mercury was more geologically active than scientists previously thought.
Strange features on Mercury upend thinking about 'first rock from sun'

New results from NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft show Mercury to have features unlike anything scientists have seen elsewhere in the solar system. Here's one: a huge core for a planet this size.
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.
Solar flares: Be glad you're on Earth, not Mars (+video)

The recent solar flares provide a dramatic backdrop for a study that shows Mars gets far more of its atmosphere stripped away by solar storms than does Earth. Thank you, magnetosphere.
Oxygen atmosphere found on distant Saturn moon Dione (+video)

Dione's atmosphere was detected by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which spotted an ultra-thin layer of oxygen ions so sparse that it is equivalent to conditions 300 miles above Earth.
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.
NASA discovers 26 new alien planets in 11 solar systems

The findings nearly double the number of bona fide planets found outside our solar system by the Kepler space observatory.
NASA still not hiding aliens: Triangular 'UFO' debunked (+video)

Footage captured by NASA shows Venus, Earth and, on the opposite side of the field-of-view, a briefly mysterious triangular object headed our way.
Amazing planets: mini solar system, 'Star Wars' lookalike among new finds

The catalogue of newly found planets is becoming richer by the day. By one new estimate, virtually all the billions of stars in the Milky Way could have a planet orbiting them.
Most stars in our galaxy have planets, study suggests

Rocky, roughly earth-like planets orbiting stars seem to be the rule, rather than the exception, an new study reveals.
First Earth-size planets found around distant star – in a bizarre solar system

For the first time, NASA's Kepler spacecraft has found two Earth-size planets outside our solar system – a landmark achievement. But the planets are in a solar system that baffles scientists and could overthrow current models of planet formation.
What will happen after sun vaporizes Earth? Scorched planets hold clues.

Scientists say they've found two planets that survived being swallowed by a red-giant star. Earth won't be so fortunate when our sun becomes a red giant in 5 billion years, but the find shows what can happen to solar systems after such dramatic events.
Asteroid Vesta features mountain bigger than any on Earth

Asteroid Vesta is currently in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Scientists recently discovered a huge mountain on the asteroid Vesta.
Messenger's message from Mercury: Time to rewrite the textbooks

Scientists with the Messenger mission to Mercury unveiled their findings Thursday, which are answering some decades-old mysteries – but also creating new ones.
Tatooine for real? Scientists confirm planet orbiting two suns.

Tatooine is the mythical home of Luke Skywalker. Now, scientists have identified a planet in a binary system 200 light-years away, although the planet is more like Saturn in mass and makeup.
Dawn arrives at Vesta: Will scientists find a water-coated protoplanet?

Vesta, the second-largest object in the asteroid belt, may have a thin skin of water molecules like parts of the moon. Dawn, an orbiting spacecraft, arrives today to begin orbiting and observing.
Space Shuttle Endeavour: See the last flyby early Tuesday morning

The Space Shuttle Endeavour will be visible in the night sky early Tuesday morning. When can you see Endeavor, on it's last mission, and where should you look?
End of the world May 21st? About a billion years too soon, astronomers say.

Beginning of the end of the world: May 21st is what a California minister (with a considerable following) predicts. Scientists, for their part, consider the sun's 'habitable zone' in calculating when Earth will become toast.
In tonight's meteor shower, watch falling debris from Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet won't be back for half a century, but tonight Earth will move through some of the debris the comet left behind, creating a spectacular meteor shower – if you live far enough south.
Cracker-size satellites to launch with Space Shuttle Endeavour

Cracker-size satellites are to launch with the Space Shuttle Endeavour, advancing efforts to populate the Earth's orbit with tiny 'space-chips.'