Every Wednesday, we’re asking a what-if question – how would our world be different if something were changed? Today’s question is from QSFer Scott: What if the sun were destroyed? Could there still be life in the solar system? From Live Science Share your serious scientific analyses, your off-color jokes, and random thoughts on the topic on our FB and MeWe Groups: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABV MeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf
Saturn’s rings aren’t just a beautiful adornment — scientists can use the feature to understand what’s happening deep inside the planet. By using the famous rings like a seismograph, scientists studied processes in the planet’s interior and determined that its core must be “fuzzy.” Instead of a solid sphere like Earth’s, the core of Saturn appears to consist of a ‘soup’ of rocks, ice and metallic fluids that slosh around and affect the planet’s gravity. The new study used data from NASA’s Cassini mission, which orbited Saturn and its moons for 13 years between 2004 and 2017. In 2013, data … Read more
We have not one but two new theories for you about the solar system’s long-theorized and mysterious Planet Nine: Does the solar system have a big, dark ninth planet drifting somewhere far beyond the orbit of Neptune? Planet 9 Probably Doesn’t Exist Since 2016, many astronomers have said it’s possible, pointing to evidence for a large gravity source in deep solar space. But a new paper argues that this gravity source is nothing more than a statistical mirage, the consequence of where in the night sky astronomers point their telescopes. The first physical(CK) hint of this hypothetical Planet Nine was … Read more
Our solar system is home to some weird and wonderful weather, with storms more terrifying in scale than anything in Earth’s recorded history. From centuries-old hurricanes on Jupiter to immense winds on Neptune, if you leave Earth you’ll be shocked by what you find. On Mars you will find immense dust storms that cover the entire planet, while Venus has an incredibly thick and fast-moving atmosphere that can form permanent vortices at its poles. On Jupiter and Saturn there are some huge storms — bigger than the diameter of multiple Earths — that have raged for decades or even centuries. … Read more
Astronomers have identified the most distant known object in our solar system — a dwarf planet nicknamed Farfarout that orbits far beyond Pluto. This remote mini-planet swings so far away from the sun that from Farfarout’s perspective Earth and Saturn look like neighbors. With an orbit that’s an average of 132 times the distance between Earth and the sun, or 132 astronomical units (AU), it beats “Farout,” the previous record holder for most-distant solar object; Farout orbits the sun at an average of 124 A.U. Farfarout’s technical name is 2018 AG37, and it will likely get an official name as … Read more
A vast network of invisible energy structures have been discovered in the solar system — a celestial superhighway that future space probes might use to explore far-away corners of solar space. These hidden energy structures, called manifolds, emerge in space-time due to the gravitational interaction of massive objects like the planets, said Nataša Todorović, a mathematician at the Serbian Belgrade Astronomical Observatory and lead author of a paper on the discovery. While astronomers have long known about such pathways, and even used them to navigate our celestial neighborhood, the new study has revealed a new shape in these manifolds: “arches … Read more
There’s a giant asteroid somewhere out in the solar system, and it hurled a big rock at Earth. The evidence for this mystery space rock comes from a diamond-studded meteor that exploded over Sudan in 2008. NASA had spotted the 9-ton (8,200 kilograms), 13-foot (4 meters) meteor heading toward the planet well before impact, and researchers showed up in the Sudanese desert to collect an unusually rich haul of remains. Now, a new study of one of those meteorites suggests that the meteor may have broken off of a giant asteroid — one more or less the size of the … Read more
Our sun’s death is a long way off — about 4.5 billion years, give or take — but someday it’s going to happen, and what then for our solar system? The trouble begins before the death proper: The first thing we have to contend with is the elderly sun itself. As the fusion of hydrogen continues inside the sun, the result of that reaction — helium — builds up in the core. With all the waste product hanging around, it gets harder for the sun to do its fusion dance. But the inward crushing weight of the sun’s atmosphere doesn’t … Read more
The Earth’s biosphere contains all the known ingredients necessary for life as we know it. Broadly speaking these are: liquid water, at least one source of energy, and an inventory of biologically useful elements and molecules. But the recent discovery of possibly biogenic phosphine in the clouds of Venus reminds us that at least some of these ingredients exist elsewhere in the solar system too. So where are the other most promising locations for extraterrestrial life? Titan Titan is the largest moon of Saturn and the only moon in the solar system with a substantial atmosphere. It contains a thick … Read more
Perched on the tip of Orion’s nose, there spins a solar system that could give Tatooine — Luke Skywalker’s twin-sunned homeworld — a run for its money. Known as GW Orionis (or GW Ori) and located about 1,300 light-years from Earth, the system is a rare example of a triple-star solar system, with two suns orbiting one another at the center, and a third star swirling around its siblings from several hundred million miles away. Scientists previously identified the system by its three bright rings of planet-forming dust, nested inside one another like a massive orange bullseye in the sky. … Read more