There are 293 confirmed moons in our cosmic neighborhood. By studying these worlds, astronomers hope to learn about ancient asteroid collisions, space volcanoes, and the origins of life itself.
It's helpful to think of the electrons in this cloud circling the nucleus in many different orbits. Absorbing Energy Absorption of energy: An atom absorbs energy in the form of heat, light or electricity. Electrons may move from a lower-energy orbit to a higher-energy orbit. Consider ...
Geostationary orbits are ideal for weather satellites and communications satellites. In general, the higher the orbit, the longer the satellite can stay in orbit. At lower altitudes, a satellite runs into traces of Earth's atmosphere, which creates drag. The drag causes the orbit to decay until...
Another important element is the presence of water, vital for life as we know it. Although there are many other criteria for habitability, such as the presence of oxygen in the atmosphere, our research has made K2-18b the best candidate to date. It is the only exoplanet to fulfil three ...
But Earth orbits the sun once every 365 days. So in 24 Earth days, Earth will have moved its orbit such that the sun needs to rotate the equivalent of 3 more Earth days for the stormy spot on the sun to again line up with Earth. Why the aurora recurs on a 27-day schedule was a...
Unfortunately, scientists are still trying to understand fully the variations at play regarding the temporary capture of asteroids by Earth's gravity. They do know, though, that the orbits of space objects change over time, mainly because of gravitational perturbations, which are disturbances in the...
However, Venus is also starkly different from Earth in a number of ways. It’s atmosphere, which is composed primarily of carbon dioxide and small amounts of nitrogen, is 92 times as dense as Earth’s. It is also the hottest planet in the Solar System, with temperatures hot enough to ...
the environment must be entirely manufactured by technology. The air is monitored by on-board computers while oxygen and nitrogen are stored in external containers. Water is recycled continuously and brought from Earth via space shuttle. Wastes are either dumped into space or removed by space shuttl...
The monomers (subunits) of nucleic acids are known asnucleotides. Nucleotides themselves consist of triads of three distinct molecules: a phosphate group (or groups), a five-carbon sugar and a nitrogen-rich base ("base" not in the sense of "foundation," but meaning "hydrogen-ion acceptor")...
Sea ice of different thickness, in this graph of photon returns from ICESat-2 as it orbits over the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. Image: NASA Earth Observatory/Joshua StevensDeforestation “In the last 10 years, a forest of 8.4 million football fields has been cleared in the Amazo...