NASA’s Messenger mission ended in 2015 and ESA-JAXA BepiColombo won’t reach Mercury until 2025. These two spacecraft will coordinate measurements of solar wind, radiation and interplanetary dust; providing in-depth knowledge about Mercury’s magnetosphere and exosphere. Mercury’s thin exosphere Mercury lacks an atmosphere to protect it, leaving it exposed to the Sun’s constant solar wind. This…
As any stargazer knows, planets can appear quite close together in the night sky and seem to float across it more like stars do – their glow makes them easy to spot against its dark backdrop. Venus can be seen best early this month; however, as evening twilight settles it becomes harder and harder to…
An ideal planet for hosting life must meet certain conditions; specifically, its star’s habitable zone must allow life to thrive there. It should have a surface where liquid water can gather, as well as an atmosphere which protects its inhabitants from harmful solar radiation. Are there planets similar to our Earth in the universe? Size…
Today’s lunar eclipse will give rise to what some are calling a “blood moon.” Actually it is just a lunar eclipse. Lunar eclipses occur whenever Earth passes between the sun and moon and casts its shadow onto it, or when there is a total lunar eclipse with a supermoon. A blood moon occurs when this…
