Category Archives: Planets

The backwards planets

Posted on June 9, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Our Solar System formed from a single, spinning gas cloud in a nebula not unlike the Orion Nebula we can see in the sky today. The whole cloud was spinning the same direction, which means that as it collapsed, almost … Continue reading →

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Four far-flung planets

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Some solar systems have a lot of planets packed in close to their stars. Others are just the opposite. HR 8799 is a young star that is more massive than our Sun. It’s so young–about 30 million years–that it’s planetary … Continue reading →

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A planetary six-pack

Posted on May 12, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Mercury, the closest planet to our Sun, is often thought of as being super-close to the Sun and super hot. But really, it’s 40% of Earth’s distance from the Sun, and it’s only 430 degrees Celsius (800 Fahrenheit) on the … Continue reading →

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Red suns

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

The most common type of stars in the universe are Type-M dwarfs, better known as red dwarfs. These are stars that are less than about half the mass of our Sun, less than a tenth as bright, and much cooler, … Continue reading →

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The planet that thinks it’s a comet

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

With all the talk of comets lately, let’s take a look at what happens when planets start acting like them. But surely, no planet could have a crazy, elongated orbit like a comet, right? They’re too big to get kicked … Continue reading →

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Rise of the mini-planets

Posted on February 20, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

I’ve said before that when looking for planets, we must expect the unexpected. NASA’s latest discovery, Kepler-37b, was not unexpected, but it raises interesting questions nonetheless. Kepler-37b is a hot, rocky planet, but it’s not a super-Earth, because it’s smaller … Continue reading →

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Carbon planets

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

We may be carbon-based life forms, but carbon is actually pretty rare on Earth. If fact, only 0.03% of Earth’s crust is made of carbon, hundreds of times rarer than the foundations of the planet–silicon, aluminum, iron, and, oddly enough, … Continue reading →

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Waterworlds

Posted on January 19, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

Super-Earths are odd things. They’re bigger than Earth, but smaller than gas giant planets, different from anything in our Solar System. The exact definition is a little fuzzy. Astronomers who find planets by the motions of their stars and usually … Continue reading →

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Finding little planets

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Alex R. Howe

The easiest planets to find are the biggest ones. The larger a planet is, the larger the effect on its parent star, which is what we can see. It’s also easiest to spot planets close to their stars, since they … Continue reading →

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Planets of failed stars

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Alex R. Howe

A brown dwarf is a failed star. It’s about the size of Jupiter, but anywhere from 13 to 80 times as massive. It is too small to shine by burning hydrogen, like a star, but it is massive enough to … Continue reading →

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