Exoplanet discoveries pass the 6,000 mark, shedding light on how our solar system compares with the rest of the universe

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - Just decades after the first exoplanets were identified, our database of the distant worlds—monitored by the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute—has breached a new threshold. Now, astronomers have officially identified more than 6,000 planets outside our solar system. “This milestone represents decades of cosmic exploration driven by NASA space telescopes—exploration that has completely...
By Margherita Bassi | Smithsonian Magazine |

NASA’s extrasolar planet tally officially hits the 6,000 mark

FORBES - NASA reports that its official tally of extrasolar planets has hit the 6,000 mark. This thirty-year milestone has been in the works since two little known Swiss astronomers, Michel Mayor and Didiez Queloz, first detected 51 Pegasi b. The first of the so-called “hot Jupiters” to be detected, “51 Peg” is a gas...
By Bruce Dorminey | Forbes |

Why Is Venus Hell and Earth an Eden?

QUANTA MAGAZINE - enus is arguably the worst place in the solar system. A cloak of carbon dioxide suffocates the planet, subjecting its surface to skull-crushing pressure. Sulfuric acid rains down through the sickly yellow sky but never reaches the lava-licked ground. Venus is so hot — hot enough to melt lead — that the...
By Robin George Andrews | Quanta Magazine |
RUSD Earth & Space Sciences Symposium at UC Riverside

UCR Hosts Symposium on Earth and Space Sciences for Teachers from RUSD

In a day-long symposium on August 6, a panel of researchers from UC Riverside’s (UCR) College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences (CNAS) expounded on the earth and space sciences to an audience of high school and middle school science teachers from the Riverside Unified School District (RUSD). The Earth & Space Sciences Symposium, held on...

Physicists solve a 50-year mystery about a critically important molecule

GIZMODO - After relying on an educated guess for decades, scientists have finally confirmed the dipole moment of aluminum monochloride (AlCl), an elusive but important molecule known to sneak around the interiors of ancient galaxies. An electric dipole moment is a measure of polarity—a crucial determinant for many physical properties of any system, such as...
By Gayoung Lee | Gizmodo |

Trump's NASA Cuts Would Decimate U.S. Venus Science

FORBES - Preliminary budget cuts proposed by the Trump Administration would slash a huge swath out of NASA's Venus science funding. And it would spell the end of the space agency’s much anticipated $500 million DAVINCI mission, an orbiter and atmospheric probe, which had been due for launch to our sister planet in 2030. The...
By Bruce Dorminey | Forbes |

From worlds that look like cotton candy to others covered in volcanoes, these are the strangest and most captivating exoplanets

SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - Are we alone in the universe? While no one can say for sure, space scientists know where to start looking—exoplanets. An exoplanet is a planet beyond the cradle of Earth’s eight-membered solar system. Hundreds of billions of these extraterrestrial kingdoms swarm our galaxy, and hundreds of sextillions of others exist beyond that...
By Shi En Kim | Smithsonian Magazine |

Mars’ small mass still puzzles planetary scientists

FORBES - Mars remains a true puzzle, but not for the reasons most people would think. Sure, there's debate over whether it ever had surface water, oceans and life. But Mars’ small mass relative to earth and Venus have been a major conundrum that has plagued planetary scientists for decades. Because the red planet’s mass...
By Bruce Dorminey | Forbes |

The Sun Will Destroy the Earth One Day, Right? Maybe Not.

THE NEW YORK TIMES - In six billion years the sun will expand into a red giant. That process should consume Mercury, and maybe Venus. For a long time we have thought it might incinerate Earth, too. But perhaps all is not doomed for planet Earth (although it may be a world that will have...
By Jonathan O’Callaghan | The New York Times |

Life Lessons from Hell-House Venus

NAUTILUS - Hold a grain of sand up to the night sky at arm’s length. There are thousands of galaxies in that miniscule fraction of the heavens. Galaxies like ours hold hundreds of billions of stars—a good portion of which host planets. And a number of these are in the “habitable zone,” that just-right distance...
By Elizabeth Hernandez | Nautilus |
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