Planetary science Current Affairs, GK & News

Study on Titan’s Energy Budget

A recent study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters drew parallels between the energy budgets of Earth and the Saturnian moon Titan. Energy budget is the differences between the quantum of solar energy received and emitted by a planetary system or satellite system. Titan is the largest moon of Saturn. It is also the ..

Topics: Astronomical objects • Atmosphere • Colonization of Titan • Outer planets • Outer space • Planetary science • Saturn • Space Science • Sun • Titan

NASA’s New Horizons mission gets a brand-new name “Arrokoth”

The International Astronomical Union and Minor Planets Center, the global body for naming Kuiper Belt objects, has finally given a name for the most distant world ever explored by a space mission. It is called Arrokoth. NASA launched the New Horizons mission in January 2006. After crossing by Pluto in 2015, in 2019 it flew by ..

Topics: Astronomical objects • Astronomy • Charon • Extraterrestrial water • Kuiper belt • New Horizons • Planet • Planetary science • Pluto • Solar System • Space exploration

Scientists discover water vapor in atmosphere of a super-Earth “K2-18b”

For the first time, the astronomers at the University College London have discovered water vapour in the atmosphere of an Earth-size planet called K2-18b. They used data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The exoplanet “K2-18b” is 8-times the mass of Earth and known as a super-Earth. It orbits a red dwarf star 110 light-years away ..

Topics: Astronomy • Cygnus • Discoveries of exoplanets • Exoplanetology • Exoplanets • Extraterrestrial water • K2-155d • K2-18b • Kepler space telescope • Planetary science • Search for extraterrestrial intelligence • Super-Earth

NASA discovers first nearby super-earth planet GJ357d

The NASA scientists have characterized the first potentially habitable world outside our own solar system that may be suitable for life. The super-earth planet — named GJ 357 d — was spotted by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. It is estimated that planet is about six times the size of our planet and ..

Topics: Astronomy • Circumstellar habitable zone • Exoplanetology • Exoplanets • GJ 357 d • Observational astronomy • Planet • Planetary science • Search for extraterrestrial intelligence • Space Science • Super-Earth • Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite

NASA announces its New Frontiers program

NASA has recently announced its New Frontiers program, called Dragonfly mission, to explore Saturn’s largest moon – Titan. It’s the only moon in our solar system that has an atmosphere.The rotorcraft will fly to dozens of promising locations on Titan looking for pre-biotic chemical processes common on both Titan and Earth. The mission will launch ..

Topics: Dragonfly • Life on Titan • New Frontiers program • Oceanus • Planetary science • Planetary surface • Planets of the Solar System • Saturn • Spacecraft • Titan