Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Planet Nine is a hypothetical ninth planet in the outer region of the Solar System. [4] [2] Its gravitational effects could explain the peculiar clustering of orbits for a group of extreme trans-Neptunian objects (ETNOs), bodies beyond Neptune that orbit the Sun at distances averaging more than 250 times that of the Earth i.e. over 250 astronomical units (AU).
Similarly, the fourth satellite of Pluto, Kerberos, discovered after Pluto was categorized as a dwarf planet and assigned a minor planet number, was designated S/2011 (134340) 1 rather than S/2011 P 1, [29] though the New Horizons team, who maintained that dwarf planets were planets, used the latter.
Unlike most planetary moons, which are named from antiquity, all the moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of Shakespeare and Alexander Pope's work The Rape of the Lock. Neptune has 16 known moons; the largest, Triton, accounts for more than 99.5 percent of all the mass orbiting the planet. Triton is large enough to have ...
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite.It orbits around Earth at an average distance of 384,400 km (238,900 mi), about 30 times the width of Earth. The Moon faces Earth always with the same side, because tidal forces between Earth and the Moon have synchronized the Moon's rotation period with its orbital period (lunar month) at 29.5 Earth days.
The number of known planets in our solar system has risen and fallen over time. Astronomers, seeing odd irregularities in the orbits of the outer planets suspect another, unknown, planet may orbit ...
The brightest planets in the sky have been named from ancient times. The scientific names are taken from the names given by the Romans: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Our own planet is usually named in English as Earth, or the equivalent in the language being spoken (for instance, two astronomers speaking French would call it la ...
The huge indent, called the 'imbrue basin,' stretches across 750 miles.
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.