Category Archives: planets

A primer on the origin of the Earth

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Chris Rowan

I heartily second Lab Lemmings recommendation of the Skepchick’s series on ‘The Origin of the Earth’, an opus in five parts: I: Introduction, the Scientific Toolbox, and Cosmic Starstuff II: Crustal Chemistry, the Solar Nebula, and the Solar System III: … Continue reading →

Categories: basics, links, planets

Bumpy ice: proof of a Martian water cycle?

Posted on May 11, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Some interesting data from Mars Odyssey about the distribution of sub-surface ice on Mars were published in Nature last week by Joshua Bandfield at Arizona State University (see also here and here). Mars Odyssey had already detected the presence of … Continue reading →

Categories: geophysics, paper reviews, planets

Time lapse photography of Io

Posted on May 3, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Brian, Emily and Phil have all picked their favorite images from the set just released by the New Horizons Team (see the full gallery here), but I have to beg to differ in liking this one best. Two probes – … Continue reading →

Categories: planets, volcanoes

New planets around Gliese 581

Posted on April 25, 2007 by Chris Rowan

Unsurprisingly, there’s lots of fuss about the new planet discovered around the red dwarf Gliese 581 (read the European Southern Observatory press release here). Planets, I should say, because they’ve actually confirmed two more in a system where they’d detected … Continue reading →

Categories: planets