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Why is Pluto no longer considered a planet?
For 76 years, official astronomy believed that there were 9 full-fledged planets in the solar system, among which Pluto is the most distant from the Sun. But since 2006, it has been classified as “minor planets and asteroids.” The discovery of Ceres and Eris forced the scientists to revise the classification. They, like Pluto, have…
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India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission to land on the Moon in August
Chandrayaan 3 will be India’s second attempt to land a rover on the lunar surface. The apparatus consists of a flight module and a descent platform with a lunar rover. The southern circumpolar region of the Moon was chosen as the landing site for the mission. The first attempt to land an Indian spacecraft on…
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NASA plans to land astronauts on Mars by 2040
“Our plan is to have humans walk on Mars by 2040,” Chief Executive Bill Nelson said in a statement following the release of the US government’s fiscal year 2023 budget proposal. Nelson says an inflatable heat shield is being developed that could slow a spacecraft as it enters the Martian atmosphere and help it land…
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Saturn’s rings are gradually disappearing due to the influence of the planet’s magnetic field
The rings of Saturn formed about 100 million years ago. They are made up of tiny particles of dust and ice. For one reason, the rings formed after the collision of the planet with the satellite. Scientists have reported a process of gradual depletion of the rings, which occurs due to the attraction of particles…
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An interesting fact: the direction of the ion tail of comet NEOWISE changed due to the movement of the Earth.
Like all comets, the blue ion tail always points AWAY from the Sun. Between July 17 and July 25, 2020 (when these images were taken), the Earth moved in its orbit around the Sun, and because of this, the position of the Sun in the sky also changed. Therefore, the tail has shifted.
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Astronomers have discovered the cradle of an emerging exoplanet like Jupiter
The protoplanet AB Aur b is formed in the star system AB Aurigae, which is only 2 million years old. It is removed from the Earth at 531 St. year in the direction of the constellation Auriga. AB Aur b is about 9 times as massive as Jupiter. It orbits its star at a distance…
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On April 1, a dangerous asteroid 2007 FF1 from the time of the dinosaurs will fly to Earth. And this is not a joke
The asteroid will pass by our planet at a minimum distance. According to various researchers, the diameter of the asteroid ranges from 110 to 260 meters. It belongs to the class “Apollo” and its orbit intersects with the orbit of the Earth. This is a very ancient celestial body that has been in the universe…
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NASA discovers 50-year-old sealed sample of lunar soil
Fifty years ago, the Apollo 17 crew drove 12-inch tubes into the lunar soil to collect subsurface samples. The vacuum-sealed tubes were brought to Earth and placed in a protective container, also under vacuum, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Intact rocks and soil in two of these test tubes were stored with other…
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Scientists have confirmed the existence of 5,005 potentially habitable planets outside our solar system
Scientists have confirmed the existence of 5,005 potentially habitable planets outside our solar system, NASA said. According to NASA, the confirmed exoplanets are not alike. It is noted that approximately 30% of them are gas giants comparable in size to Saturn or Jupiter or much larger than them, 35% are comparable in size to Uranus…
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Scientists have discovered traces of extraterrestrial life inside a meteorite
Inside the Orgay meteorite that fell in 1864 in France, scientists have found traces of extraterrestrial life – ancient microorganisms that presumably existed before the Earth formed. When Orgei fell to Earth, scientists who studied the meteorite began to find traces of organic matter in it, but then few people believed in it. Many felt…
