Europa

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Rogue planets

ROGUE PLANETS

For the purpose of this post, we’ll focus on PSO J318.5−22, some eighty light years away from Earth. One of the most fascinating phenomena in our galaxy are rogue planets. Picture them as silently traveling through space with no sun, likely no atmosphere, no life, perhaps no moons as well, though there could be exceptions. Imagine standing on the surface of a rogue planet in a space suit, with no bright sun, moon or even an atmosphere to break the...

The mysteries of Europa

THE MYSTERIES OF EUROPA

On January 7, 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei peered at Jupiter through a primitive telescope he had fashioned.  He described what he saw as “three fixed stars, totally invisible by their smallness,“ but over the next few nights, he noticed one more point of light, and that they changed positions.  Moreover, they moved in a direction that was opposite that of the other stars.  He eventually concluded that these were not truly “stars” but were actually four moons of Jupiter and they were subsequently called Io, Ganymede, Callisto and...

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