Tag Archives: Planet

Podcast #8: Venus, KELT-11b and Blood Moon Pregnancies

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Welcome to the 8th episode of the Urban Astronomer Podcast!  This week, Cathrine continues her series on The Planets with the hottest world in our Solar System: Venus.  Allen then reports on the discovery, by a telescope at SAAO’s facility in Sutherland, of KELT-11b, an unusually inflated exoplanet.  And finally we look at what is apparently a common question in parts of the world: Is it safe to watch a Lunar Eclipse, while pregnant? This is Cathrine’s second appearance in … Continue reading →

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Podcast #1: Seven earth-like planets

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Wow, we finally did it!  The podcast is alive, and this is the first episode!  In this episode, I cover probably the biggest astronomy news item of the year so far, and also read one of my more recent opinion pieces.  I know, you could just read it yourself, but it’s something I feel quite passionate about, and wanted to let you hear it in my own voice. As long-time readers will know, this is something I’ve been threatening to … Continue reading →

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Mercury

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Mercury is one of The five classical planets and an easy naked eye object.  The planets stood out from the other stars to our ancestors because of the way they all moved in regular patterns against the night sky, but Mercury was unique in its rapid motion and the way it never strayed far from the sun.  If the planets were to be named for gods, then it was only natural that the flighty mercurial one should be their messenger. … Continue reading →

How many moons does Jupiter have?

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As of 2 February 2012, we know of 67 moons around Jupiter.  We will probably continue to find more and more, as we keep looking, since Jupiter is large enough that it constantly captures passing asteroids and comets, turning them into moons.  The smallest ones are so hard to see, and have such big irregular orbits, that astronomers sometimes lose them, until they can be rediscovered years or decades later!  The four largest moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, … Continue reading →

What does Jupiter weigh?

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Jupiter has a mass of about 1.9 x 1027kg – 1900 trillion Trillion kilogrammes.  That’s more than double all the other planets, asteroids, comets and dust of the entire Solar System put together.  Jupiter is BIG, yet still manages to not weigh anything at all.  How?  Because it is in orbit around the Sun, just like an astronaut orbits the Earth, and so experiences zero gravity.  That’s not to say there is no gravity around Jupiter – it has plenty gravity … Continue reading →