Jan 24 - More About a Ringless Saturn

January 24 More About a Ringless Saturn by:

Saturn's rings may have formed between 10 and 100 million years ago, perhaps during our earthly age of the dinosaurs.The Cassini spacecraft acquired the images to make this natural color mosaic in 2007.  Saturn hasn’t always had rings A month ago, we reported on when Saturn will lose its iconic rings. This week, a new study on how long ago the rings formed.  Do all planets orbit in a flat plane around their sun? The major planets in our solar system orbit, more or less, in a single plane. That's why you can look for them along the same sky path traveled by the sun and moon. Is the same true for exoplanets in distant solar systems? Read more. Today in science: Voyager 2 met Uranus In January 1986, Voyager 2 became the first and, so far, the only craft from Earth to see Uranus up close. It discovered a magnetic field and radiation belts, 2 new rings and 10 new moons. Read more. Farewell, Uranus! Image acquired by Voyager 2 after sweeping past the planet, via NASA.

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Tonight … Contemplate the apex of the sun's way Our sun moves around the center of the galaxy, toward the star Vega. Astronomers call this motion the apex of the sun's way. One circuit - about 230 million years - is called a cosmic year. Read more. Photo by Fred Espenak at AstroPixels.com.

Lunar light pillar over Antarctica We see a fair number of photos of ice pillars - shafts of light extending from the sun or other bright light source - from northerly latitudes. This one - taken by Daniel Michalik - is from the moon. Plus, it's over Earth's South Pole. Read more.  Submit your photo to EarthSky here! Did a friend forward EarthSkyNews to you? Click here to get your own subscription!

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