In July of this year (2015), NASA’s New Horizons mission will fly past Pluto and its moons. It will map the surface of the Plutonian system in unprecedented detail, revealing craters and other surface features for the first time. In preparation for the deluge of newly discovered craters, mountains, crevasses and other surface features, Mamajek et al. discuss a naming system for Pluto and its moons.
Our Solar System is just plain odd compared to other star systems across our galaxy. Once again the finger of blame points towards the gas giant Jupiter as the simulations in this paper show.
Are more massive stars more likely to have planets? Read on to find out…
The International Astronomical Union wants you to name a planet! While you ponder what to submit as a planet name, read on to learn the history and politics that led to this exciting opportunity.
The answer to the above question, according to a new analysis of data from NASA’s Kepler mission, may be roughly one-third.
This paper investigates the interaction between close-in (semimajor axis a<0.15AU) massive planets (a.k.a. “hot Jupiters'') and their host (late-type) stars. Two possible mechanisms for interaction are tidal and magnetic, with the focus of this paper being the latter. The pioneering work on the topic of stellar activity enhancement (such as dark spots, faculae, etc) due to planet interaction is by Cuntz et al. (2000). You can see related contributions about stellar activity on previous astrobites posts.