planets

On the next 5 and 6 June a very rare astronomical event will take place: from Earth it will be possible to observe how Venus crosses in front of the Sun. Scientists and amateur astronomers around the world are already preparing to observe this phenomenon. The last transit occurred in June 2004, and will not be repeated until the year 2117.

The solar system has a twin 130 light years away. It is a series of planets, specifically nine, that orbit the star HD 10180, according to the latest issue of the journal 'Astronomy and Astrophysics'. Until now it was thought that the star only had seven planets.

For the first time in history, scientists at the University of Southampton (UK) have used physics and mathematics to recreate the natural sounds of other worlds, from lightning on Venus, to the winds on Mars and the crunching of ice from the volcanoes of Titan, the moon of Saturn. In addition, they have modeled the effects of different atmospheres, pressures and temperatures on the human voice on Mars, Venus and Titan.

Seven years ago, astronomers found the first runaway star moving out of our galaxy at a speed of 2.4 million kilometers per hour. If a star can reach such extreme speed, could the same thing happen to planets? New research shows that it does.

Observing stars containing forming planetary systems allows astronomers to obtain clues about the origins of our own solar system. A study published in The Astrophysical Journal has analyzed a region 3,000 light years from Earth for signs of planet formation.

Planets outnumber stars in the Milky Way, according to an astronomical study published today in the journal Nature. The existence of planets around stars is "a rule, rather than an exception," said the study's lead author, Arnaud Cassan, of the Institute for Astrophysics in Paris, France.

Venus, the planet astronomers dubbed Earth's "twin," also has an ozone layer, the European Space Agency's (ESA) Venus Express spacecraft has discovered. Ozone had so far only been detected in the atmospheres of Earth and Mars.

The Juno spacecraft will depart today Friday at 17:34 (Spanish time) from Cape Canaveral (Florida), aboard the Atlas V rocket, bound for Jupiter to study the core of the planet, its auroras, the atmosphere and the origin of the magnetic field , among other missions.