Astronomy

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Prof. Meghan Gray explains some of the physics behind building a liquid mirror telescope, such as the ILMT in India.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14585017

Voyager 1 contact restored

Caltech researchers have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which the researchers have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit around the sun.

TIL Venus is a mostly featureless white ball in the visible spectrum.