Astronomers have discovered an #asteroid that revolves around our Sun faster than all other #spacerocks! Named 2021 PH2, it is approximately 1 km wide.
📸: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/J. da Silva
This newly discovered asteroid completes one orbit around the Sun in just 113 Earth days. This is the shortest orbital period of any #cosmicobject in our solar system except #Mercury, which takes only 88 days!
In Pic: Mercury’s solar transit
📸: NASA/Bill Ingalls
This asteroid was initially positioned in the main #AsteroidBelt between Mars and Jupiter but got pulled closer to the Sun by the gravitational influence of inner planets.
📸: CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/DOE/DECam/AURA/S.S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution of Science
Though its exact location is yet to be decoded, the high orbital inclination suggests that it could be an extinct comet that travelled from the outer realms of our solar system!
The rock was first spotted earlier this month, during the twilight hours, by Scott Sheppard of the Carnegie Institution of Science. He used the Dark Energy Camera on top of the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope.
Astronomers wish to study this rock further, but that may only be possible next year, as the asteroid is likely to enter solar conjunction, i.e., move 'behind' the Sun.
While searching for life in the Gulf of Mexico, researchers pulled out a new bizarre-looking species of isopod, whose head resembles the Darth Vader from Star Wars!
This new-found crustacean, named Bathonymus yucatanensis, has 14 legs and is around 26 cm long — approximately 25 times larger than its closest relative, the common woodlouse.
While these blonde creatures seem pretty scary, the "Vanilla Vaders" are, in fact, harmless to humans.
Their huge size is only due to deep-sea gigantism — a phenomenon wherein ocean dwellers grow bigger than their terrestrial relatives due to lack of sunlight.
This super-Earth is a rocky world, on which a year is equal to just 11 Earth days.
The short orbit is down to the red dwarfs being a lot smaller than the Sun that centres our solar system. But the smaller sizes also make their gravitational fields less expansive than the Sun's.
Therefore, Ross 508b revolves around its red dwarf at a distance of just 5 million km. Mercury, in comparison, is about 60 million km from the Sun.
The short distance between this super-Earth & its red dwarf begs the question: how could it possibly be habitable?
#Japan is making grand plans of creating interplanetary #trains and champagne flute-like glass habitats in its bid to send and host humans on the #Moon and #Mars!
An interplanetary transportation system dubbed the 'Hexatrack', which maintains a gravity of 1G during long-distance travel to mitigate the effects of prolonged exposure to low gravity, has been proposed by #Japanese researchers.
The #trains will also possess 'Hexacapsules', which are essentially hexagon-shaped capsules with a moving device in the middle.
In 2012, the almost-complete skeleton of a new kind of #dinosaur was found in the northern Patagonia region of #Argentina.
The dinosaur has been christened #Meraxes gigas. The generic epithet is an ode to a dragon in the #GameOfThrones series.
Standing at the height of 11 m (36 ft) and weighing roughly 4000 kgs, the #dinosaur sported several crests, bumps and horns on its skull, which lent it a menacing appearance.
But the highlight of the findings is that the dinosaur had teeny-tiny arms, just like the #Trex!
Dr Jose, along with an international research team from the US, UK and Australia, will be examining the Galactic Centre Cloud (GCC) — the central molecular zone of our Milky Way — in April 2023.
They have been allotted 27.3 hours over the access period of 12 months.