Tag: Ice

Water Ice Clouds Detected on Brown Dwarf 7.3 Light Years Away

Water Ice Clouds Detected on Brown Dwarf 7.3 Light Years Away

Artists Conception : Credit Rob Gizis, CUNY BMCC An astronomer at Penn State University appears to discovered the first ever direct evidence of water ice clouds on another world.  That world is WISE J0855-0714, an enigmatic brown dwarf of “failed star” located only 7.3 light years from Earth. The discovery was made using images from […]

A Planet of Fire and (Ice?)

A Planet of Fire and (Ice?)

At first glance, the solar system’s innermost planet generally conjures up images of a blistering hot, sun-baked ball of rock which would be one of the last places one would expect to find water ice.  That was considered to be the case until 1991, when the Arecibo radar telescope in Puerto Rico, as well as NASA’s Goldstone/VLA  detected reflections from Mercury which appeared to indicate the presence of water ice […]

Posted in: NASA
Water, Water Everywhere

Water, Water Everywhere

Is the inner solar system one big swimming hole? The discovery of what is by all appearances is a dry stream bed on Mars by the Curiosity rover this week adds to a growing body of evidence that sometime in the distant past, at least portions of the Red Planet once more closely resembled our own blue marble,  somewhat inappropriately […]

Posted in: Asteroids, Mars, Moon, NASA
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