Michael Carroll, Author at Astronomy.com

How the Moon can save Earth

Michael Carroll — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Through the ages, humans have tried to preserve their knowledge and treasures in various repositories, and some of those storehouses have been massive in scale. The library of Ashurbanipal, assembled 700 years before the life of Jesus of Nazareth, is the oldest known collection of human knowledge. Ashurbanipal located his collection of 30,000 cuneiform tabletsContinue reading "How the Moon can save Earth"

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Are glaciers on Mercury a link to life?

Michael Carroll — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 16:59:40 +0000

The word glacier conjures swathes of brilliant ice surveyed by bighorn sheep or holiday skiers. Planetary exploration has expanded our view, taking in the rock glaciers of Mars and even the vast nitrogen glacier of Pluto’s “heart,” Tombaugh Regio. They’ve all got one thing in common: cold. But now, researchers at Tucson’s Planetary Science InstituteContinue reading "Are glaciers on Mercury a link to life?"

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The mysterious origins of Mercury’s hollows might answer bigger questions

Michael Carroll — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 14:00:00 +0000

The more we discover about Mercury, the weirder it seems. For instance, despite the fact that daytime temperatures there soar to 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius), ice encases the shadowed crater floors on its poles. The tiny planet should be devoid of the ice and other volatiles — compounds that can easily vaporize —Continue reading "The mysterious origins of Mercury’s hollows might answer bigger questions"

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Why is Venus so different from Earth?

Michael Carroll — Thu, 18 May 2023 15:00:00 +0000

If the exploration of the planets has taught us one thing, it is that Murphy’s law — “anything that can go wrong will go wrong” — is alive and well throughout the solar system. But one planet in particular exhibits more than its share of quirks: Venus. It’s no wonder. Venus is a tough placeContinue reading "Why is Venus so different from Earth?"

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The strange, speedy stars at the center of the Milky Way

Michael Carroll — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 06:00:00 +0000

The supermassive black hole in our galaxy’s core is accompanied by a tight-knit group of stars — and we aren’t sure how they got there.

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Swarms of swimming robots may soon explore alien seas

Michael Carroll — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 05:00:00 +0000

The concept of using robotic explorers to investigate subsurface oceans has been around for years. And a fresh shot of funding might soon turn the ambitious plan into a reality.

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The strange case of eyeball planets

Michael Carroll — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 05:00:00 +0000

These tidally locked worlds could be the key to finding life in the universe — if they exist.

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The hunt for Earth’s bigger cousins

Michael Carroll — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Scientists aren’t sure what to make of Kepler-452b. The planet’s properties suggest it lies on the border between being a rocky super-Earth and a gaseous sub-Neptune. If terrestrial in nature, it likely has a thick atmosphere and lots of active volcanoes. NASA Somewhere between the gas giants and the terrestrial Earth-like worlds that populate ourContinue reading "The hunt for Earth’s bigger cousins"

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Explore Ceres’ icy secrets

Michael Carroll — Wed, 11 Sep 2019 14:00:00 +0000

Our solar system shimmers with a host of volcanoes. Its erupting menagerie includes forms familiar to us, like the cinder cones and graceful shields of the martian landscape. The mountains of Venus take on more alien shapes, given the planet’s dense atmosphere and unique rock chemistry: pancake domes, spiderwebs, and ticks. Farther out, the volcanoesContinue reading "Explore Ceres’ icy secrets"

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Searching for life on Saturn’s big moon

Michael Carroll — Tue, 06 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

With a diameter of about 3,200 miles (5,150 kilometers), Titan is wider than Mercury. This natural-color mosaic of the moon passing in front of Saturn’s disk was obtained by the Cassini spacecraft in 2012. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute In 1908, when Percival Lowell published Mars as the Abode of Life, he saw the Red Planet asContinue reading "Searching for life on Saturn’s big moon"

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