Scienceblog

On June 24, a rare five-planet alignment will be at its zenith, providing an amazing opportunity to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn align in planetary order. According to Diana Hannikainen, observing editor of Sky & Telescope, the event started at the start of June and has gotten brighter and simpler to spot as the month has gone on. On Friday, another celestial object will join the celebration between Venus and Mars: a declining crescent moon. The moon will stand in for the Earth's relative location in the alignment, which indicates the place of our planet in the planetary hierarchy. According to Sky & Telescope, this unusual event won't happen this year since Mercury and Saturn are closer together than they were in 2004. Viewing the alignment To see the amazing phenomena, observers will require a clean view of the eastern horizon, according to Hannikainen. The planetary spectacle may be seen by anyone without glasses, but for the best viewing, she sugges...

What has Iceland in common with Mars? Not as much these days. However, it's plausible that the Red Planet had a crust similar to Iceland's today more than 4.5 billion years ago. This find might provide knowledge about Earth that has been lost over billions of years of geological movement, concealed among the oldest Martian bits yet discovered on our planet. It could also provide light on why Mars failed to grow into a planet that supports a diverse range of life, in contrast to how the Earth did. These historical revelations are the result of a recent research that describes how scientists determined the 4.48 billion year old meteorite known as Black Beauty's likely Martian origin. One of the oldest locations of Mars is where it originated. A scientist from Northern Arizona University (NAU) was a member of the worldwide research team that published the work on July 12 in the journal Nature Communications. According to Valerie Payré, a postdoctoral researcher at the Departme...