By Elena Athanasiou The inner planets of the solar system are the four planets of Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars. Mercury The closest inner planet to the Sun, Mercury is 48 million miles away from the Earth at its closest point in orbit. It is a mere 28.6 million miles away from the Sun at its closest point in orbit. Mercury orbits the Sun every 88 days and rotates around its axis every 58.65 days. Temperatures can range from -300 degrees Fahrenheit to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. Closely resembling the moon, the surface of Mercury is marked by craters from billions of years of cosmic...

The outer planets of our Solar System, upon examination, help us to really understand the sheer size of not only our own system, but the whole Universe. There are four outer planets in our solar system. They are as follows: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Jupiter As we venture out past Mars and the Asteroid Belt, we find the fifth and largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter. The largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, is so big that over 1,000 Earths could fit inside it. Jupiter comes as close as 365 million miles away from the Earth at its closest point in orbit....

By Andy Fleming One of the really awesome and mind-blowing aspects of astronomy is the sheer immense scale of the distances between planets, stars, galaxies and galaxy clusters. Our everyday terrestrial notions of scale, size, and distance must be discarded, even if we just consider a transit between the Earth and Mars. Kilometres first fall as units of measurement, then astronomical units (AU)(one AU is the distance between the Earth and Sun) — when we start to consider interstellar distances we have to look at light years as units of measurement (the distance that light...

By J Lindgren Galaxies are multifaceted in that they often encompass many different kinds of outer space matter, such as star systems, dust particles, and gases. Each individual galaxy is filled with millions and trillions of bright, beautiful stars, and on each galaxy, these stars have their own distinct path, or orbit, to follow. When speaking of how large or small galaxies are, they are measured in light years, rather than acres or miles, and the average galaxy is often millions of light years across, most even larger. Many scientists and astronomers have debated the existence...

Race to the Moon: 29 Private Teams Vie in Lunar Contest 29 teams are set to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize, a multimillion-dollar race to land a homemade robot on the moon. The competition is meant to spur development of commercial and private spaceflight. Read more on SPACE.com Ban Ki-moon takes climate change to Hollywood | Suzanne Goldenberg UN secretary general and other high-profile climate chiefs to brief entertainment industry during Oscars week Busy days for the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon. Bodies lie in the streets of Libya’s cities as a ruthless Muammar Gaddafi...

Boeing Offers India Significant Space Cooperation by Staff Writers New Delhi (IANS) Feb 24, 2011 Boeing has offered to partner with India on manned space missions, including on the very significant “composite cryogenic tanks” for the launch and propulsion control of rockets. Read more on SpaceDaily Space shuttle Discovery ready to launch for the last time CAPE CANAVERAL — Nearly four months after it was supposed to launch, Space Shuttle Discovery is full of fuel; its six astronauts are strapped in; and all systems are clear for its final launch – marking the beginning of...

Two planets found sharing one orbit Buried in the flood of data from the Kepler telescope is a planetary system unlike any seen before Read more on New Scientist 50bn planets in Milky Way, estimates first cosmic census London, Feb 21 (ANI): The first cosmic census of planets in our galaxy has suggested that there are at least 50 billion planets in the Milky Way. Read more on ANI via Yahoo! India...

1961 Soviet space capsule to be auctioned in NYC NEW YORK (AP) – Just weeks before the first man shot into outer space in 1961, the Soviets launched a dress rehearsal with a duplicate of the space capsule carrying a cosmonaut mannequin and a live dog. The Vostok 3KA-2 spacecraft _ a twin of the Vostok 3KA-3 that later carried … Read more on The Washington Times 1961 Soviet space capsule to be auctioned in NYC ULA ILNYTZKY Associated Press NEW YORK Just weeks before the first man shot into outer space in 1961, the Soviets launched a dress rehearsal with a duplicate of the space...