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Neptune: The Basics

The eighth planet from the Sun, Neptune was the first planet located through mathematical predictions rather than through regular observations of the sky. When Uranus didn't travel exactly as astronomers expected it to, two mathematicians, working independently of each other, proposed the position and mass of another, as yet unknown planet that ...

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NeptuneTheBasics
Astronomy

Astronomers Glimpse Feeding Of A Galactic Dragon

A team of radio astronomers has found a cold ring of gas around a supermassive black hole in the fiery nuclear region of quasar galaxy 'QSO I Zw 1,' the most detailed observational evidence yet that ... Continue reading

GalacticDragon
Biology

Now You See It, Now You Don't

What we call light is simply a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation that our eyes are sensitive to. This radiation enters our eyes and is conveyed to the brain by the process we call sight. While ... Continue reading

EMRadiation
Medicine

What is Headache?

When a person has a headache, several areas of the head can hurt, including a network of nerves that extends over the scalp and certain nerves in the face, mouth, and throat. The muscles of the head ... Continue reading

WhatisHeadache
Astronomy

How Far Are The Seven Sisters?

The Pleiades cluster, named by the ancient Greeks, is easily seen as a small grouping of stars lying near the shoulder of Taurus, the Bull, in the winter sky. Although it might be expected that the ... Continue reading

HowFarAreTheSevenSisters

Introduction To Jupiter

IntroductionToJupiterWith its numerous moons and several rings, the Jupiter system is a 'mini-solar system.' Jupiter is the most massive planet in our solar system, and in composition it resembles a small star. In fact, if Jupiter had been between fifty and one hundred times more massive, it would have become a star rather than a planet.

At first glance, Jupiter appears striped. These stripes are dark belts and light zones created by strong east-west winds in Jupiter's upper atmosphere. Within these belts and zones are storm systems that have raged for years. The southern hemisphere's Great Red Spot has existed for at least 100 years, and perhaps longer, as Galileo reported seeing a similar feature nearly 400 years ago. Three Earths could fit across the Great Red Spot. Jupiter's core is probably not solid but a dense, hot liquid with a consistency like thick soup. The pressure inside Jupiter may be 30 million times greater than the pressure at Earth's surface.

As Jupiter rotates, a giant magnetic field is generated in its electrically conducting liquid interior. Trapped within Jupiter's magnetosphere - the area in which magnetic field lines encircle the planet from pole to pole - are enough charged particles to make the inner portions of Jupiter's magnetosphere the most deadly radiation environment of any of the planets, both for humans and for electronic equipment. The 'tail' of Jupiter's magnetic field - that portion stretched behind the planet as the solar wind rushes past - has been detected as far as Saturn's orbit. Jupiter's rings and moons are embedded in an intense radiation belt of electrons and ions trapped in the magnetic field. The Jovian magnetosphere, which comprises these particles and fields, balloons one to three extending more than one billion kilometers behind Jupiter - as far as Saturn's orbit.