How planets die
Just like people, planets are born and they die. We know how people die. But google “how planets die” and you’ll get the wrong answer.
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Exo-moons: Innocent bystanders during gas giant instabilities
Gas giants are the bullies of planetary systems. They are hundreds of times more massive than small rocky or icy worlds, so when gas giants throw a tantrum, their whole planetary system feels it. Giant planet moons are among the innocent bystanders swept up in the chaos. Giant planets around other stars have different orbits…
Super-Earths: breaking the (resonant) chains!
Systems of super-Earths may form as long resonant chains, most of which go unstable.
Is our closest neighbor an Eyeball planet? A Proxima poem
This planet and star, now, you really should know ‘em.
And that’s why I’m bothering writing this poem.
The colors of other worlds
Carl Sagan famously called Earth the “pale blue dot”. Viewed from a large distance, that is what our complex, vibrant, living planet looks like. In the search for life around other stars, we should be looking for other pale blue dots, right? Maybe not. There is some reason to think that not all habitable planets…
Real-life sci-fi world #6: Pandora (from the movie Avatar), the habitable moon of a gas giant planet
Welcome to Real-life Sci-fi worlds. I use science to explore life-bearing worlds that are the settings for science fiction stories. Up today: can the moon of a gas giant planet — like Pandora from the movie Avatar — really be habitable? Pandora is one of the coolest-ever settings for a science fiction story. The life-bearing…
Another planet in Kepler-186?
That spanking new planet’s already a star. K-186 f, you know who you are. You’re making us wonder if we’re all alone. The planet out there in the habitable zone. I’ve been on the radio. Been on TV. Talking ‘bout the planet. Just what can we see? Just what do we know about this special…
