From Neptune’s blue hue to Jupiter’s red spot: are the colours of the planets real?

25 July 2016

These days, we’re used to seeing pictures of planets sent back by spacecraft. Some pictures look colourful, others less so. But do they show what each planet really looks like? The short answer to this is “sometimes”, because some planets are genuinely quite colourful. Others are surfaced by rock that is almost entirely grey, and […]

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Ecuador and Japan earthquakes: Expert Comment

18 April 2016

Earthquakes in Japan and Ecuador have resulted in widespread destruction and many deaths.  David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Sciences at The Open University, says that Ecuador’s earthquake at its underground source was about 6 times stronger than in the magnitude 7.0 earthquake in southern Japan, and the total energy involved was probably about 20 times greater. […]

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Twin civilisations? How life on an exoplanet could spread to its neighbour

3 December 2015

Imagine two nearby exoplanets orbiting the same sun, each with its own indigenous civilisation. They’re going through history either as companionable neighbours or deadly rivals. This is a familiar situation in science fiction, but could it ever happen? With the rapidly growing number of habitable exoplanets being discovered, this scenario may seem plausible. Now a […]

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