Jupiter dominates the Solar System’s architecture. At about 318 times Earth’s mass and orbiting far beyond Mars, it acts as a gravitational gatekeeper, tugging on asteroids and comets that might otherwise stay put or never reach the inner planets. Remove Jupiter from the picture and Earth’s impact environment would change in complicated ways. It would […]

The post If Jupiter Disappeared Would Earth Face More Asteroid Hits? appeared first on Curiosmos.

People filled the streets of New York on Thursday to get a glimpse of this year’s first Manhattanhenge. The spectacular view of the sun setting, flanked by the city’s streetscapes, will also occur on Friday and July 11 and 12.

While there is consensus that our Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago from a molecular cloud of gas and dust, less has been known about how long the formation of the star...

The post Do we know how long it took the Sun to form? first appeared on Science Illustrated.