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The stars with the most confirmed planets are the Sun (the Solar System's star) and Kepler-90, with 8 confirmed planets each, followed by TRAPPIST-1 with 7 planets. The 995 multiplanetary systems are listed below according to the star's distance from Earth. Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System, has three planets ( b, c and d ).
SpaceEngine. SpaceEngine is an interactive 3D planetarium and astronomy software [2] initially developed by Russian astronomer and programmer Vladimir Romanyuk, [3] with development continued by Cosmographic Software as of 2022. It creates a 1:1 scale three-dimensional planetarium representing the entire observable universe from a combination ...
Frost line (astrophysics) In astronomy or planetary science, the frost line, also known as the snow line or ice line, is the minimum distance from the central protostar of a solar nebula where the temperature is low enough for volatile compounds such as water, ammonia, methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide to condense into solid grains ...
An ice planet or icy planet is a type of planet with an icy surface of volatiles such as water, ammonia, and methane. Ice planets consist of a global cryosphere . Under a geophysical definition of planet, the small icy worlds of the Solar System qualify as icy planets. These include most of the planetary-mass moons, such as Ganymede, Titan ...
Several space probes and the upper stages of their launch vehicles are leaving the Solar System, all of which were launched by NASA. Three of the probes, Voyager 1, Voyager 2, and New Horizons are still functioning and are regularly contacted by radio communication, while Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 are now defunct.
The stability of the Solar System is a subject of much inquiry in astronomy. Though the planets have historically been stable as observed, and will be in the "short" term, their weak gravitational effects on one another can add up in ways that are not predictable by any simple means. For this reason (among others), the Solar System is chaotic ...
Cartwheel Galaxy. The Cartwheel Galaxy (also known as ESO 350-40 or PGC 2248) is a lenticular ring galaxy about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor. [1] It has a D 25 isophotal diameter of 44.23 kiloparsecs (144,300 light-years), and a mass of about 2.9–4.8 × 109 solar masses; its outer ring has a circular velocity of ...
A matrioshka brain [1] [2] is a hypothetical megastructure of immense computational capacity powered by a Dyson sphere. It was proposed in 1997 by Robert J. Bradbury (1956–2011 [3] ). It is an example of a class-B stellar engine, employing the entire energy output of a star to drive computer systems. [4] This concept derives its name from the ...