June 4, 2021
Here’s what the biggest giant planet in our solar system, Jupiter, looks like. The Juno spacecraft captured this image during its 31st close flyby of Jupiter on December 30, 2020. The storm known as the Great Red Spot is visible on the horizon, nearly rotated out of view. Citizen scientist Tanya Oleksuik created this color-enhanced image using data from the JunoCam camera. Image via NASA.
Our solar system is normal
In late May 2021, astronomers released new results in a 30-year census of planetary systems beyond our own. The results show that most are arranged much like
our solar system. That is, most giant exoplanets aren’t close to their parent stars, but instead live in the suburbs of their systems. That’s contrary to what astronomers thought when first discovering giant exoplanets in the 1990s. For awhile, they thought hot Jupiters – giant planets close to their stars – might be the norm. Now the California Legacy Survey, which began in the 1990s, has