keeping up with the kosmos

The Moon is the Rihanna of celestial objects. Here's why.

Stay up to date with the latest cosmic gossip from across the universe.

by Passant Rabie
Updated: 
Originally Published: 
Rihanna photo: Tim P. Whitby/Getty; Moon photo: Dan Kitwood/Getty

WASP-79b is a gaseous giant exoplanet with scorching temperatures, iron rain and yellow skies.

NASA

Joe Exotic photo: Netflix; WASP-79b photo: NASA

Just like Joe Exotic, the exoplanet is possibly the only one of its kind. And the more we probe into the characteristics of this pair, the more confused we are, and unable to understand the origin of their behavior.

Mercury is the smallest and innermost planet of the Solar System, and the one often overlooked. But this little guy has a molten core, is composed of heavy metal and rock, and has the most amount of craters.

NASA

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc/Getty Images

Both Mercury and singer Kelly Clarkson are often overlooked, and yet are always there. Both of these icons come first, Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and Clarkson is the first winner of the singing competition, American Idol. But sadly, we often forget about them until they sort of show up again.

NASA

We are often enchanted by Earth's only satellite, the Moon. And yet, there's so much that we still don't know about this rocky object, like how it formed and what it's made of.

NASA

The same way fans have so many questions about Rihanna, namely when the artist will drop new music? Will there ever be a new Rihanna album? But ultimately, we're happy to have her shining presence hovering over us like the glimmering light of the Moon every night.

European Southern Observatory / M. Kornmesser

In September, 2017, our world was visited by a beautiful, elongated object that didn't fit into anything we had seen before. Oumuamua was the first recorded interstellar object to cruise through our Solar System and has fascinated scientists ever since with its odd shape and mesmerizing qualities.

Kristy Sparow / Contributor / Getty

Oumuamua is sort of like the Naomi Campbell of interstellar objects, beautiful, mysterious and a little cold. The pair have inexplicable physical traits that leave people dumbfounded, Oumuamua's elongated, cigar-like shape and Campbell's long legs, and they both seemingly come from a different world of their own.

ESO

Scientists recently discovered the nearest black hole to Earth ever detected, located only 1,000 lightyears away from us. As exciting as it is to have one of those cosmic beasts as our galactic neighbor, the black hole in question turned out to be quite, well, boring.

Tim Roney/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

HR 6819 is essentially the Michelle Williams, from Destiny’s Child, of black holes. It is surrounded by two orbiting stars, Beyoncè and Kelly, and does not shine as bright as they do but is still an essential part of the trio.

We've been staring at the Sun for centuries, but still can't figure out what motivates most of its activity like solar flares and eruptions of hot plasma. Our host star hides behind a boiling hot shield of mystery.

The Sun is hot — but mysterious — just like English actor Tom Hardy. Hardy has been on the scene for years, and starred in major features like Batman: The Dark Knight Rises, and Mad Max. But how much do we really know about him, and have we even seen his full face in a movie? Yet, we can't look away.