Before the invention of the telescope, no one on Earth knew that Saturn had rings until the 1600s. Galileo Galilei discovered them with his telescope in 1610, but he did not know what these were either. Thus they remained a mystery until 1655 when the Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens (see notes 1) figured out that they were actually planetary rings.
Mars is now a cold and extremely arid desert that is constantly bombarded with deadly solar radiation. It has a very thin atmosphere (it’s really thin, it is practically almost a vacuum) and no liquid water. But that was not always the case. Billions of years ago, Mars had liquid water on its surface. It had oceans, lakes, and rivers. So, how Mars died? How did it lose its atmosphere and water and become the extremely cold, arid desert we know now? Here’s a short video by BBC Earth Lab explaining the death of Mars.
Dozens of space-based telescopes operate near-Earth and provide incredible images of the universe. But imagine a telescope far away in the outer solar system, 10 or even 100 times farther from the Sun than Earth. The ability to look back at our solar system or peer into the darkness of the distant cosmos would make this a uniquely powerful scientific tool.
If we can colonize Mars in the coming decades, will Martian colonists be able to access the Internet?
Earth is the only planet we know contains life. Is our planet special? Scientists over the years have mulled over what factors are essential for, or beneficial to, life. The answers will help us identify other potentially inhabited planets elsewhere in the galaxy.
Antony Burnham, Australian National University and Hugh O’Neill, Australian National University
Change-5 represents China’s first mission to return moon samples to Earth, hence marks a major step forward for China’s lunar exploration program. Now, recent analysis suggests that the Moon samples returned from Chang’e-5 tell of recent volcanism.
As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph).
NASA has published a disturbing image of the orbits of potentially hazardous asteroids on the APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) website. The image shows the orbits of the asteroids which are more than 140 meters (450 feet) across and will pass within 7.5 million kilometers (4.66 million miles) of Earth. If hits, a space rock that big could wipe out the entire human race from the Earth.
The Earth is getting full of waste, pollution, and garbage. Yes, the world should focus on recycling and reducing waste, but, the truth is that it’s just not that easy, and in fact, we’re not doing well so far. So, why not shoot the Earth’s garbage into space, or even better, into the Sun?
Asteroids can pose a threat to life on Earth but are also a valuable source of resources to make fuel or water to aid deep space exploration. Devoid of geological and atmospheric processes, these space rocks provide a window onto the evolution of the solar system. But to really understand their secrets, scientists must know what’s inside them.
