Until we learned to properly navigate our way across the oceans, early explorers were fearful to lose sight of land in case they’d be lost at sea. They learned to use the water currents, winds, movements of birds and of course, the positions of the Sun, the Moon and the stars to find their way across the seas to distant lands.
Venus is a fascinating world – the closest twin to the Earth that we have in the Solar System. It’s nearly the same mass and has the same surface gravity. But we need to explore it to help us understand why the planet went so horribly horribly wrong.
Light can be absorbed, reflected, and re-emitted by gas and dust, giving us a second look. They’re called light echoes, and allow astronomers another way to understand the Universe around us.
Scientists have samples of the Sun’s solar wind, particles from a comet’s tail, a few grams from an asteroid, with more coming shortly. But there’s still no sample return from Mars. NASA & ESA have been making plans to bring sample home from Mars.
launching a rocket powered by radioactive material has its own risks as well. Should we attempt it?
The Van Allen Belts surround the Earth with deadly radiation. What can we do to get past them and escape into deep space?
Could there have been an advanced civilization that walked the Earth millions or even billions of years ago, and then died out long ago, their technology and structures lost to the eons? More at #365DaysOfAstro
The Solar System is a really big place, and it takes forever to travel from world to world with traditional chemical rockets. But one technique, developed back in the 1960s might provide a way to dramatically shorten our travel times: nuclear rockets.
We know there’s life on Earth, and our atmosphere tells the tale, so can we do the same thing with extrasolar planets?
astronomers and engineers have an amazing technology that allows a telescope to peer into space as if the atmosphere isn’t even there.