Space and astronomy news
[/caption] So you think you know your universe? We’ve got our own top 10 list on the most interesting facts about the Universe. 1. It was hot when it was young The most widely accepted cosmological model is that of the Big Bang. This was proven since the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation …
[/caption] The Herschel and Planck spacecraft successfully launched together Thursday from Europe’s Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The Ariane V rocket performed flawlessly, with the rocket’s trajectory matching exactly the predicted flight path. The two spacecraft separated individually and in different directions from the launch vehicle, about four minutes apart, after spinning to orient themselves …
The Solar System: Solar System Guide The Sun Mercury Venus Earth The Moon Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) Mars Phobos and Deimos The Asteroid Belt Ceres Vesta Jupiter Jupiter’s Moons Galilean Moons Saturn Saturn’s Moons Uranus Uranus’ Moons Neptune Neptune’s Moons Dwarf Planets The Kuiper Belt The Oort Cloud Comets, Asteroids, and KBOs Outer Space: Stars Magnetars …
Perhaps one of the best reasons to return to the Moon will be the boon to astronomy. Without an atmosphere, an observatory the Moon won’t have to peer through an obscuring atmosphere, but people will still be able to walk over and fix it – and even upgrade it – into the future. It’s the …
Continue reading “Listening to the Universe from the Far Side of the Moon”
We can all guess what would happen should a massive black hole drift into our solar system… there wouldn’t be much left once the intense gravitational pull consumes the planets and starts sucking away at our Sun. But what if the black hole is small, perhaps a left over remnant from the Big Bang, passing unnoticed through our …
Continue reading “What Would Happen if a Small Black Hole Hit the Earth?”
Albert Einstein made enough predictions about the nature of gravity and relativity that NASA has dedicated a whole office and fleet of spacecraft to him. This week the space agency announced their new Einstein Probes Office, where they’ll be compiling evidence for the strangest stuff in the Universe: dark energy, black holes, and the cosmic …
One of Einstein’s predictions for relativity is the concept of gravity waves; these are emitted whenever massive objects move. The more massive the object the stronger the gravity wave.
Dark matter is invisible to all our instruments, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t there. It does reach out to regular matter with its gravity. A new technique being developed at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics might be able to make dark matter reveal itself. A large enough radio telescope should be able to …
Our understanding of the Universe is written in pencil on the pages of a loose-leaf notebook because, like many of the sciences, our knowledge of nature is constantly undergoing revision. For example, during the past few years a quiet revolution has been taking place regarding galaxies, black holes and their increasingly understood symbiotic relationship. Black …
Australia and South Africa have been shortlisted to host the Square Kilometer Array, a massive radio telescope that will be built in 2018. The array will have thousands of antennas, spread out over an area of 3,000 km (1,800 miles), and should be 50 times more powerful than the most powerful array of radio telescopes …
Continue reading “Giant Radio Telescope May Go to Australia or Africa”