Tag: space
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Svetlana Savitskaya – Test Pilot and Cosmonaut!
This article is the second in a series of articles in which I will profile every woman astronaut, cosmonaut and taikonaut who has been into space. Last time we looked at the career of Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. Today I’m profiling cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya, the second woman in space. (The feature image…
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It’s a small world after all
What we know of exoplanets has developed at the same time as the technology which we use to discover them. This is, in my opinion, the most exciting thing about the entire field of study. For instance, when we first started spotting planets around alien suns, we found huge gas giants. Hot jupiters, extremely massive…
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Andromeda and the 13 Dwarfs
Astronomy is quite notorious for being full of things we don’t entirely understand. Sometimes it really does feel as if the closer we look at the Universe, the less it makes sense. One thing in particular which seems to constantly evade our understanding is the way in which galaxies work. A lot of very smart…
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Interstellar travel: how to spot a ‘starman’ going by
Massive objects moving at near light speeds do not occur naturally in the universe as we know it. If we detect such objects it is a reasonable to assume they are artificial artifacts from advanced intelligent life. This according to Garcia-Escartin and Chamorro-Posada, authors of a recent paper, is a low-cost, sure-fire way of searching…
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Searching for Life on Titan
Discovered in 1655 by Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens, Titan is one of Saturn’s 62 moons, named for a race of giants in Greek myth who were Saturn’s brothers and sisters. Over 5000 km in diameter, it’s roughly twice the size of our own Moon and is one of the largest moons in our solar system,…
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Telescope takes temperature of Universe
CSIRO telescope takes temperature of Universe Astronomers using a CSIRO radio telescope have taken the Universe’s temperature, and have found that it has cooled down just the way the Big Bang theory predicts. Using the CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array near Narrabri, NSW, an international team from Sweden, France, Germany and Australia has measured how…
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Fascinating short film about NASA’s Dawn: the very beginning of us
This fascinating video, narrated by Leonard Nemoy, gives you a glimpse into the origins of our solar system and NASA Dawn mission’s journey to Vesta & Ceres and its hope to unveil clues as to what was going on at the very beginning of our solar system’s formation! NASA’s Dawn mission is a spacecraft designed to collect data…
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Weekly Science Picks
Another week, another collection of weekly science picks! Those of us over here in Northern Europe have been enjoying snowy weather this past few days, with more expected on the way. At the same time, many of us have been keeping a concerned eye on the recent events in Australia – the bush fires being…
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The Highlights of 2012
As 2012 draws to a close and the new year begins, now is a good time to wrap things up and recapitulate the year just passed. It’s been an exciting year with plenty of interesting happenings in science, technology, and education. Despite the fact that we aren’t especially keen on top 10 lists (because all…
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Weekly Science Picks
By now, I think it’s safe to say that if you’re reading this, it means the world didn’t end on Friday. Which is rather a good thing, because a lot of interesting things have been happening recently! Even though I’ve been busy as can be, writing papers and trying to finish off a thesis there…
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Interview: Keri Bean—Mars meteorologist, Curiosity Rover team member
Keri Bean is a meteorologist specialising in the atmospherics of other planets. She is on the team operating the Curiosity Rover for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory mission. Prior to MSL, Keri has had roles in the missions for other Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity, a prototype Moon rover, the Phoenix Mars Lander, and the Hubble…
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Weekly Science Picks
It seems the rate of everything has increased exponentially. A very bold, vague, yet intriguing statement, you might say. During the course of the past 2 weeks, Hurricane Sandy devastated the East Coast of America, followed closely by a nor’easter. So my science picks for this week center on the themes of natural disasters, planning,…
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Payload
Science Fiction This may not be the usual topic for a blog post normally displayed on Australian Science, but when our editor Danica mentioned she saw this great Aussie short and asked if one of us writers wanted to do a narrative, I jumped at it. The next 17:55 of my lunch break left me…
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Weekly Science Picks
Doesn’t time fly? I don’t know about anyone else, but my week has absolutely flown past. As I take a moment to relax and consider picking a few favourite topics from this week’s news, I realise that perhaps this is because it’s been an exciting week, full of interesting discoveries and unusual events. In fact,…