The reason bigger objects in space are round and smaller ones aren’t boils down to gravity. And it’s the same reason mountains on Earth can only grow to a certain height
John Glenn would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. Today’s space program is a giant leap more inclusive than when he made his pioneering orbit of the Earth in 1962.
Both Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are sending spacecrafts – and their billionaire founders – into suborbital flight. But what differentiates a suborbital flight from a trip around Earth?
It wasn’t long after Jeff Bezos announced his plans to go to space that Sir Richard Branson joined in, setting a launch date to beat Bezos by nine days.
The history of UFOs weaves together public fascination, government secrecy and cultural phenomena. Recent news and shifts in the government’s stance on UFOs are giving new life to the mystery.
David Yong, Australian National University and Gary Da Costa, Australian National University
The discovery of an ancient star in the Milky Way’s halo is providing evidence for another source that would have produced the galaxy’s heavy elements.
NASA hasn’t updated its spacesuits since 1974, when only men were eligible to be astronauts. But when it heads to the Moon in the coming years, its new spacesuits should come in women’s sizes too.
A new nine-page report, requested by Congress, doesn’t say what the 144 UFO sightings from 2004 to 2021 are, but does say that the government wants to learn more.
Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology and Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology
More than 60 images capturing huge expanses of sky are sent to us from Chile. Within them we can see thousands of bright spots. What do we find when we look closer?
Researchers used decades-old radar data and found that some low-lying areas of Venus’ crust are moving and jostling. This evidence is some of the strongest yet of tectonic activity on Venus.
Two new NASA missions – VERITAS and DAVINCI+ – are headed to Venus. The missions will use radar and a probe to learn about Earth’s hard-to-study and potentially prophetic neighbor.
Fast radio bursts are the focus of a young and fascinating field of astronomy. Researchers just released data on more than 500 new bursts, quadrupling the total number of detected events.
Venus wouldn’t attract much attention if it were outside our solar system. Its skies are filled with sulphuric acid, its land abounds with extinct volcanoes and its surface is mostly red hot lava.
In the early morning of May 26, 2021, there will be a super blood-red lunar eclipse. The show will be spectacular and can all be explained by the orbits of the Earth and Moon.
In the coming decades, governments and private companies will set up permanent bases on the Moon and Mars. And at some point, the first galactic baby will be born.
Chances are small that space junk will destroy property or harm a person, and existing space law could deal with such an event. But current law doesn’t address the bigger problem of space pollution.