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How will they bring the structure back safely? And where will the surviving components crash?
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You can imagine a white hole as being a black hole in reverse — but is such a thing really possible?
NASA
The zircon crystal was found in the NWA 7034 meteorite, dubbed ‘Black Beauty’ – uncovered from the desert of northwest Africa.
2022 is set to be humanity’s busiest year in space.
CSA Images via Getty Images
With about 200 orbital launches scheduled and ambitious missions on everything from lunar bases to the search for life in the works, there’s a lot to watch in 2022. An astronomer explains the highlights.
Artist visualisation.
A mysterious repeating signal from our galactic backyard is a reminder the universe is full of unexpected surprises, if only we should look.
Artist’s conception
NASA
Webb is NASA’s largest and most powerful ever space telescope – set to investigate the formation of the furthest galaxies from Earth.
Satellite image of the Tonga explosion.
TONGA METEOROLOGICAL SERVICES/EPA
Volcanic eruptions can wreak havoc in the upper atmosphere.
Nasa
The mission is set to launch in March 2022. Here’s what you need to know.
An artistic representation of 10 hot Jupiters, studied with the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes.
(NASA/ESA)
Clouds, hellish temperatures, endless nights? Characterizing the atmosphere of exoplanets, planets that orbit stars other than the sun, is a formidable task.
Some stars travel at high speeds through the universe and sometimes leave spectacular clouds of dust and gas in their wake.
NASA, ESA and R. Sahai (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Hypervelocity stars were discovered only 15 years ago and are the closest things in existence to real shooting stars. They travel at millions of miles per hour, so fast that they can escape from galaxies.
The Earth spins as it orbits the Sun. Elements of this image furnished by Nasa.
janez volmajer/Shutterstock
Only a planet crashing into it might stop the Earth’s spin.
The rocket boosters for the Space Launch System that will launch Nasa’s Artemis I mission to the Moon.
NASA/Kim Shiflett
Nasa plans to test its new rocket system for the Moon, and a new rover is due to begin its journey to Mars.
mRNA vaccines: not just for COVID.
Cryptographer/Shutterstock
Experts give us a science preview for 2022, plus what lies in store for global inequality. Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.
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In some ways, a space rocket and a passenger aircraft fly much the same. But there is one big reason we can’t just take an aircraft into space.
Dotted Yeti/Shutterstock
Plus, the tactics the food industry is using to boost sales of ultra-processed foods in middle-income countries. Listen to The Conversation Weekly.
Philippe Starck / Axiom Space
NASA is backing four commercial space station projects. The newcomers may find they have much to learn about how people really live in space.
Starlink satellites are quite visible in the night sky.
(Shutterstock)
Megaconstellations of satellites will visually clutter the night sky, disrupting astronomical research. And the environmental damage caused by these satellites is still unknown.
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An asteroid that landed in Russia in 2013 injured 1,500 people – and was just 20 metres in diameter. What could we do if a major threat was detected?
A composite image of the data collected by the ALMA telescope in Chile, showing spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster.
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/S. Dagnello (NRAO)/T. Brown (VERTICO)
Studying the extreme environment of the Virgo Cluster — which comprises thousands of galaxies — helps us learn what factors can affect and start or stop star formation.
There’s a lot we don’t know about galaxies.
Zakharchuk/Shutterstock
We have to look back to the Big Bang to find out.