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?
New research suggests that Venus’ crust is broken into large blocks – the dark reddish–purple areas – that are surrounded by belts of tectonic structures shown in lighter yellow–red.
Paul K. Byrne/NASA/USGS
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.
It can stretch your mind to ponder what’s really out there.
Stijn Dijkstra/EyeEm via Getty Images
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.
Mysterious blasts of radio waves from across the universe called fast radio bursts are getting more attention from astronomers.
ESO/M. Kornmesser
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.
A red blood moon is caused by sunlight passing through the Earth’s atmosphere.
U.S. Navy/Joshua Valcarcel/WikimediaCommons
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.
A permanent Moon colony could become a reality in a few decades.
NASA/Dennis Davidson/WikimediaCommons
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.
It’s unlikely falling space junk will destroy property or kill a person.
Petrovich9/iStock via Getty Images
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.
The Tiangong space station is set to become a second long-term habitat for humans in orbit around Earth.
Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on the International Space Station with a view many more are likely to see soon.
NASA/Tracy Caldwell Dyson/WIkimediaCommons
The first space tourist left Earth 20 years ago aboard a Russian rocket. Now, private companies like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin are offering trips to the stars for those who can pay.
The interaction of solar winds and the Earth’s atmosphere produces the northern lights that dance across the night sky.
(Benjamin Suter/Unsplash)
It has only been in the past century that weather prediction on Earth has advanced enough to work two weeks in advance. Predicting space weather, however, is only reliable an hour in advance.
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the solar system and is home to a potentially habitable planet.
Hubble/European Space Agency/WikimediaCommons
Astronomers just measured the largest flare ever from Proxima Centauri, humanity’s closest neighboring star. These flares could be bad news for life trying to develop on a planet orbiting the star.
Space tourism has been slow to get off the ground.
Nadia Bormotova/iStock via Getty Images Plus
The first space tourist left Earth 20 years ago aboard a Russian rocket. Now, private companies are on the cusp of offering trips off Earth for those who can pay.
Faster than light travel is the only way humans could ever get to other stars in a reasonable amount of time.
Les Bossinas/NASA/Wikimedia Commons
If humanity wants to travel between stars, people are going to need to travel faster than light. New research suggests that it might be possible to build warp drives and beat the galactic speed limit.
NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter on its first flight, captured by cameras aboard NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover on April 19, 2021.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU)
The Ingenuity is a drone-like helicopter that completed its first flight on Mars. This achievement reflects a new horizon for space exploration, as new places are discovered and studied.
Flying the Ingenuity helicopter on Mars is the equivalent of flying one at about 100,000 feet on Earth. Tricky, considering the highest helicopter flight ever recorded maxed out at 42,000 feet.