Helen Brand, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation
Meteor impacts are an inevitable part of being a rocky planet in space. The craters they leave behind are a window into the tumultuous history of Earth.
Rubble pile asteroids are like giant space cushions, floating around the Solar System for billions of years. Here’s what that means for planetary defence.
The slice you see cut out of the Earth reveals its core, depicted here in bright yellow.
fhm/E+ via Getty Images
Starting at the surface, you would have to dig nearly 2,000 miles before reaching the Earth’s core. No one could survive that trip – and the 10,000-degree F heat once there would vaporize you anyway.
Blue Marble is the last photograph of the whole Earth taken by an actual human using analogue film: developed in a darkroom when the crew returned to Earth.
The moon is currently moving 3.8 cm away from the Earth every year.
(Shutterstock)
Scientists have uncovered the long-term history of our receding moon. And it’s not from studying the moon itself, but from reading signals in ancient layers of rock on Earth.
When the Orion Crew Capsule orbits the Moon there will be no one on board. But the mission will mark a key step in bringing humans back to Earth’s dusty sidekick.
James Lovelock outside his home laboratory.
Homer Sykes/Alamy Stock Photo
NASA, NOAA and SpaceWeather say a coronal mass ejection will reach Earth this week. It has the potential to knock out communications in some parts of the world.
Reconstruction of Haikouichthys ercaicunensis based on fossil evidence.
Talifero/Wikimedia Commons
By tracking a meteorite found in Morocco back to its origin in an asteroid crater on Mars millions of years ago, scientists can learn more about how the planets formed.
During ice ages, ice sheets like the one in Greenland have covered much of Earth’s surface.
Thor Wegner/DeFodi Images via Getty Images
The Moon illusion is what makes the Moon look giant when you see it rising over a distant horizon. An astronomer explains what causes this awe-inspiring trick of the mind.
Pluto was recategorized from a planet to a dwarf planet in 2006.
(Shutterstock)
A curious kid asks: Why does it matter if Pluto is a planet or a dwarf planet?
Sand blown by wind into ripples within Victoria Crater at Meridiani Planum on Mars, as photographed by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on October 3, 2006.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona/Cornell/Ohio State University
There are many bodies in the solar system we can’t easily access. But observations of their winds and sediments reveal a surprising amount.
There is a U.S. flag on the Moon, but in the future, countries may start to turn access to the Moon and asteroids into serious wealth.
NASA/Neil A. Armstrong
Current trends suggest that powerful nations are defining the rules of resource use in space and satellite access in ways that will make it hard for developing nations to ever catch up.