I wrote an article on the formation of the solar system and other planetary systems throughout the galaxy a few weeks ago. New information is coming to light all the time and this is a field that has a lot of discoveries left to find. The new discoveries were published in the astrophysical Journal. Astronomers [...]
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Commercial Rocket Falcon 9 Launches from Cape Canaveral into Orbit
Falcon 9 built by SpaceX reached orbit on Friday. This commercial venture is hoped by NASA to replace the government rockets that are presently taking satellites etc into orbit. Commercialisation of space was put forward as a major aim by the United States when president Obama came into power. This is one of those small [...]
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Good Evidence for Life on Saturn’s Moon Titan
The Cassini spacecraft has noticed on Titan, Saturn’s moon, that hydrogen molecules flow down through the atmosphere and disappear when they reach the surface (Icarus Journal). Also the hydrocarbons on the surface of Titan have been mapped and show that there is a lack of acetylne (Journal of geophysical research). The lack of acetylne could [...]
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Jupiter Has Another Impact
Just the other month Jupiter was hit by something, possibly an asteroid, and this month seems to be just the same. An amateur astronomer yesterday noticed a large flash when looking at Jupiter which lasted about two seconds. We are quite lucky to have Jupiter in the solar system, not just for looking at, but [...]
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The Longest Hypersonic Flight
The longest supersonic combustion ramjet-powered hypersonic flight took place on may 26. The engine is a scramjet engine that broke the time spent over mach 5 by the previous flight. It was only over mach 5 for 200secs but at mach 5 that’s quite a distance. //
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Japanese Corporation Aims to Build a Solar Ring on the Moon
The world’s energy needs are coming to a crisis point but technology could solve this in a Japanese plan to put solar cells around the moon’s equator. That’s 11,000 km of solar cells twinkling on the moon. The electricity from the solar cells would be converted to microwaves and lasers would beam the power to [...]
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A Robotic Japanese Lunar Base Is Planned for 2020
Japan (a government panel of Waseda University) has recently announced that it is going to send robots to the moon to create a moon base. This obviously has come after America announces that it is not going to bother with the moon just yet and I expect that Japan will take full advantage of the [...]
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Evidence Builds up for Life in Europa’s Ocean
Europa is one of my favourite moons around Jupiter as it keeps throwing up little titbits of what could be underneath that icy surface. Underneath the thin layer of ice that encompasses Europa there is speculated to be a 100 km deep ocean. This would be ice if it wasn’t for the tidal forces of [...]
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Flying Telescope Takes to the Skies
Nasa’s stratospheric Observatory for infrared astronomy (SOFIA) or if you don’t want to be smart airborne telescope, took its first flight yesterday. As you can see from the image a door opens in the 747 so that the telescope can see the sky. It may sound odd to be flying around with a telescope hanging [...]
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Supermassive Black Hole Not at the Centre of a Galaxy
The Hubble telescope has been looking for black holes and studying in particular the supermassive black hole in the most massive galaxy (M87). The supermassive black hole is not in the position that it is supposed to be in which is odd as supermassive black holes are supposed to be at the centre of galaxies. [...]
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Mars Science Laboratory Arrival Date Set
The Mars science laboratory is set to go to Mars between November 25 and December 18, 2011 which will mean that it lands on Mars in August 2012. Curiosity, as the Mars science laboratory is known, could get their a bit sooner but it all depends on alignments and communication. For maximum information on landing [...]
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The Meaning of Life Discovered, No Just a Little Step Closer
When the universe was made it was not made equal however it was made. It should have consisted of matter and antimatter in equal quantities but this would have meant annihilation for our wonderful universe. Luckily for us there is just matter to worry about. The Fermilab (obviously trying to beat the LHC to the [...]
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Evidence for the Theory That Half the Normal Matter in the Universe Is Found in a Gas
Scientist’s embarrassment may have been spared by the discovery of a large amount of gas lying along the edge of some galaxies about 400 million light years from Earth. Results were needed to support a prediction that about half of the normal matter in the universe is found in a gas. There is no point [...]
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Sign up to Walk on the Moon.
Ever fancied walking on the moon? A new site called Moon zoo can almost get you there (well in mind if not body). The lunar reconnaissance orbiter has taken many photos of the moon and this site presents them in such a way that it is easy to look around and take in the panorama. [...]
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A Star Sprints Away from Its Birthplace
The Hubble telescope has found a blue hot star which is 90 times bigger than our sun sprinting across space. It would make the trip from the Earth to the Moon in under two hours which is not the fastest ever but is pretty fast anyway. A rogue star is probably to blame for breaking [...]
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It’s Been a Painful Time for Some Mice.
The trouble with animals is that they just don’t speak. We are quite a long way from talking to the animals but some recent research has discovered that mice feel pain. Just like us, mice make faces when they are in pain such as grimacing. Take a look at this picture and you can see [...]
