How did the Hubble Space Telescope open our eyes to the first galaxies of the universe?
By Rodger I. Thompson The famous telescope is celebrating thirty years of operation. The Hubble Space Telescope launched on the 24th of April, 30 years ago. It’s an impressive milestone especially as its expected lifespan was just 10 years. One of the primary reasons...
Space Junk: Can we clean up earth’s orbit before it’s too late?
By Bettina Mrusek Orbital debris is a growing problem. While advances in technology have improved our ability to successfully launch satellites into orbit, the trial and error period required to get to us there, combined with the enormous growth of the satellite...
Why is the first photo of a black hole so important?
By Chris Benton With much excitement from the press, an international team of astronomers recently announced they had directly imaged the silhouette or shadow of a black hole for the first time (Figure 1). This ground-breaking observation highlights many achievements...
What is NASA’s new lander doing on Mars?
By Chris Benton On 26 November 2018 NASA’s lander InSight successfully touched down on Mars. But what is it doing there? With much fanfare from the press, following a six-month 483 million km journey to reach our neighbouring planet, on 26 November 2018...
Why are we sending worms into space?
By Christopher Gaffney & Bethan Phillips Space launches are some of the most spectacular and nerve wracking events you can witness. And when you are actually involved in one, you realise just how much can go wrong. We are currently in Florida, nervously counting...
What does The Goblin tell us about the outer reaches of our solar system?
By Chris Benton Astronomers have recently announced the discovery of a new dwarf planet in the extreme outer parts of The Solar System, which supports evidence for the highly-speculated and much larger “Planet-X”. This new finding has important...
A decade of commercial space travel – what’s next?
By Joel Wooten In many industries, a decade is barely enough time to cause dramatic change unless something disruptive comes along – a new technology, business model or service design. The space industry has recently been enjoying all three. But 10 years ago, none of...
Water on Mars: Does this mean life existed?
By Jonti Horner After the recent discovery of a large liquid water lake on Mars Jonti Horner explores what this means for the ongoing quest to find life on the red planet. We now know that there is permanent liquid water on Mars, according to a paper published last...
Who owns the moon?
By Frans von der Dunk A space lawyer takes up the challenge to answer the question of who owns the moon. Most likely, this is the best-known picture of a flag ever taken: Buzz Aldrin standing next to the first U.S. flag planted on the Moon. For those who knew their...Subscribe by Email
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