Space 🚀
The Human Spirit in Space
Space exploration is not just about pushing the boundaries of science, but also about expanding the limits of our imagination.
Hidden Figures Summary: Inspiring Lessons from the Book That Changed Our View of Space History
"Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly uncovers the untold story of African American women mathematicians at NASA. It's like finding a secret chapter in the Space Race history book!
Kepler 186f : A New Earth?
Orbiting around 500 light years from Earth, in the Cygnus constellation, is an exoplanet scientists call Kepler 186f. First observed in 2014 by Elisa Quintana at the Kepler Space Observatory, the discovery has excited astronomers and alien aficionados alike.
Why SpaceX’s Elon Musk is caught in the Kremlin’s crosshairs
For stargazers and aeronauts, there’s little doubt that SpaceX has skyrocketed into becoming the globe’s first independent space superpower: SpaceX launched more rockets than Russia did in 2021, and recently passed China in the number of astronauts it’s speeded into orbit.
James Webb Telescope: A picture worth a billion dollars
The James Webb Telescope has been three decades and billions in the making. As the first pictures were published, many have said the wait and cost were totally worth it. Getting the project off the ground (pardon the pun) wasn't always a sure thing.
Europe girds for celestial war
Weeks before Russia began blitzing Ukraine in a fireworks of missile attacks, while threatening a doomsday nuclear war with Europe and the US, it sent out a signal that the battle could be extended into space. But that piece in the puzzle of its war plans was only later decoded.
A white knuckle ride: early days of SpaceX
Elon Musk’s early days as part of the “PayPal mafia” are well-documented. His teaming up with Peter Thiel made him $180 million after eBay bought PayPal for $1.5 billion. That was after he had been forced out of the company, accused of being a confrontational egomaniac.
NASA’s global competition for superhero robots coded to terraform Mars
Desert storms encircling Mars ravage humanity’s first outpost. Its sole astronaut – an android named R5 - races to halt the base’s doomsday escape of oxygen before his compatriots’ imminent landing. NASA offers an astronomical prize to anyone who can avert the catastrophe.
The realm of Apollo "Astronaut-Gods" is finally opening to mortals
Advances made by the rising spaceflight powers Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin to begin launching adventurers to the edge of space will transform not just the heavens but also Earth: national borders and space agencies will no longer dictate who can becom
Surprises in the Search for Extraterrestrial Life
Venture beyond Mars and moons of gas giants, where subsurface oceans within icy moons like Europa, Enceladus, and Titan hold promise for life-supporting environments.
The Obsession with Planet X and the Letter X
Percival Lowell, a prominent American astronomer, stirred the scientific world in the early 20th century with his belief in an undiscovered ninth planet beyond Neptune, which he named "Planet X." This marked the beginning of a captivating astronomical journey.
Is Time Travel Possible? NASA, Einstein & Live Science say yes!
From The Twilight Zone to Rick & Morty, the idea of traveling through space to the past or future has been around for ages. But as video telephones, self-driving cars and other sci-fi dreams have turned reality, it's theorized that time travel may be possible too. Here's how:
Space Waste : The Junk That Litters Our Skies
If you are conscious of mankind's destructive and pollutant impact on the environment, spare a thought for the skies. Experts say hundreds of millions of pieces of trash are currently floating in our atmosphere, discarded in the cosmos like nebulous space garbage.
Black holes: is anything more mysterious?
A black hole is one of the most mysterious objects in the universe. It is a region in space where the force of gravity is powerful and even light cannot escape it. It pulls in all the matter around it and squeezes into a tiny space.
Moscow’s missiles could explode China’s Space Station dreams
This was supposed to be the golden year of China’s Space Station dreams: an orbital observatory attracting pan-European astronauts and marking Beijing’s peaceful, triumphant rise on the globe’s stage. But that future is now disappearing, like a fleeting mirage.
Was Einstein sent to us from the future? Time travel’s amazing possibilities
H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine ignited the world’s imagination, but Einstein was the first of the super-physicists to show how explorers might actually rocket across the ages. He focused on racing into the future, but now astronomers seek time portals that work in both directions
Will hyper-tech robots build domed cities across the Martian dunes?
When historians of the future write the chronicles on Mars’ first cosmopolis, Xavier De Kestelier is likely to be highlighted as one of its primary architects: he recently unveiled his studio’s Martian outpost – entirely built by robots - at London’s Design Museum.
The Forgotten Astronomer: Cecilia Payne's Stellar Discovery
Cecilia Payne, a name not as familiar as Hubble or Einstein, but her astronomical discovery forever changed how we see the stars.
GPS: When Einstein's Theory Met Navigation.
Einstein's theory predicted that time behaves differently in strong gravitational fields. That means time moves slower near massive objects.
Russia’s shooting down of a SpaceX satellite could spark “Space War I”
Weapons designers across Russia and China are racing to perfect arms that could target and destroy Elon Musk’s SpaceX satellites. But Western military leaders warn that shooting down a single SpaceX spacecraft could ignite a war with not just the US, but the entire NATO alliance.
Russian roulette on the International Space Station
As Russian fighter jets bombard Ukraine’s most advanced spacecraft maker with long-range missiles, they are devastating the “Rocket City” of Dnipro with the aim of crushing a Ukrainian aerospace competitor - a rising star in the design of orbital launchers.
SpaceX sparks a new French Revolution
Even as Elon Musk coronates himself with fantastical royal titles that seem snatched from a video game - like the “Imperator of Mars” bio he posted on his throne at Twitter - he is almost worshipped as a world-changing revolutionary a continent away, across post-imperial France.
Russian rockets blaze toward Ukraine and the Moon
In the wake of Russia’s aerial bombardment of Ukraine, and the Kremlin’s threats of nuclear war with NATO, Britain, the Nordic nations and the entire European Union, along with the US and Canada, are stepping up moves to shield their skies from Moscow’s missiles and fighter jets.
Stephen Hawking: From Big Bang to “the mind of God”
Have you ever looked up at a starry night sky and wondered if the fantastical design of the cosmos could one day be deciphered? Is the universe eternal? In the physics of the celestial sphere, are there signs, as Einstein suggested, of a higher creator?
How the space race was won
What kind of person is willing to sit on top of a bomb and wait for someone to light the fuse? This was the question NASA faced when the space agency formed. How could they get people to volunteer as the very first astronauts when their experimental rocke