Author Archives: andrewccascio

Touching the Sun

Posted on April 9, 2023 by andrewccascio

Many space missions are aimed outwards, away from the center of our solar system into the deep unknown. Fewer are aimed inwards, because what else is there to explore? The Sun is a fiery ball of extraordinary mass that we likely have no hope of making contact with soon, but how close can we get? […] Continue reading →

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Callisto, The Ugly Duckling

Posted on April 9, 2023 by andrewccascio

When it comes to Jupiter’s Galilean moons, Callisto is the odd one out. Ganymede is the largest moon in the Solar System, Io is the most volcanically active world in the Solar System, Europa has incredible, potentially life-bearing subsurface liquid oceans, and Callisto… looks as dead as Mercury. It does not take part in the […] Continue reading →

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Chelyabinsk event

Posted on March 5, 2023 by andrewccascio

On the morning of February 15, 2013, an undetected meteor the size of a six-story building exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia. At 20 meters long, it reached speeds of 60,000 km/h before detonating with the force of a 500-kiloton nuclear bomb. Witnesses saw a flash brighter than the Sun before hearing a delayed […] Continue reading →

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Olympus Mons

Posted on March 5, 2023 by andrewccascio

Currently the largest known volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons stands at a remarkable 25 km high, which is almost 3 times the height of Mount Everest, and is wide as Arizona. Compared to the largest active volcano on Earth, Mauna Loa, Olympus Mons is 100 times larger in volume, a seemingly odd feat […] Continue reading →

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