Tag Archives: space

X-Ray Burst Baffles Scientists

In 2014, NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory spotted a large, sudden flash, producing the deepest x-ray image ever. Today, this flash still baffles scientists who are attempting to understand its origin. It was given the name CDF-S XT1 and was spotted in an area of the sky known as the Chandra Deep Field South. When the […] Continue reading

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Exploration of Pluto and the Worlds Beyond by New Horizons

The New Horizons spacecraft launched from Earth in 2006 with the goal of reaching Pluto is set to break records of how far human-made machines can travel. It achieved its first goal of reaching Pluto in July of 2015 and is the only spacecraft in history to do so. Last month, NASA released this incredible image of […] Continue reading

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Exploration of Pluto and the Worlds Beyond by New Horizons

The New Horizons spacecraft launched from Earth in 2006 with the goal of reaching Pluto is set to break records of how far human-made machines can travel. It achieved its first goal of reaching Pluto in July of 2015 and is the only spacecraft in history to do so. Last month, NASA released this incredible image of […] Continue reading

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Can you survive in space?

For the astronaut shown above, he/she will be fine for now. As long as their space suit is intact, they should not be in any immediate danger of death. However, if their suit were to malfunction for some reason, what would happen next? This has been “explained” before in movies or television shows; but as we […] Continue reading

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The Voyager Golden Record

  The Voyager Golden Record was a disc of sounds and images included with both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, both designed to study Jupiter and Saturn. Voyager 2 went on to study Uranus and Neptune, and is the only spacecraft to have visited them. However, these spacecraft are still gathering and emitting data even […] Continue reading

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Rogue Planets

All of the planets that we know and love in our solar system follow a pretty regular life. They spin about an axis, revolve around the central Sun, and go about their business in the small, but vast, family of the solar system. We are most familiar with “planets” as being what is similar to our […] Continue reading

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New technologies in mapping space weather

One of the fundamental concepts in the study of astronomy is the dependency of Earth and every other planet in the solar system on the  characteristics of the Sun. From emissions of hot gas to violent space wind to bursts of extra energy (via solar flares), the behavior  of the Sun, dubbed as space weather, […] Continue reading

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Gravity in Space?

Videos of astronauts floating around inside space shuttles have led many to believe that gravity does not exist in space. However, this is simply not true. While the force of gravity affects, for example, astronauts who are orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station differently than it affects us, it still exists in space, […] Continue reading

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Gravity vs. Light

The light from a distant galaxy gets warped and distorted thanks to the immense gravity of the closer reddish-orange galaxy We usually think light is pretty fast. Usain Bolt can set new records for how quickly man can run. There are motorcycles that can travel faster than our own nerve impulses. Aircraft has long since broken the sound barrier. […] Continue reading

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The Power of the Powers of Ten

The Powers of Ten is a 1977 short film that puts the immensity (and smallness) of the universe into perspective by zooming out from a couple’s picnic in Michigan at a distance of 1 meter to a vast view of galaxy clusters at a distance of 10^24 meters. By watching this journey from small to […] Continue reading

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