Tag Archives: Space

NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Jovana Radulovic, University of Portsmouth The UK government is reportedly considering a £16 billion proposal to build a solar power station in space. Yes, you read that right. Space-based solar power is one of the technologies to feature in the government’s Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. It has been identified as a potential solution, alongside …

Could Russia crash the ISS? NASA Mark Hilborne, King’s College London Nearly three decades of close collaboration in space between Russia and the western world seems to be coming to an end. With increasing tensions over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russia has arguably threatened to crash the International Space Station and refuse to launch satellites for western countries. A …

Gareth Dorrian, University of Birmingham The ongoing volcanic eruption in Tonga began in December 2021, but it wasn’t until 5:15pm local time on January 15 2022 that the powerful explosion occurred. It generated an enormous cloud of ash, earthquakes, and tsunamis that reached as far as the distant coastlines of Peru on the other side of the Pacific. Now scientists …

Shutterstock Gail Iles, RMIT University A NASA spacecraft the size of a golf cart has been directed to smash into an asteroid, with the intention of knocking it slightly off course. The test aims to demonstrate our technological readiness in case an actual asteroid threat is detected in the future. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) lifted off aboard a …

Astronomers have found a way to estimate the number of stars in the universe. Comstock Images via Getty Images Brian Jackson, Boise State University Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. Exactly how many stars are in space? – MeeSong, Brookline, Massachusetts …

NASA, ESA and M. Kornmesser Christopher Lovell, University of Hertfordshire The cosmos is the stage for a variety of giant explosions. These include stellar flares, where stars suddenly release magnetic energy; and neutron star mergers, where two dense stars collide together. But one class of explosions outshines the rest: gamma ray bursts are the most energetic explosions seen in the …

Tom Leishman/Pexels Tim Jackson, University of Surrey Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids, laments the Rocket Man in Elton John’s timeless classic. In fact, it’s cold as hell. But that doesn’t seem to worry a new generation of space entrepreneurs intent on colonising the “final frontier” as fast as possible. Don’t get me wrong. I’m no …

New research suggests that Venus’ crust is broken into large blocks – the dark reddish–purple areas – that are surrounded by belts of tectonic structures shown in lighter yellow–red. Paul K. Byrne/NASA/USGS, CC BY-ND Paul K. Byrne, North Carolina State University The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Much of the brittle, upper …

Astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson on the International Space Station with a view many more are likely to see soon. NASA/Tracy Caldwell Dyson/WIkimediaCommons Wendy Whitman Cobb, US Air Force School of Advanced Air and Space Studies For most people, getting to the stars is nothing more than a dream. But on May 5, 2021, the 60th anniversary of the first suborbital …

Emmanuel Véron, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco) et Emmanuel Lincot, Institut Catholique de Paris Indépendant depuis 1991, à la suite de l’effondrement de l’URSS, le Kazakhstan, véritable État-continent (2 724 900 km2, ce qui en fait le neuvième plus grand pays du monde) qui dispose de 2 % des réserves mondiales de pétrole, ainsi que de la deuxième réserve mondiale d’uranium, …