The Chinese just launched another mission to the moon, this time a lunar probe known as Chang’e-3 (named for the mythical Chinese goddess who flew to the moon) containing the Yutu […]
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How one of the most interesting molecules on Earth behaves in the zero-gravity, zero-pressure environment of outer space. “Day after day, day after day,We stuck, nor breath nor motion;As idle as […]
Suppose you knew that Earth and all its inhabitants would be destroyed 30 days after your death in a collision with a giant asteroid. How would this knowledge affect you?
Given all the stars, galaxies and what we know about the laws governing reality, how many planets are there in our observable Universe? “Stuff your eyes with wonder, live as […]
A new study warns that the rock that landed near Chelyabinsk in February may be part of a larger group of asteroid remnants, all with orbits that could potentially lead them to Earth.
“Not only can small groups of people change the world, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
The end of the world has been coming for quite some time. As Reza Aslan points out in Zealot, Jesus Christ was not the only End Times preacher with stock […]
One way or another: This week the agency announced an ambitious plan to locate and monitor any asteroid — even the relatively small ones — that could pose a danger to the planet.
If you don’t recognize these scars on the lunar surface – caused by ancient asteroid collisions – that is because the Moon is locked in synchronous rotation, showing only one side to Earth.
The Sun — like nearly all stars — burns bright through its nuclear reactions, sending light, heat and energy out into the Universe over a timespan of billions of years. But how? “The sun is […]
Asteroid 1998 QE2 will be passing Earth today at 4:59 p.m. Eastern, at a distance of 3.6 million miles, or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon.
Asteroid mining company Planetary Resources has announced a Kickstarter campaign designed to help fund the building and launch of a telescope that the public could use to observe objects in space.
The good news is that the asteroid, which was discovered 15 years ago, will get “no closer than about 3.6 million miles (5.8 million kilometers), or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the moon,” according to NASA.
A new Kickstarter campaign seeks $200,000 to propel a CubeSat into Earth orbit and eventually deep space using a miniature propulsion engine.
90% of the news in the newspaper and on television is negative because that’s what we pay attention to.
We certainly can’t say that it definitely started on Mars, but it seems very plausible that it did.
How are we supposed to communicate about science in an age when political partisanship and media hype dominate the 24/7 news cycle?
The explosion of a meteor above the Russian city of Chelyabinsk in mid-February, while sparing lives and damage to the city, served as a stark reminder of Earth’s vulnerability to asteroids.
If we are to ever reach beyond our own planet, possibly colonizing asteroids and Jupiter’s moon Europa, we need a better propellant system. Rocket scientists recommend nuclear power.
How can physicists tackle the problem of achieving faster-than-light travel?
1. Don’t Let Math Get in the Way of Big Ideas “Many of the most successful scientists in the world today are mathematically no more than semiliterate.” E.O. Wilson shares […]
We are not the safe small blue dot we like to think we are, but rather, we are more like a target in a “cosmic shooting gallery.”
The U.S. is in a space race with China, it just doesn’t know it yet. How many Chinese taikonauts have to return from outer space before we recognize this? Ever since […]
The vastness of our scientific ignorance is especially evident when it comes to explaining how life arose on earth.
Two scientists conducted a “thought experiment” using the popular computer science law and came up with some interesting and controversial possibilities on the true origins of species.
On February 15th, the people of planet Earth will receive a wake-up call from our Solar System. Asteroid 2012 DA14, discovered just 1 year ago, will narrowly miss hitting the […]
One mining company speculates it’s in the low nine figures; astronomers think that’s a stretch. There’s no way to be sure, of course, but its Friday fly-by has both groups thinking about future close encounters.
The race to build the world’s first 3D-printed house is on. Italian civil engineer Enrico Dini (the subject of an upcoming documentary called “The Man Who Prints Houses”) has plans to print […]
Google Glass. Life Extension. Life Extinction. These are among the brainiest memes included in the inaugural post of our new blog, Mind Memes, which offers quick reads on the Internet […]