Less than 40 million miles away, Mars can be observed in the night sky by the naked eye, distinguishable by a reddish tinge to its pinprick of light. Data on Mars began to be collected almost as soon as space exploration itself began; the 1964 mission aboard NASA’s Mariner 4 was the first successful flyby […]
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Even among the myriad of mysterious, awe-inspiring objects in our universe, pulsars deserve special recognition. As one of the densest objects and most powerful magnets known to man, the pulsar is one of nature’s most extreme creations. The husks of dead stars — the fastest of which can spin over 700 times per second, pulsars
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Black holes are known as eradicators of light and matter, earning a mysterious and destructive reputation. However, these space oddities have behaviors, albeit occasionally baffling, that may help construct the conceptual building blocks of scientific phenomena all across the universe. As is common in the world of science, one discovery can cause ripple effects across
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Early in its discovery, Venus was thought to have a similar atmosphere to Earth’s for reasons such as observed clouds, but upon researching the environment of Venus, it became obvious that the climate was far from Earth’s. The temperature on a normal day is around 400 degrees Celsius, or 752 degrees Fahrenheit, and its surface
Sailing into the Abyss: A Pioneering Development in Space Travel By Jennifer Garland, Applied Physics, 2021 Source: NASA This article was originally published as part of Issue 35: Motion. The history of spaceflight has depended on chemical rocket engines as the primary form of propulsion. However, fuel limits our exploration range and takes up 95 percent
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Two hours, raw ingredients, and a zero-gravity oven. With these resources, astronauts baked the first cookies in outer space. Last December, Luca Parmitano and Christina Koch, stationed at the International Space Station (ISS), baked five chocolate chip cookies from frozen dough to determine cooking times and temperatures in zero gravity and why they differ from
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Could Dark Matter Predate the Big Bang? Olivia Hilferty, Undeclared, 2023 Source: Pixabay In the first prominent cosmological model, Aristotle placed Earth at the center of the Universe. A little less than 2,000 years later, Galileo’s idea of the Sun being at the center of our Galaxy became the accepted model. Throughout time, scientists have played
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Creating a home away from home: Architectural engineering in outer space By Annabelle Mathers, Civil Engineering, 2022 Photo: Shutterstock On Earth, structures serve a larger purpose than simply shielding us from the environment; they affect lifestyle patterns, health, psychological response, and adaptability. Those same qualities apply to structures on celestial bodies other than Earth. Not only
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How SpaceX can make fully reusable rockets By Drew Bodmer, Physics and Computer Science, 2022 Source: Pixabay On February 1, 2003, the space shuttle Columbia broke up on reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven astronauts on board in a chilling reminder of the dangers of space travel. It was discovered that a piece of
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