The term ‘carbon sink’ is becoming more common as we all gain the scientific education needed to deal with climate change and global warming. According to Wikipedia, carbon sinks can be both natural and artificial. Both involve the process of absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, which is called carbon sequestration. The main natural carbon …
Continue reading “Our carbon sinks are absorbing twice as much carbon dioxide as they used to”
On Aug. 5 or Aug. 6, depending on which part of the country you’re in, the Curiosity spacecraft careening toward Mars will hit the Red Planet’s atmosphere, deploy a supersonic parachute and either land safely on the planet’s surface or perish. It’s dramatic stuff, and NASA has produced this Hollywood-style YouTube video, complete with …
There is big news on the small satellite front. From super-secret agencies to the U.S. military, academia, private firms, world space agencies, and NASA, ultra-small satellites are the big thing. In sizing up “smallsats,” there are a range of classifications in the less-than-500- kilogram department, be they minisatellites, microsatellites, nanosatellites, picosatellites, palm-size CubeSats, even the diminutive …
Continue reading “The era of micro-spacecraft is here – ultra small satellites are everywhere”
The official position of planet Earth at the moment is that we can’t raise the temperature more than two degrees Celsius. Some context: So far, we’ve raised the average temperature of the planet just under 0.8 degrees Celsius, and that has caused far more damage than most scientists expected. (A third of summer sea ice …
As part of our countdown to the release of The Dark Knight Rises, we have a very special treat for you today. Below you can listen to the film’s Hans Zimmer soundtrack in its entirety, giving you a taste of the atmosphere and action you’re in for come July 20. Listen to The Dark Knight …
Continue reading “Listen to the soundtrack for The Dark Knight Rises – free online!”
This Sunday (July 1, 2012), three members of the International Space Station crew will return to Earth on board a Kazakhstan-bound Soyuz craft, after over six months in orbit. Don Pettit and Andre Kuipers, two of the returning astronauts, and Joe Acaba, who arrived at the station in May, discuss life on board ISS, the …
Continue reading “How the astronauts on the International Space Station get back to our planet”
For several years scientists have been begging to test their theories about Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun. You see, the radar signals come back showing ice exists on the planet, but how could ice exist on a planet so incredibly hot? NASA sent the spacecraft MESSENGER to orbit the planet and figure the …
Continue reading “MESSENGER sends first data back to Earth – uncovers ice on Mercury”
Multitudinous stars but what is really awesome are the shots or Earth. The atmosphere glows faintly while the surface is lined with an array of lights, lightning storms, and mountains. Makes me feel like we are an advanced civilization, even a planet in a Star Wars movie (that’s Coruscant for you geeks). Timelapse videos depicting …
Continue reading “The stars as viewed from the International Space Station”
Tomorrow morning NASA will launch a Mars Probe, MSL Curiosity, into space for an eight month space journey and then a one year trek across the surface of the planet. A brief description of the probe: A new robotic mission to Mars, carrying 10 highly sophisticated instruments to seek the basic chemicals of life in …
Tomorrow morning NASA will launch a Mars Probe, MSL Curiosity, into space for an eight month space journey and then a one year trek across the surface of the planet. A brief description of the probe: A new robotic mission to Mars, carrying 10 highly sophisticated instruments to seek the basic chemicals of life in …