A Geek and Freelancer Writing About the Awesomeness of Science
Before it was proven humans could survive the trip to space, the Soviet Union sent dogs in rockets to the outer edge of the atmosphere. The oldest tests date back as far as 1951. As a result, dogs were among the earliest space pioneers. Dogs versus Apes America and the Soviet Union had very different... Continue Reading →
Jupiter’s moon Io is the most volcanically active body in the Solar System. Its slightly larger than our own Moon and over 150 volcanos have been discovered on it, some of which shoot material 300 kilometres into space. At a distance of 422,000 kilometres, Io orbits extremely close to Jupiter and the two are locked... Continue Reading →
On May 30, NASA and SpaceX launched astronauts from American facilities for the first time in nine years. The flight, part of the Commercial Crew Program, was a success. It was the culmination of many years of research and design of new state-of-the-art rocket technology. Aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft were astronauts Doug Hurley and... Continue Reading →
Humans have been fascinated by the stars for thousands of years and continue to be so thanks to a burning curiosity that only grows with each new discovery. Since its launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has shaped our understanding of space in ways astronomers never thought possible. It has confirmed the age of the universe,... Continue Reading →
While people around the world celebrate Valentine’s Day today, a famous astronomical photo turns thirty years old. In 1990, the Voyager 1 spacecraft—then at a distance of 6.4 billion kilometres from Earth—turned around and took pictures of all the planets. When the images were collected and placed together, they created a family portrait of the... Continue Reading →
On October 18th, 2019, NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir made history. They were the first all-woman team to perform a spacewalk on the International Space Station (ISS). Koch and Meir follow in the footsteps of other pioneering space women. For example, the first female spacewalk took place 35 years ago. The Historic Spacewalk... Continue Reading →
July 20 marks the fiftieth anniversary of humankind’s first steps on the Moon. Apollo 11—crewed by Neil Armstrong, Edwin ‘Buzz’ Aldrin and Michael Collins—left Earth four days earlier, travelling 384,400 kilometres to make the historic landing. In a feat of engineering and accomplishment that had never been seen before, the landing was a climactic symbol... Continue Reading →
Russia sent the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, into space onboard Vostok 6 in 1963. It would take America another twenty years before it would send its first female astronaut, Sally Ride, skywards. Besides being the first new group since 1969, the astronaut class of 1978 was special because of its diversity, notably for including Black... Continue Reading →
Rockets have made it possible for humans to travel into space. The technology has taken us to the Moon and sent robotic probes to every planet in the solar system. They’ve helped us to better understand the universe and our place in it. The concept dates back nearly 2000 years and was originally conceived as... Continue Reading →
People have been looking up at the night sky for thousands of years but radio astronomy was new in the 1950s. One of the first fully functioning radio telescopes in the Southern Hemisphere was the one at Parkes Observatory. It is located 20 kilometres (12.4 miles) north of the town of the same name and... Continue Reading →