A Geek and Freelancer Writing About the Awesomeness of Science
Robotic space probes have been venturing into the depths of the Solar System since the 1960s. The Deep Space Network (DSN) makes it possible to communicate with such craft. There are three facilities across the Earth: (1) Goldstone, California; (2) Canberra, Australia and (3) Madrid, Spain. The DSN has a proud history and has made... 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 →
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 →
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 →