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Tag Archives: astronomy

Size in Space: Just How Big is the Biggest Star We Know Of? (Video)

February 20, 2015 Mbiyimoh Ghogomu Leave a comment

With a diameter of approximately 2.8 million kilometers (about 1.75 million miles), VY Canis Majoris, a red hypergiant star located in the constellation Canis Major, is the largest star we have ever come across. To picture its gargantuan size, imagine a passenger jet flying just above the surface of Canis Majoris at 900km/h (560 mph). At this speed, it would take the aircraft roughly 1100 years to make just one full circle around the star! The video below helps put this size

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New Photo of Europa Shows the Ice-Covered Moon’s Surface in Stunning Detail (Video)

December 7, 2014 Noah Harness Leave a comment

NASA’s Galileo spacecraft has been orbiting Jupiter since the late 1990’s. Since then, NASA has recorded data, producing stellar imaging of one of Jupiter’s largest moons, Europa. Thanks to many years of observation, astronomers have garnered enough data to depict the Jovian moon (Jovian refers to anything related to Jupiter) in its fullest, most breathtaking form yet! NASA added the photo to its extensive Photo Journal on November 21st. Innovations in optical technology have allowed astronomers to observe Europa in much

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Moon Mining: NASA’s Plans to Harvest Water from the Moon

October 16, 2014 Max W Leave a comment

There’s a lot of water on the moon, and NASA wants to learn how to get to it. In July 2008, water was found conclusively for the first time inside ancient moon samples brought back by Apollo astronauts. In 2009, observations from three spacecraft showed signals of water across the moon’s surface, bolstering the idea that the moon might actually contain significant amount of water. Then, in October 2010, scientists reported that a frigid crater called Cabeus at the moon’s south pole is

The “BioSuit” – MIT Scientists Making A Skintight Spacesuit For Better Motion

October 7, 2014 Dylan D Leave a comment

A team of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) want to replace the bulky spacesuits astronauts currently wear with a pressurized but skintight suit that would give them a better range of motion. According to MIT professor Dava Newman… “With conventional spacesuits, you’re essentially in a balloon of gas that’s providing you with the necessary one-third of an atmosphere [of pressure] to keep you alive in the vacuum of space.” The solution… “We want to achieve that same pressurization, but through mechanical

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This Picture of the Moon Is the First Photo Taken By A New 3-D Printed Telescope

September 22, 2014 Mbiyimoh Ghogomu Leave a comment

3-D printing technology has been improving in leaps and bounds lately, and now it can add yet another cool accomplishment to its resumé: taking a picture of the moon. It all started with a team of astronomers at the University of Sheffield in England who wanted to see if they could design their own high-powered telescope rather than paying thousands of dollars for one. Using only 3-D printer and a Raspberry Pi camera module, the team was able to create a telescope capable

What Mars Looked Like When It Had Water, Courtesy of NASA (Video)

August 14, 2014 Mbiyimoh Ghogomu Leave a comment

Today, we think of Mars as having a cold, dry, and desolate environment (because it does). But that was not always the case. Four billion years ago, while our Sun was still in its infancy, Mars was covered with water. Back then, it had a much thicker atmosphere, which kept the planet warm enough for water to exist in its liquid form. Some estimates say that at one point, up to 1640 ft (about half a kilometer) of water covered the

The Strongest and Most Misunderstood Creature in the World (Video)

August 4, 2014 Mbiyimoh Ghogomu Leave a comment

When you think of strength in the animal kingdom, it’s natural to think of some of the massive majestic creatures we’re all so familiar with: lions, elephant, grizzlies, rhinos, hippos… These animals are definitely powerful, but when you examine pound-for-pound strength, you quickly realize that it’s the smallest creatures who are really the most impressive lifters. Take the leafcutter ant, for instance. These ants cut off and carry leaf segments that are sometimes up to 50 times heavier than they are.

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NASA’s Opportunity Rover Just Set the Off-World Driving Distance Record

July 28, 2014 Mbiyimoh Ghogomu Leave a comment

NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on the surface of Mars in January of 2004. As of Sunday (July 26), the Opportunity rover had driven a total distance of 25 miles (40 kilometers). Opportunity took the top spot in total off-world distance traveled by surpassing Russia’s Lunokhod 2 lunar rover, which traveled a total distance of 39 kilometers across the surface of the moon between January and May of 1973. The Russian rover helped to bring about a golden age of space exploration in the

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NASA Is Seeking Help In Potentially Finding Life On Jupiter’s Moon Europa (Video)

July 22, 2014 Dylan D Leave a comment

NASA is confident that underneath Jupiter’s moon Europa there could be more water than in our oceans here on Earth. So naturally, Europa has attracted a lot of attention, encouraging the curious to ask, “Could there be life on Europa?”. Currently, NASA is aiming to send a new mission to Europa by 2025. The White House’s 2015 federal budget allocates $15 million towards making this Europa mission a reality. Europa has recently become one of NASA’s main focuses because, out of all the

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A Few Reasons Why Tomorrow Might Be A Bit of a Strange Day…

June 13, 2014 Mbiyimoh Ghogomu Leave a comment

Tomorrow will not be your ordinary Friday. For starters, tomorrow is the 13th, making tomorrow a Friday the 13th. There will also be a full moon in the sky when the clock strikes 12:01 a.m. tomorrow morning. The last time that happened? October 13, 2000. The next time it will happen? August 13, 2049. I’m not one for superstitions, but there is one thing I haven’t mentioned yet. Our sun has been shooting off powerful solar flares the last few days, including this one captured