The following article was written by Katia Moskvitch for the BBC and can be found here (An artist’s impression of Gliese 581g and its parent star) Astronomers have detected an Earth-like exoplanet that may have just the right kind of conditions to support life. Scientists say that the newly found world could also potentially have [...]
We know dark matter is there. We’ve known it for more than 70 years. There was a 1933 paper by the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky showing that visible matter is only a small fraction of the universe. Just 18% of the matter in the universe is composed of the stuff we know. The remaining 82% is what we call dark matter. Other discoveries in astronomy have since reinforced this view that something is missing. We know dark matter is there, but only from its gravitational effects.
“Fuck Yeah The Universe” is a website where individuals can upload their favorite photos of the universe. One of the primary objectives to understand our place within the cosmos and to marvel at its complexity and beauty. Fuck Yeah The Universe
“What would it look like to travel across the known universe? To help humanity visualize this, the American Museum of Natural History has produced a modern movie featuring many visual highlights of such a trip. The video starts in Earth’s Himalayan Mountains and then dramatically zooms out, showing the orbits of Earth’s satellites, the Sun, [...]
This is a TED video where Joel Levine presents his case for why we should focus on exploring Mars again. I got goosebumps watching this because I believe, one day, this will happen. We’ve got some serious issues on this planet, but there’s no denying that what we find on Mars will change our thoughts [...]
At the University of Sydney, cosmologist Sean Carroll gives an entertaining and thought-provoking talk about the nature of time, the origin of entropy, and how what happened before the Big Bang might be responsible for the arrow of time we observe today.
The size of the universe is nearly impossible to fathom because our brains have never been exposed to anything remotely close to its magnitude. To help put this in better perspective, consider the following facts: if you could take a nonstop flight around the Earth, it would take 44 hours. The diameter of the Earth [...]
The privatization of space is fully under way. Virgin has already had its space jet debut, a space port is currently being built in New Mexico, and now Robert Bigelow is creating space habitats. From Space.com With two prototype modules for a commercial space station already circling the Earth, Bigelow Aerospace is gearing up for [...]
This is a video from Texas that shows the night sky, exposing the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Sit back and let the universe we live in amaze you. Time Lapse Sky Scape at 2010 Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.
I find it so easy to get lost in human affairs and completely forget about our growing knowledge of space. It really shows the full range of issues we have in life. I found this quote from an article on the search for Earth-like planets in the December 2009 edition of National Geographic: “While grappling [...]
