The final frontier. What we learned about galaxies, stars, and planets, but also how we want to get there
To know how old a person is, you just ask them. To date fossils you usually compare them with other stuff around them whose age is known. What about the entire universe? You can’t compare it with anything, and it’s been around since literally the beginning of time. How did scientists date time itself?
Since the first time gravitational waves were detected, people compared them to “hearing” the universe. Indeed, it’s a completely new way of observing the universe, one that does not need light. But it sure is an odd sort of “sound”.
Continue reading “Thunder before lightning: the new gravitational waves discovery”
20 years after it launched, the NASA spacecraft Cassini ends its mission today. Its 13 years in orbit culminate in one last mission: to dive into the planet’s atmosphere, while still measuring and transmitting data.
Gravitational waves were the first big story on this blog. I like gravitational waves. So when when something about it makes appears on my radar, I listen.
Even if it means it could all be wrong.
Mauna Kea is an enormous, exinct volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island, and one of the best places on Earth to do astronomy (if you ask them, the best one). In fact, the summit of the mountain hosts one of the world’s most renowned observatories. What makes it so special, other than that it looks like this?
Continue reading “The heavens above Mauna Kea – Tales from Hawaii: Part 2”
Cassini will terminate its 20-odd-years-long mission in September. But it’s determined to go out with a bang. In yesterday’s press conference, NASA announced that the probe, during a 2015 flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus, found clues that the ocean within the icy moon has almost all we think it needs to spark life. Continue reading “Enceladus: a song of ice and tides”
The atmosphere of a planet holds the keys to make it habitable, so we need to look at them to figure if exoplanets are habitable. They are too far to send probes to measure them directly like we do with Mars or Jupiter’s moons, but scientists can study them from right here, looking at how they block light.
It’s not all about location: planets need a lot of things to go right to harbor life. Continue reading What makes a planet habitable
Almost exactly a year ago, LIGO announced the detection of gravitational waves. Let’s celebrate answering two deep questions about them. They are hard, but puppies will keep our spirits up! Continue reading 2 deep questions on gravitational waves (with puppies!)
… or at all? To paint the lily might well be excess, but there’s very good reasons to paint rockets (or not) Continue reading Why o why are rockets painted that way?
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