Carnival of Space 577: Awesome Weekly Space Stories

By on Aug 30, 2018 in Carnival of Space | 0 comments

Hello, space fans! I am excited to host the Carnival of Space episode 577. If you’re new to this weekly curation of handcrafted space stories then let me explain. Every week a space journalist hosts the Carnival of Space and posts all the amazing posts from other space advocates in the community. It’s something UniverseToday started and has been going for years! Alright, let’s jump into the good stuff.   Universe Today – Look at all the Aerosols Pushed into the Atmosphere, from Fires, Volcanoes and Pollution. Even Sea Salt Thrown into the Air from Hurricanes Here’s a great article on NASA’s visualization of aerosols. It shows where aerosols aggregate in the atmosphere. What’s fascinating is the annotations that NASA put on this visualization. UniverseToday highlights these insightful features and dives a little deeper to understand what it...

5 NASA Inventions You Probably Didn’t Know About

By on Aug 4, 2018 in For Your Information | 0 comments

There are numerous NASA inventions that have enhanced our lives on Earth. In fact, there are so many different companies and products introduced into the public market that NASA publishes a journal called the NASA Spinoff report. It explains in further detail of what space exploration problem they were trying to solve, what was created as a result, and then its final transformation into the commercial market. One final remark before we head into each invention is that even though NASA only highlights their top 50 inventions there are over 1,600 new technologies created every year as a result of the space program.   Treating Depression through a Virtual Therapist One of the biggest issues when living in space is the number of resources available to you. We aren’t just talking about food or water, but even doctors and therapists. Living in space can be exciting, fun, and even...

Carnival of Space 552: Best Space Stories of the Week

By on Mar 10, 2018 in Carnival of Space | 0 comments

Welcome to the Carnival of Space! It’s where the best stories are curated for you weekly and hosted by different astronomy bloggers around the globe. We have an awesome line-up for you today. Let’s get right to it!   Saturn Photobombs a Picture of the Martian Moon Phobos – Universe Today Our first story comes from Universe Today where we take a look at the Mars Express mission and the story behind how it caught this amazing photobomb caused by Phobos. Check out the full article here.   Did the Milky Way Steal These Stars or Kick Them Out of the Galaxy? – Universe Today   Universe Today writes about if the Milky Way stole these stars or kicked them out of the galaxy. It’s fascinating to try and understand the evolution of our Milky Way as well as how scientists go about doing so. Check out the full story here.   A New Planetary System...

What does this look like to you?

By on Feb 27, 2018 in Mars | 0 comments

Do you know what this is? Well at first it may not look incredibly interesting, but there is something fascinating happening here. This is a “hole.” Not just any hole but a hole on Mars. What is really interesting is this is a hole found in the Southern hemisphere on Mars, and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took the photo. What I love is scientists have no idea what created the hole. One theory is a meteorite impact. However, if so we know most meteorite impacts on Earth, Moon, and beyond have pointy rims like you would see on a coffee cup or the ice cream containers that you would buy from the grocery store. Instead, we see a smooth rim pointing downwards. Okay, so maybe it’s a pit that sunk in? If so, how did that happen? Mars should have a few more of these at least, right? Well, we don’t see a ton of these, in fact, this is the only one we see so far. Now,...

Falcon Heavy Launches to Infinity and Beyond!

By on Feb 8, 2018 in SpaceX | 0 comments

What a big day for SpaceX! The highly anticipated Falcon Heavy launches on February 6th, 2018. What made this launch fascinating is a couple of things: It’s the first launch of SpaceX’s heavy-duty rocket that will one day bring humans to Mars and even beyond Falcon Heavy is carrying Elon’s Tesla Roadster at a payload (Elon just being fun and crazy Elon!) The spacecraft will cross Mars’ orbit Do you, also, want to watch the Falcon Heavy launch over and over again? Say no more fam! (this is my pad remote!) pic.twitter.com/2qfe2xyUH3 — Craig Vander Galien (@Craig_VG) February 7, 2018 One reason this is so interesting to me is historically NASA has always led the way for space exploration and continues to develop new technologies that solve some of the hardest problems out there. It’s not to say NASA has completely lost that but this huge. The...

Rocket Lab Sends Electron Rocket to Orbit

By on Jan 23, 2018 in Space Technology | 0 comments

There is no exciting time than now when it comes to space exploration and the growth of private space companies. Most of us have heard of SpaceX (Elon Musk) and some of us may have also heard of Blue Origin (Jeff Bezos). However, another private space company called Rocket Lab joins the race! The huge news with this company is that they launched their Electron rocket into orbit which had a payload of CubeSats for two clients. This puts them in a league of only a dozen other space companies that have launched successfully today. I will say that I find it hilarious that they called their rocket “Still Testing.” I love a space company with a good sense of humor. Rocket Lab is a unique company that was founded in 2006 by a New Zealander named Peter Beck. He had over a decade and a half of propulsion research and market development in the space community. Rocket Lab launched...

Final Phase of Stellar Life Results in Beautiful Cassiopeia A

By on Jan 8, 2018 in Supernova | 1 comment

Cassiopeia A (Cas A) is a prime example of beauty paired with absolute destruction. We call Cassiopeia a supernova remnant in astronomy. It’s located 11,000 light-years away from Earth in our very own Milky Way. However, that isn’t the most fascinating part about Cassiopeia A. What’s amazing is you’re looking at exactly the process of what breaths life into new stars and planets. It’s the threads of life that keeps the universe interesting and giving it a way of knowing itself. The colors that you see in the photo above are not for show. Each color represents an element. In fact, when you look at what common things are made from like the iron that’s in a cast iron pan or the silicon that is used to make glass. Those elements weren’t always on Earth. They came from supernova remnants like Cassiopeia A that disperse them at unfathomable speeds....

Studies Indicate Galaxy’s Supermassive Black Hole Dictates Star Formation

By on Jan 2, 2018 in Galaxies | 0 comments

Formation of stars is one of the most important aspects when it comes to life in the universe as well as the variety of heavy elements available in the universe. Without star formation we wouldn’t be here nor would elements like gold. Astronomers discovered that large galaxies with supermassive black holes have a lot to do with whether more stars will form or not.   A supermassive black hole has numerous effects like the gravitational effect on stars and sometimes powering the immense radiation from an active galactic nucleus (AGN). What’s fascinating is the energy flowing into the AGN is thought to turn off star formation. Why? This happens because the gas gets heated and dispelled as a result which means it doesn’t get to condense into stars by cooling down. Scientists have actually thrown this theory around for quite a while now but never had any conclusive...