Category: Astronomy
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12 Intergalactic Attractions Every Space Tourist Must Visit
You might be thinking that commercial space travel is still a far-fetched idea, but we’re in the dawn of space tourism. Huge companies like Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, XCOR Aerospace and Bigelow Aerospace are the present frontrunners to help send out “citizen astronauts” into outer space — building commercial spaceships, spaceports and hotel in space. In…
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How Do Astronauts Control Temperature in Space
The universe has cooled down drastically since the Big Bang and the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation in nearby areas of space is 2.73 kelvin. But the side of the spacecraft, facing the Sun, can hit scalding hot of around 121 C, while the opposite side can drop to a freezing cold of…
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The Chart of Space Exploration Missions
Since Sputnik launched into orbit back in 1957, humanity had pushed the boundaries of space exploration missions to expand the knowledge of our solar system and beyond. Since its creation in 1958, NASA has achieved some pretty impressive feats of science. Space probe Voyager 1 has been silently traversing the unknown territories of the universe…
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Asteroid Mining: A Gold Mine In Space
Mining asteroid for rare and precious metals is not a sci-fi dream anymore. Several space mining companies are already preparing for an out-of-this-word gold rush – mining asteroids for important resources needed to construct space colonies, spacecrafts and other things humanity needs to survive. Those massive celestial rocks contain materials like iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum…
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The 29 Space Missions Beyond Earth: Where Are They Now?
From NASA’s Messenger probe taking photos of planet Mercury to rovers on Mars to spacecraft passing through the heliosphere towards the interstellar space, humanity has 29 active spacecraft as of August 2015. Nineteen of them were launched by NASA and the rest were launched by India, China and the European Space Agency. Check this infographic…
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Anatomy of a Comet
Comets are irregularly shaped celestial body that orbits around the sun in highly elliptical orbits. A comet is made up of a nucleus, gaseous coma and a long tail composed of dust and ionized gases. With the radiation pressure of the solar wind, it cause a tail to form. The tail is brightened by the…
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Mars Environment: Atmosphere, Temperature and Terrain
200,000. That’s how many people have signed up for the trip to Mars according to Bas Lansdorp, the CEO of Mars One. The private company claims that by year 2025 they will be able to send four colonists for a one-way journey to the red planet. The mission was estimated to cost only around $6…
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Travelling Space: Near the Speed of Light
Imagine travelling the vastness of the universe at the speed of light—the ultimate speed limit as revealed by Einstein’s theory of relativity. Space travel at light speed will require huge funding and a spacecraft designed to keep up with the instantaneous and constant acceleration. Let’s say we have the spaceflight system with the speed of…
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The Potential of Alien Life within Jupiter’s Moon Europa
For more than 20 years, astrobiologists have been gazing upon Jupiter’s moon Europa as a potential hot zone for alien life. NASA’s Hubble space telescope first observed some water vapor above the icy south polar region of the Galilean moon in late 2012. Many scientists believes that the plumes erupting off from the salty ocean…
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List of 500 Confirmed Exoplanets
The search for exoplanet is one of the most intriguing topic in astronomy these days. When astronomers discovered the first extrasolar planet “Pegasi 51 b” in 1995, for the first time in the history of mankind, we now know for certain the existence of alien planets orbiting other stars. This infographic by Slovak designer, Martin…