NASA
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Relocating the human race to a more hospitable planet would mean that multiple generations would be born in-transit
After 200,000 years or so of human existence, climate change threatens to make swathes of our planet unlivable by the end of the century. If we do manage to adapt, on a long enough timeline the Earth will become uninhabitable for other reasons: chance events like a comet strike or supervolcano eruption, or ultimately — if we make it that long — the expansion of the sun into a red giant in around five billion years, engulfing the planet completely or at a minimum scorching away all forms of life. …
Astronauts describe the sight of Earth from orbit — the overview effect — as life-altering. Can we recreate this experience on the ground?
It was my first space walk. I held onto the edge of the International Space Station and looked down at the Earth below me. It was breathtaking and beautiful. I felt an overwhelming sense of connection, and I began to cry.
This wasn’t a real trip to space — my motion sickness is far too bad for that, among other obstacles of going into orbit. Rather, it was a virtual reality trip to space called Home, created by VR studio REWIND and the BBC. …
End Times
A six-mile-wide asteroid ended the dinosaurs, and the same could happen to us one day. But NASA is at work on ways to keep us safe.
Asteroids, supervolcanoes, nuclear war, climate change, engineered viruses, artificial intelligence, and even aliens — the end may be closer than you think. For the next two weeks, OneZero will be featuring essays drawn from editor Bryan Walsh’s forthcoming book End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World, which hits shelves on August 27 and is available for pre-order now, as well as pieces by other experts in the burgeoning field of existential risk. But we’re not helpless. It’s up to us to postpone the apocalypse.
News that a “city-killer”-scale asteroid came within 45,000 miles of the Earth…
A personal perspective on Apollo 11, and restoring the American Dream
My grandfather Abe Gussowski was born in a shtetl near what is now the Poland-Lithuania border, a couple of years after the Wright brothers flew their first powered aircraft. He survived more than a decade after the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. Struggling from immigrant child, to the Merchant Marines, and then to mechanic at the aeronautics division of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation — a direct descendent of Orville and Wilbur’s original company — Abe might have had some gear-and-grease sense of what it took to get men to the moon and back again. …
Eta Carinae exploded long ago and may have already exploded again. The Hubble Space Telescope gets the most detailed look yet.
NASA, ESA, N. Smith (University of Arizona, Tucson), and J. Morse (BoldlyGo Institute, New York)
Astronomers love Eta Carinae, a relatively nearby superstar that exploded nearly two centuries ago, and has since offered humans a ringside seat to a spectacular cosmic display. Now the Hubble Space Telescope has captured the highest-resolution image of the system ever captured, colored in red, white and blue and released just in time for — well, you guessed it.
The explosion of Eta Carinae, about 7,500 light-years away from Earth, was first noticed in 1838. By 1844 it had become the second-brightest star in the night sky, so luminous that seafarers came to rely on it for navigation. …
Space Time
How astronomers are tapping the public to name 2007 OR10
There are many distant objects that orbit beyond Neptune — the most famous of which, of course, is Pluto. But far beyond Neptune are numerous dwarf planets that range from Pluto-sized — 4,500 miles across — to even smaller and stranger. Some are shaped like footballs and others like perfect circles with orbits that take them further out than any astronomer ever expected to find a planetary object.
In 2007, three astronomers discovered one of the largest dwarf planets ever, coming in behind Pluto in mass and size. Its formal designation became 2007 OR10, marked for the year it was…
Space Time
The Opportunity Rover’s mission on Mars is coming to a close
When the Opportunity Rover — formally known as Mars Exploration Rover B — arrived on Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, it impacted the planet in a suit of giant airbags. The rover landed, bounced up 10 feet, slammed back down, and jumped another 22 feet before eventually settling on the surface for good. The airbags deflated, the enclosure opened up, and Opportunity slowly unfurled its wing-like solar panels to begin collecting the Martian sunlight it would need to survive.
Mission Control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) was filled with cheers. “We’re on Mars, everybody!” yelled JPL’s Rob Manning. After…
Space Time
Candice Hansen-Koharcheck is a firsthand witness to some of the most iconic images of outer space
For decades, space scientists could only speculate about what the surface of Mars looked like. It wasn’t until 1965 that NASA’s Mariner 4 spacecraft sent the first images of the red planet back to Earth. Today, spacecrafts on and around Mars continue to capture images that help the agency understand what our outer worlds look like.
Imagine being the person who sees these images before anyone else. That person is Candice Hansen-Koharcheck, the deputy principal investigator of the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and one of the co-investigators on NASA’s Juno mission to Jupiter. …
Space Time
How NASA’s Deep Space Network said goodbye to three planet-hunting missions
On December 24, 1963, William Pickering, the director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, signed a letter officially creating the Deep Space Network (DSN). The NASA network is a series of large radio antennas that serve as the communication and navigation hub for all robotic spacecrafts that travel in deep space (anything from the moon and beyond).
In the 55 years since its initiation, the DSN has expanded and is now made up of three stations around the world: Goldstone, California; Madrid, Spain; and Canberra, Australia. Each station is home to one 70-meter antenna and three or four 34-meter antennas. These…
The Pentagon’s space-based missile defense plans could escalate tensions with rival space powers
On March 27, India tested its first anti-satellite weapon, an interceptor missile that blew up an Indian military satellite in space. The test put India in an exclusive club of nations — including the U.S., Russia, and China — that are building the capacity to shoot down both missiles and satellites. And the other members of the club aren’t happy.
On April 1, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine criticized India’s test, angry that the resulting debris may have reached the orbit of the International Space Station and other satellites.
“That is a terrible, terrible thing, to create an event that sends…
