Introduction Before unravelling the mysteries of the Universe, it is important for us to know about our origin and our place in this vast domain. We have been walking on this earth for the past three to seven million years and have evolved drastically. The earliest Homo sapiens dispersed out of Africa around 70,000 years […]
Abstract: Recently, NASA’s Perseverance rover (equipped with the Ingenuity helicopter) landed on Mars and is investigating the crater Jezero, a place where scientists think they might fight find possible signs of life through the leftover marks of deltas and rivers and the rocks that might contain life-signalling minerals. The Perseverance rover is only a part […]
Introduction It may come as a shock to some of you that all images received from space telescopes are black and white. They are colourized later. But first, let’s understand how cameras work and if there are any differences between cameras in smartphones and cameras sent to space. How cameras in smartphones work The camera […]
Abstract Stars are often described in terms of their colour. Sentences like “Betelguese is a Red Supergiant” and “The Sun is a Yellow Dwarf” paint an image, but there is also a great deal of physics behind them. Stars emit light in a way similar to black bodies. The wavelength of electromagnetic radiation that a […]
By Chinmay Pala Abstract In this paper, the author explains how the Laser Interferometric Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detects gravitational waves and goes over the differences between initial LIGO and advanced LIGO. Beginning by explaining the formation of gravitational waves, the author then gives an overview of the history and locations of LIGO. In the main […]
Abstract Europa, one of Jupiter’s four large Galilean moons, is a target of prime importance for exploration. This is due to the likely presence of a global subsurface liquid water ocean beneath a water ice crust, raising the possibility that Europa could support simple life. Future mission concepts include a lander deploying a probe to […]
Image credit: Getty Images Aaditya Bhattacharya[1]* Abstract The article explores and explains the evolving concept of “gravitational waves”. It presents the importance of and recent progress in the contemporary knowledge of “gravitational waves”. It provides a brief overview of the interferometer – an instrument used to measure these gravitational waves. The article elucidates […]
by Hazal Kara Despite our Solar System’s close proximity to Earth relative to the rest of the universe, there is far too much that humans do not know about it yet. One of the biggest unanswered questions is whether or not there are planets beyond Pluto. As with most scientific mysteries, there is a lot […]
Introduction Ever since the beginning of civilization, humans have been staring up into the sky, looking at all the stars, planets, and galaxies above them. Humans navigated the globe with the aid of these otherworldly beings, studied how they moved, and have even integrated these galactic beauties into their religions and cultures. Humanities interest in […]
Abstract Mankind has always been interested in the vast void that we called space. Filled with endless unknowns and bizarre phenomena, people throughout history such as Aristotle, Galileo, and many more have made impactful developments in our knowledge about the universe. Ever since Sputnik 1, the first mission that successfully delivered a satellite into Earth’s […]
Abstract In the field of physics and astronomy, -body simulations are widely used tools to simulate particles under the influence of gravitational forces, and they are generally made using an algorithm that is almost a brute-force approach, as it computes all pairwise gravitational forces by solving for computational differential equation solutions using algorithms like the […]
Abstract The concept of extraterrestrial life is one that never fails to inspire and amaze – influencing countless movies, books, and stories. We live in an age in which technological advancements have enabled us to seek signs of life elsewhere in the cosmos. The Fermi Paradox seeks to answer the apparent deficiency of extraterrestrial life. […]
The possibility of extraterrestrial life has been discussed for centuries, in both scientific and fictitious work. But it wasn’t until 1992 that the first exoplanet (planet outside of our solar system) was detected, and 2001 that the first exoplanet in a habitable zone was detected [1]. This makes exoplanetology and astrobiology relatively new fields of […]
An influential scientist and astronaut – Sally Ride – was born on May 26, 1951. As a child, she had a great passion for tennis and intended to become a professional athlete in the future. She was also an avid reader. Upon graduating from the private Westlake School for Girls in Los Angeles, she started […]
How Does The Human Body React to Being in Space? Introduction Following on from Issue 19 which looked at the International Space Station (ISS) and Tim Peake’s life and work on it1, this article aims to look into the fundamental ways that an astronaut’s biological systems change in space, down to the level of their […]
A black hole is a region in space-time where the gravity is so strong that nothing can escape; not even light (which is why they appear black). That is why, when Stephen Hawking found a theoretical argument for the existence of a type of black hole radiation, it took the scientific world by storm. This, […]
On Monday 26 September, NASA announced that it has discovered ‘surprising evidence of activity that may be related to the presence of a subsurface ocean on Europa’. This evidence is in the form of UV images captured by the Hubble Space telescope, which suggest that there might be water jets that are emanating from ‘cryogeysers’ […]