Tag: Space
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NASA prepares mission to ‘touch the sun’
The US space agency has unveiled a new probe, which will set off next year to study the sun’s activity. This is the latest phase in our complex relationship with the star. How will it end?
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Scientists hail evidence of parallel universes
Yet another sign has been discovered that supports the increasingly popular “multiverse theory” — the idea that there is an infinite number of universes. Would that make physics pointless?
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Two tourists to fly around the Moon in 2018
A private rocket company has announced that two private citizens have bought a flight around the Moon next year. Tickets cost $250,000. A waste of money, or a pioneering trip of a lifetime?
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Seven ‘beautiful’ Earth-sized planets found
NASA has discovered a solar system 39 light years away with a record seven exoplanets. It is more evidence that the universe is teeming with Earth-like worlds. How should it make us feel?
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Cosmos may be expanding faster than we think
We know that the universe is expanding and accelerating — but recently physicists have begun to disagree about the speed. Now some say that they could be missing a major piece of the puzzle.
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Last man on the Moon: ‘It’s our destiny’
The last person to set foot on the Moon, Eugene Cernan, has died. He said the experience 44 years ago changed him deeply and forever. What can we earthlings learn from him today?
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2016 in review: tech CEOs reach for the stars
From colonising Mars to factories in space, Silicon Valley billionaires are looking up. (Literally.) And yet NASA’s future is unclear. Who should lead the space race in the 21st century?
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ExoMars ready to resume search for alien life
European ministers will decide this week whether to invest £350m in a project to put a rover on Mars. ExoMars will search for life on the red planet — so what if life is actually discovered?
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‘Impossible’ EmDrive could prove Newton wrong
It is the most fabled law of physics: ‘For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.’ But now NASA says that an invention, once mocked by scientists, could prove Newton wrong.
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Europe’s first Mars mission prepares to land
With luck, the ExoMars spacecrafts will start looking for life on Mars today. The mission is set to take decades and cost £1.16bn. Can such a risky project justify such huge expense?
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Daring. Crazy. Visionary. A colony on Mars
A billionaire inventor has announced detailed plans to establish a colony on Mars. The risk of death will be ‘high’. But for our species to survive, he says, we must become ‘interplanetary’.
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Star Trek: how sci-fi predicted the future
It has been half a century since the USS Enterprise first took flight. Since then, Star Trek has shown that sci-fi can have uncanny predictive...
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The ‘Second Earth’ orbiting our nearest star
Meet Proxima b, a newly discovered exoplanet just four light years from Earth. Scientists say it could be rocky, watery, and habitable. Should we be optimistic about finding alien life there?
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Five reasons to be cheerful this summer
Summer is here. Upheaval and tragedy may have dominated the news this year. But we should not forget that the human race has also made some important strides: solid reason for good cheer.
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NASA celebrates spectacular ride to Jupiter
On Independence Day, NASA pulled off its hardest mission ever: inserting a 3.5 tonne probe into Jupiter’s orbit. The technology involved is astounding. Are we witnessing a new space race?