Space

Ten years ago, a newly created website called Galaxy Zoo used something known as citizen science when it asked members of the public to help them categorize images of galaxies. Citizen science projects involve asking willing volunteers to help with scientific research. The first stage of Galaxy Zoo specifically looked at organizing galaxies into groups depending on their shape, elliptical, mergers or spirals.

The possibility of launching small satellites into orbit has just become more of a reality thanks to Rocket Lab, a company pioneering the production of low cost rocket launches. The company has just successfully completed the maiden mission of their rocket, Electron.

Could radiation really encourage life in icy bodies or the ocean-planets of our solar system? Scientists at San Antonio’s University of Texas, in collaboration with the Southwest Research Institute (SWRI) have welcomed the possibility of radioactive decay leading to the support of analogous microorganisms from resulting molecules.

Many areas of the universe where stars form are also known to contain complex organic molecules. These molecules contain six or more atoms, with at least one of these being a carbon atom. A group of these complex organic molecules are known as prebiotics, the structures of which are closely linked to molecules essential for life, including amino acids and sugars.

An international team of scientists, including those from The Ohio State University and Vanderbilt University have just released their research into a newly discovered planet with some extremely unusual features.

Science is always surprising us, with new discoveries reminding us how much we still have to learn. Recently, a new feature of the northern lights was discovered, thanks to a group of citizen scientists.

NASA has just announced further details about their new mission to fly into the sun’s atmosphere.

Although the galaxy of Cygnus A might be around 800 million light years away, it provides one of the strongest sources of radio waves in our universe. The Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope located in New Mexico has previously been used to observe Cygnus A since the telescope was built in the 1980s. Cygnus A was observed again by the same telescope in 1996 but after that it wasn’t observed again until 2015 after the telescope had been given an upgrade.

In an earlier article, Evolving Science wrote about the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and their mission to scan for signs of life in the farthest reaches of our galaxy. Breakthrough Listen is the newest initiative by SETI to use radio telescopes to listen to our nearest galactic neighbors as well as distant galaxies.

One of my favorite movies in the science genre is 1997’s Contact. The novel that it was based off was written by noted astrophysicist Carl Sagan and the movie had a good mix of fact and fantasy that actually seemed credible. Jodie Foster’s portrayal of Dr. Ellie Arroway, a scientist for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), was phenomenal.

A new camera called Mosaic-3 is in place at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, and is now halfway through completing a two-year mission to record images of far-off galaxies and stars. The upgraded camera now includes light sensors developed at the U.S Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, making it one of the best tools we have to study outer space.

Peregrine falcons have inspired the quest for new technologies to make our aircraft faster, safer and more maneuverable. Once you’ve seen a peregrine falcon in flight it’s not hard to see why engineers have been motivated to try and emulate their speed, grace and power. These birds can dive through the air at speeds of over 200mph whilst also performing aerobatics that any pilot would be proud of.