space

News & Features June 4, 2019

NASA Announcement: We’re Going Again, But It’s Different This Time

On May 15, 2019, NASA released a YouTube video. The video directly stated that the human race was going to the moon by 2024 if not before. There were many challenges they stated such as radiation and engineers capabilities that could be overcome. Then they introduced the S.L.S. (Space Launch System), a system consisting of a rocket so powerful it could bring heavy payloads off Earth, so more technology, supplies, spacecrafts, and rations could be brought into Earth’s orbit and to the moon. A new capsule, the ORION was also mentioned. Then the biggest surprise was revealed, GATEWAY, a lunar outpost in the sliver of space in between Earth’s and the Moon’s gravity. This is where ships will dock and transition to make it easier to land on the Moon. From where it sits, GATEWAY will be able to launch missions to Mars. 50 years later, we are returning to…

News & Features June 4, 2019

How Will The Universe End?

There are many theories regarding how the universe will die. The most widely accepted of these theories is called “Heat Death.” Heat Death is the result of the death of stars; stars like our sun are slowly using up the fuel stored inside of them and eventually this fuel will run out. When this happens, the star stops producing heat and light, resulting in a frozen and dark Earth. We will most likely be dead long before this happens. The sun is increasing in brightness by about 10% every billion years. This will result in the Earth eventually becoming too hot for anything to live. The oceans will boil, and water will no longer exist in liquid form. We could theoretically survive this by moving to a planet farther from the sun, but that would only last until the sun becomes a Red Giant. A Red Giant is what the…

News to Use June 4, 2019

How Was the Black Hole Image Created and Why?

On April 10th, 2019, the first image of a black hole was released. The black hole is located in the galaxy Messier 87, which is 53.49 million light years away from Earth. This picture was created by a project called the Event Horizon Telescope, also known as the EHT. The EHT did this by using a network of eight ground-based telescopes all over the world to collect data and then generate an image based on the readings that the telescopes picked up. When one looks at the image, you can see orange and yellow light radiating from the black hole. The reason for this is that black holes are super dense and have insanely strong gravity fields. Because of this, some light rays get pulled through, but some are far enough away from the hole itself that it they don’t get pulled through entirely but do get bent. This…

News & Features October 17, 2018

The BFR: SpaceX’s Plan to Get to Mars

BFR = Big Falcon Rocket Its 2018 and almost 2019, and SpaceX has been preparing for this for years. 10, 9, 8, … Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell and all the other smart, gritty and brave people in mission control are all biting their lips, 7, 6, 5, … they are testing the reusable rocket boosters and landing gear. 4, 3, 2, 1, liftoff! After six successful rocket booster landings, Elon Musk started to think about how they were really going to get to Mars. Even with 28,730,000 pounds of thrust to get the rocket to parking orbit, the trip to Mars is 54.6 million kilometers away and will take about 300 day to get there. How will we have enough fuel to get to Mars after we burned a big part of it getting to parking orbit? This is how: the rocket booster that separates after the front…

News & Features October 9, 2018

Planet X Discovery

Some of you may know about the elusive Planet X or Planet 9. Scientists have been looking for this Planet X for years now, and this discovery may lead to a new path to Planet X. Planet X is a planet that NASA has said may exist, it is 10 times the mass of the earth. While looking for this planet scientists have found many small objects but this one is extreme. 2015 TG387, a.k.a. The Goblin, is a dwarf planet approximately 186.4 miles across, about 2.5 the distance to the sun of Pluto, which is affected by Planet X. The Goblin was discovered in October 2015, but to confirm its existence it took scientists three years. For Goblin to go around the sun one time it takes about 40,000 Earth years. For Planet X, there are five main things that prove the existence of this massive planet….