Search results for Matt Williams, Universe Today

Astronomy Apr 17, 2018

Could we detect an ancient industrial civilization in the geological record?

As a species, we humans tend to take it for granted that we are the only ones that live in sedentary communities, use tools, and alter our landscape to meet our needs. It is also a foregone conclusion that in the history ...

Astronomy Apr 10, 2018

A magnetar just woke up after three years of silence

When stars reach the end of their main sequence, they undergo a gravitational collapse, ejecting their outermost layers in a supernova explosion. What remains afterward is a dense, spinning core primarily made up of neutrons ...

Space Exploration Apr 4, 2018

Did you know that a satellite crashes back to earth about once a week, on average?

This past weekend, a lot of attention was focused on the Tiangong-1 space station. For some time, space agencies and satellite trackers from around the world had been predicting when this station would fall to Earth. And ...

Space Exploration Mar 19, 2018

The first SpaceX BFR should make orbital launches by 2020

Elon Musk has a reputation for pushing the envelop and making bold declarations. In 2002, he founded SpaceX with the intention of making spaceflight affordable through entirely reusable rockets. In April of 2014, his company ...

Plants & Animals Mar 8, 2018

How brightly colored spiders evolved on Hawaii again and again... and again

About 2 to 3 million years ago, a group of spiders let out long silk threads into the wind and set sail, so to speak, across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. These spiders were parasites of other spiders, invading their webs, ...

Astronomy Feb 28, 2018

High-resolution image of the core of the Milky Way reveals surprisingly low star formation

Compared to some other galaxies in our Universe, the Milky Way is a rather subtle character. In fact, there are galaxies that are a thousands times as luminous as the Milky Way, owing to the presence of warm gas in the galaxy's ...

Space Exploration Feb 26, 2018

This was exactly where cassini crashed into Saturn

On September 15th, 2017, after nearly 20 years in service, the Cassini spacecraft ended its mission by plunging into the atmosphere of Saturn. During the 13 years it spent in the Saturn system, this probe revealed a great ...

Earth Sciences Jan 23, 2018

This is ice in Antarctica, flowing in slow motion like water going through river rapids

One of the benefits of the Space Age is the way it has allowed human beings to see Earth in all of its complexity and splendor. In addition, it has allowed us to conduct studies of Earth's surface and atmosphere from orbit, ...

Space Exploration Jan 17, 2018

China has a plan to clean up space junk with lasers

Orbital debris (aka. space junk) is one of the greatest problems facing space agencies today. After 60 years of sending rockets, boosters and satellites into space, the situation in the low Earth orbit (LEO) has become rather ...

Space Exploration Jan 11, 2018

The surprising scale of China's space program

It's no secret that China's growth in the past few decades has been reflected in space. In addition to the country's growing economic power and international influence, it has also made some very impressive strides in terms ...

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