Search results for terminal velocity

Astronomy Apr 20, 2018

The challenges of an alien spaceflight program—escaping super-Earths and red dwarf stars

Since the beginning of the Space Age, humans have relied on chemical rockets to get into space. While this method is certainly effective, it is also very expensive and requires a considerable amount of resources. As we look ...

Astronomy Mar 21, 2018

Radio nebula discovered around the pulsar PSR J0855–4644

Using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India, an international team of astronomers has detected a diffuse radio emission forming a nebula around the pulsar PSR J0855–4644. The finding is reported March 9 ...

Space Exploration Feb 7, 2018

Rapid detection and recovery—the science of hunting meteorites

At 8:10 p.m. on Jan. 16, hundreds of people in Michigan reported the bright glow of a meteor streaking through the sky, rattling windows as it broke the sound barrier. The meteor then broke apart in the Earth's atmosphere, ...

Earth Sciences Oct 17, 2017

The missing mass—what is causing a geoid low in the Indian Ocean?

The Earth's interior is still a mystery to us. While we have sent missions to probe the outer reaches of our Solar system, the deepest boreholes on Earth go down to only a few kilometres. The only way to learn what's going ...

Plasma Physics Oct 11, 2017

How machine learning can predict and prevent disruptions in reactors

Robert Granetz has been a research scientist in MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center for more than 40 years. He recently gave a talk hosted by the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI) on using machine learning to develop a real-time ...

Materials Science Jun 27, 2017

Leaping lizards: Research tests the limits of gecko adhesion

Many geckos inhabit trees, often living high in the canopy. Relying on their incredible adhesive strength to help them break their fall, they jump from trees, and land on either leaves or relatively smooth tree trunks. How ...

Space Exploration Apr 19, 2017

Tiny probes hold big promise for future NASA missions

Sometimes to find the best solution to a big problem, you have to start small.

Earth Sciences Mar 20, 2017

As lava hardens, a revelation bubbles up

Back when he was working on his Ph.D. in geophysics at the University of Chicago in the 1980s, Dork Sahagian took a break one day from studying lava flows to attend a lecture on how raindrops form in clouds.

Earth Sciences Nov 21, 2016

Scientists reconstruct formation of the southern Appalachians

Around 300 million years ago, the landmass that is now North America collided with Gondwana, a supercontinent comprised of present-day Africa and South America. That clash of continents lifted tons of rock high above the ...

Astronomy Sep 21, 2016

Stellar ghosts reveal galactic origins

Our sky is blanketed in a sea of stellar ghosts; all potential phantoms that have been dead for millions of years and yet we don't know it yet. That is what we will be discussing today. What happens to the largest of our ...

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