What might look like jelly being stirred is actually water subjected to 20 times normal Earth gravity within ESA's Large Diameter Centrifuge—as part of an experiment giving new insight into the behavior of wave turbulence.
General Physics
Jan 15, 2020
3
1154
Incoming asteroids have been scarring our home planet for billions of years. This month humankind left our own mark on an asteroid for the first time: Japan's Hayabusa2 spacecraft dropped a copper projectile at very high ...
Space Exploration
Apr 22, 2019
2
120
With scarce nutrients and weak gravity, growing potatoes on the moon or on other planets seems unimaginable. But the plant hormone strigolactone could make it possible, plant biologists from the University of Zurich have ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 18, 2018
1
10
The Red Planet's low gravity and lack of magnetic field makes its outermost atmosphere an easy target to be swept away by the solar wind, but new evidence from ESA's Mars Express spacecraft shows that the Sun's radiation ...
Space Exploration
Feb 9, 2018
7
528
As humans prepare to venture deeper into outer space, including potential trips to Mars, researchers are hard at work trying to understand and mitigate the effects of low gravity and radiation on space travelers' bodies.
Space Exploration
Jul 24, 2017
0
45
The idea of terraforming Mars – aka "Earth's Twin" – is a fascinating idea. Between melting the polar ice caps, slowly creating an atmosphere, and then engineering the environment to have foliage, rivers, and standing ...
Space Exploration
Mar 10, 2017
21
1679
At 14,000 feet above Melbourne three scientists wait anxiously for the signal to jump, their arms crossed protectively across their chests, a modified plastic syringe in each hand, the plane engines and wind roaring around ...
Materials Science
Jul 5, 2016
0
1020
Analysing the dusty layers of low-gravity moons or asteroids using robots is on the agenda for ESA's exploration of the Solar System. Engineers are thinking of ways to collect and analyse the surface dust on far-away worlds. ...
Space Exploration
Apr 6, 2016
0
9
There are no large caverns inside Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. ESA's Rosetta mission has made measurements that clearly demonstrate this, solving a long-standing mystery.
Space Exploration
Feb 4, 2016
5
77
Why is landing on a comet so difficult and what does this tell us about future missions to comets and asteroids?
Space Exploration
Aug 14, 2015
0
53
