As you will no doubt have noticed, the Curiosity rover has successfully landed on Mars. Its mission is to explore the planet’s surface, with a particular emphasis on searching for any signs that life once existed on Mars. There may be traces of bacteria or other simple organisms and if there are then the rover …
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Category:Space
The Earth In Space
This video, from the absolutely fantastic YouTube collaboration called Sixty Symbols, explains why the 21st of June is the longest day, why we have seasons and how Eratosthenes used differences in shadow length to calculate the circumference of the world about 2000 years ago. Watch it – it’s really good.
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (Part Two)…
As promised some months ago, here is some further information about Einstein’s theory of relativity. This is not on the Common Entrance syllabus but if you have ever wondered what E=mc2 actually means, then watch the following. It would probably be a good idea to read this post first. Don’t expect to understand it all …
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Moon Crash…
Am I the only one to have missed that there is a major event happening in space on Friday 9th October at about midday? NASA is crashing a space craft into a crater at the pole of the moon. Four minutes later they are flying another vehicle through the plume of dust and debris that …
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Gold Part Two…
[This is follow up to Gold Part One.] A pupil asked… Will the earth naturally produce more gold for us to extract? How long will this take? How long is the half-life of gold and what does it decompose into? Would it be possible to industrially produce gold from different atoms? A. Pupil Esq. When …
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The Dzhanibekov Effect…
Also known as the Tennis Racket Theorem. Or intermediate axis theorem. When a gyroscope spins it stays upright because the spinning weight at its core resists any attempts to knock it off its access. This is called rotational inertia. Inertia refers to the tendency for moving objects to remain moving or stationary ones to remain …
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Mysterious Yellow Orb…
Yesterday dawned bright and cold. The overcast skies were now blue and dominated by a large yellow object that appeared to be a source of both light and heat. A little research and I discovered it is called the Sun and it is the ultimate source of all Earth’s energy. Even more amazingly, every star …
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How Science Works #1…
In science, a hypothesis is a speculation that might explain a particular observation. This can then be tested to try and show that it is wrong. If it cannot be demonstrated to be wrong, if it explains the observed facts and if it allows accurate predictions to be made then it may be promoted to …
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Let’s Go To Mars…
As I was working out how easy it would be to control a remote vehicle on Mars, I came across this video about how long it would take to travel to Mars. I think the young girl who said half a year should get some credit – youngest person asked but by far the closest …
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Boeing Starliner…
Boeing’s Starliner capsule (CST-100), launched on an Atlas V rocket, has failed to reach its intended orbit. This mistake was blamed on the capsule burning too much fuel after it had separated from the rocket. It is unmanned and the error occurred when it was passing between the range of two satellites and was briefly …
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