space
Stephen Hawking was a great man of science. His scientific interests ranged from cosmology to physics, from mathematics to artificial intelligence. In recent times he even took an interest in space exploration with the Breakthrough Starshot project to send miniature…
space
On 10 August, the European GNSS Agency (GSA) officially announced that two more satellites had gone into operation in the Galileo constellation, the European global navigation satellite system (GNSS) for civilian use, thus bringing the total number of satellites currently…
space
On 20 July of 40 years ago, the Viking 1 lander touched down on Mars and made history as the first NASA space mission to perform a successful landing on the fourth planet of the solar system (all international missions…
space
Who better than a goddess like Juno could have given its name to this space mission to study the largest planet of the Solar System? In Roman mythology, the god Jupiter was transformed into a cloud to hide his actions,…
space
All the existing galaxies, and our Milky Way too, hide in their centres giant black holes, with masses estimated in 106 and 109 of the solar masses. In the centre of our galaxy, in a region hosting a radio source…
space
We are made of star dust. The iron in our blood, the oxygen we breathe, the calcium in our bones, all the atoms of which we are made of were created within the stars billions of years ago, just like…
space
When two galaxies start to approach, the tidal attraction forces deform their structures, creating sometimes particular forms, like filaments or tails. The merging between different galaxies does not bring their inner stars in a real collision, because of the enormous…
space
Who, as a child, has not answered the question, “What do you want to be, when you grow up?” with “an astronaut!”? The idea of flying free like a bird and exploring space has fascinated mankind always, however behind the…
space
The typical day of an astronaut in some ways is rather repetitive, it is subdivided precisely into various activities that each member of the crew must complete. Besides working for everything to operate correctly, and to complete the scientific experiments,…