As our sense-extending technologies continually project the far elusive reaches of the universe into the confines of our cognition, we find ourselves constantly defining the word observable. NASA’s long-awaited Hubble successor, the James Webb Telescope, is finally taking shape as it promises to give us an unprecedented glimpse into the history of our early universe. Just today […]
Read more "Peering Back into the Cosmos"Today marks a very important day indeed as it would have been Carl Sagan’s 84th birthday. I did not grow up with Carl Sagan and therefore did not experience much of the cosmic influence that he was able to engender concurrently. But, indeed, Sagan’s timeless classic words still continue to reverberate in and ring through […]
Read more "In Memory of Carl Sagan 1934 – 1996"Jupiter’s spectacular surface is further embellished by a vast cosmic wonder, a signature feature that wonderfully complements the planet’s majestically colourful layers. The largest known storm in the Solar System, Jupiter’s Giant Red Spot has always been exceedingly fascinating since its discovery in 1655 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini. Located below Jupiter’s southern equatorial belt, it […]
Read more "The Raging Cosmic Superstorm"Ever since the Cassini spacecraft uncovered water plumes venting from its south poles, Enceladus has always been the subject of intriguing speculation concerning life in the solar system. Now, NASA scientists have presented remarkable evidence that this Saturnine wonder hides a global liquid ocean encircling it, between its rocky core and icy crust. The Subsurface Ocean: A […]
Read more "An Extraterrestrial Ocean Unearthed (or Unsaturned)"I am writing this post to being awareness to a recurrent Mars hoax that keeps resurfacing every year on social media. Today, I came upon this Facebook post which was shared more than 40,000 times. This classic perpetually recurring hoax keeps presenting itself rather inconveniently every year. It is complete nonsense. Mars has already made its […]
Read more "A Recurrent Mars Hoax"A very remarkable mission has finally been brought to pass by the European Space Agency! Set to be launched in 2022, the JUICE (JUpiter ICEy moons Explorer) will venture into the Jovian system, with planned flybys at Jupiter’s moons Europa, Callisto, and finally Ganymede! A very ambitious project to reconnoiter the basic lay of these […]
Read more "An Intrepid Jovian Explorer"July has got to be my favorite month of this year so far. It is not a common occurrence that major space news follow one another in such overwhelming and dazzling succession. I’m especially delighted at how space has been consistently occupying the top trends on social media so far this month. Pluto In mid-July, […]
Read more "Quite the Month for Space!"Last week, the New Horizons spacecraft went by Pluto, consummating a decade-long reconnaissance of our local cosmic backyard, yielding never-before-seen faces and features, and projecting an image of Pluto in our minds that is based in reality — an image that is of a geologically active world, rather than just a ball of frozen rock […]
Read more "July 2015: A Milestone of Cosmic Discovery"Out there in the furthest reaches of our solar system lies our far-flung cosmic neighbor, a small world that has endured a decade of oppression and struggle and received the verdict of planetary excommunication, just for being different. But despite 8 years of being shunned from planet-ness, Pluto has remained strong and hasn’t given up. […]
Read more "Pluto 2015: A Space Odyssey"Burried layers deep in the ground, about 330 feet below the Franco-Swiss border, lies a marvelous machine, one that has been pushing the boundaries of our knowledge of the universe since its activation in 2008. Thus far, the Large Hadron Collider is the biggest machine ever built and the largest experiment ever attempted. About 27 […]
Read more "Seeing Beyond the Higgs: What’s next for the Large Hadron Collider?"
The BLOG of the cosmos 