One of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus, just bigger than Iceland, shocked scientists when they discovered that it was releasing a substance into space. That one discovery by the spacecraft Cassini, changed the mission plan and started a scientific detective story that changed the priorities for future space exploration.
How did the universe begin? Thanks to two out of this world telescopes, scientists can now peer into our cosmic dawn to look for answers. What they found not only surprised them, but it changed the way we understand the formation of the cosmos.
Mars has been a tantalizing neighbour, a source of fertile imagination and misinterpreted information. Telescopes, space probes, cars, and helicopters have all studied the red planet to learn more about its history. The latest findings, though, may tell us if the planet could have been home to life.
Meteorites carry pieces of far space to Earth often enough to give us clues to the formation of the universe, but they are contaminated on their journey through the atmosphere. To get perfect information, scientists sent a spacecraft on an audacious mission to an asteroid named Bennu to capture material and bring it back here. The goal was simple but profound – to discover how life began on Earth. Meteorites carry pieces of far space to Earth often enough to give us clues to the formation of the universe, but they are contaminated on their journey through the atmosphere. To get perfect information, scientists sent a spacecraft on an audacious mission to an asteroid named Bennu to capture material and bring it back here. The goal was simple but profound – to discover how life began on Earth.
Black holes were conceived of in World War I by a soldier distracting himself from the horrors around him. Within 20 years, some of the greatest scientists in the world were trying to prove this concept existed. As the proof arrived, so did an incredible quest – to discover what a black hole actually looks like.
Pluto has always been one of the most misunderstood objects in our edge of space. The confusion about our distant neighbor comes from misunderstanding. One risky mission set out to the edge of our solar system to answer a question that has nagged scientists – what is Pluto anyway?
The discovery of planets beyond our solar systems began by noticing a wobble in a distant pulsar, a stellar corpse. The shift was caused by the gravity of three planets. Since then, scientists have used increasingly advanced tools, including the James Webb telescope, to observe distant worlds. What they found was beyond their imagination.
