Beep… Beep.. Beep… The InSight has landed. InSight sent a “touchdown image” to NASA on November 26 2018 embarking the first landing of a spacecraft on Mars after six years (Of course, you are awesome too Curiosity) and for the eighth time in total. Launched on May 5th 2018, InSight traveled a distance of 458 million km and landed on Mars yesterday at 19:52 UTC. It most hit the bulls eye and landed on Elysium Planitia near the Martian equator exactly as planned and sent a “A-Ok” signal to NASA after seven minutes to confirm its safe landing. “About Me” time InSight – an abbreviation for Interior Exploration using Seismic…
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Falcon Heavy – Up, up and away(and back) in few days. What should you know about this beautiful beast?
Falcon Heavy is by far the powerful rocket to have been manufactured. Thanks to SpaceX, it will liftoff on Feb 6 2018 from the launch pad 39A, located at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral – the same one used by NASA’s Apollo moon missions making this one historical too. Although NASA is in-progress of building a much heavier rocket called SLS (Space Launch System) which is expected to be completed only by 2020, SpaceX’s FH will still stand out due to less cost and reusable capability. What makes this so special? As already mentioned its of the powerful operational rocket to have ever built with less cost. It has…
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Warp drive – will it become a reality?
Sound barrier was broken a long time ago. Ever since that law was broken, sci-fi geeks have been waiting to see more of “fantasy come true”. One of which is the warp drive from star trek. How far are we from that? Or how close are we? Let me not drag the answer, scientists believe that it is quite impossible considering Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light – however, if we could compact and expand the fabric of space-time ahead of and behind us, technically we could travel faster than the speed of light. Technically. Anyway, like i mentioned earlier It’s just…
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Astronomy Q&A
So I was wondering what to different for my blog and it hit me. This one. I am going to pick 5 astronomy related questions from Quora and answer them! Serious ones and sometimes funny ones. (Maybe in the future I will take questions from the public and answer five out of them.) And it doesn’t end there. Q&A is going to happen twice in a month. One week about Astronomy and one week about Life Advices/Interesting Facts. So this week’s picked up questions: What would happen to your naked arm in the vacuum of outer space? Answer: Arms or any part of the body, you are going…
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Cassini’s demise – You will be remembered!
Cassini is now burning its way through Saturn’s atmosphere As most of you know, this Friday, September the 15th early morning Cassini spacecraft plunged itself to Saturn and ended its life. The Saturn exploration that has been touring the planet for 13 years has come to an end – mixed feelings. It has given, sent, help us learn so much about that planet. Scientists and engineers gathered at NASA’s JPL in California to wave goodbye to the spacecraft that has taught them so much about Saturn and its moons. Here is a short video highlights from NASA JPL: One of the Cassini’s project scientist at the NASA JPL commented that,…
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Solar Eclipse is two days away – What you should know?
With Solar Eclipse being couple of days away, let’s catch on up what it is, where is visible and how can others (where it’s not visible) witness this event. Going back to school for those who already know, Solar Eclipse is a celestial event occurs when a New Moon passes between the Sun and the Earth, blocking the Sun’s rays completely or partially depending on the type of eclipse. Speaking of which there are four types of solar eclipses. Thanks to the Wikipedia, here are the list and its explanation. A total eclipse occurs when the dark silhouette of the Moon completely obscures(conceals) the intensely bright light of…
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The last ride – Adieu, Cassini!
Image Credit: NASA Goodbyes are hard… No matter whom or what you bid Goodbye to. And it’s time to bid farewell to one of space science achievement – Cassini Spacecraft, which is on its course to doom. I write this article as an thank you and a tribute. Get ready for a wonderful ride. What is Cassini-Huygens? Cassini-Huygens is an unmanned spacecraft sent to study Saturn. On October 15 1997, Cassini was launched along with Huygens to orbit Saturn and the latter was scheduled to land on Saturn’s moon Titan to study and send data back to Earth. The spacecraft contained powerful cameras and could sense better…