Cosmic rays are incredibly powerful invisible particles, and we can’t be sure where they come from. Not much in the way of a comforting thought, but it makes for a cosmic mystery that astronomers have been trying to solve for decades. And now they have come one step closer. Here’s what we do know. Cosmic rays are energetic atomic nuclei travelling at near the speed of light. They hit our atmosphere and rapidly interact with the molecules there to break into billions of smaller, less energetic particles that shower down on the life on Earth, without giving us much notice...
A few weeks back, the Philae lander woke up and began transmitting the coveted science data it had been holding on to for the better part of 2015, waiting for the Sun to shine bright enough to wake it from its deep slumber. As soon as it was able, it transmitted data back to the Rosetta orbiter, which then sent it on its long journey back home to Earth. Now that a few weeks have passed, we can finally see what the first science from the surface of 67P looks like, and determine its true fate. We can clearly see a...
It’s coming up fast. The March 6th orbital injection of the Dawn spacecraft about the dwarf planet Ceres is set to be an incredible event. The latest photos show a much more detailed Ceres that we have seen previously. The newest images reveal that Ceres is a rocky, cratered world, not unlike the Moon or Mercury. Still, we have yet to determine the origins of the bright spots on the surface. Just over two weeks from now the world will see an unmasked Ceres.
