Tag: Wavelengths

A Dark Universe Full of Photons

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Space seems dark to our weak human eyes.  Most of the night sky is the blackness between stars.  But in this darkness lies an endless number of photons, travelling in all different directions.  These photos form background radiation, in three wavelengths in particular.  You’ve likely heard of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), it there is also a Cosmic Optical Background (COB) and a Cosmic Infrared Background (CIB). The COB is explained by the immense number of stars in the Universe.  It’s a diffuse glow across the entire sky.  The CMB is the leftover radiation from hot plasma that existed when the Universe...

Mars keeps on Surprising: It has Glaciers!

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As the inevitable launch of humans to Mars slowly approaches over the coming decades, we are using our best technology to study our neighbour in detail.  With multiple orbiting satellites and ground surveyors, we are slowly learning more about the geology, climate, environment, and history of Mars.  It feels as if every new discovery is a surprise, and we never expected Mars to be such a dynamic and complex world.  With science and technology improving every year, humanity is focussing efforts on the red planet.  The latest incredible discovery comes from radar data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The...