The Earth is 4.6 billion years old — but how can humans relate to a number so colossal, and where do we fit on the geologic timeline? Comparing the Earth’s lifetime to one calendar year, events like the extinction of dinosaurs and Columbus setting sail took place relatively recently. Joshua M. Sneideman reminds us of our time and place in the universe.
Our bodies function necessarily under the presence of gravity; how blood pumps, a sense of balance and bone growth are all due to life in a world where gravity is an inescapable reality. Armed with experiments from neuroscientists David Hubel and Torten Wiesel, astronaut Jay Buckey presents a thought experiment: How would our bodies work without the force of gravity?
The “local” means the Solar System.
Early NASA Space Suit Concepts, from Cape Kennedy and Smithsonian Air and Space Museum (Virginia).
Here are photos of unusual rocks found by accident in a small town (the name of which is to us unfortunately unknown). It seems strange, but even stranger are its properties. Is it a meteorite? What is this?
Launched in 2008, NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope has given scientists the ability to explore high-energy processes associated with a number of cosmic phenomena: black holes, solar flares, rapidly spinning neutron stars, & super nova remnants.