Explorer

There are almost one million asteroids and comets in our solar system. And every single one of them (we think) formed here, within our solar system, alongside the planets just over 4.5 billion years ago. However, in the summer months of 2017, an object not borne from the Solar System made a silent entrance, whipped around the Sun in September 2017, and started heading out again, never to return. This object, now named ‘Oumuamua, was the first asteroid discovered from outside the solar system

The first exosolar planet (a planet orbiting a star other than the Sun) was discovered in 1995, and since then humans have found over 3600 planets outside of our solar system. Some of those found are orbiting not one star like we do, but two stars. For example, stars Kepler-35A and 35B orbit each other, but a planet Kepler-35b, orbits both of them. This is much more like the fantasy word Tatooine in the space epic Star Wars than our own planet Earth. In A New Hope, we see young Luke Skywalker

The Boomerang Nebula is the coldest location in the known universe: it measures at roughly 2 degrees colder than empty space! This nebula is the result of the death of a red giant star, and the extreme temperature is caused by the rapid expansion of the nebula. According to thermodynamics, if you expand a gas you, cool a gas (just try using one of those compressed air cans for cleaning electronics). However, according to astronomers, a single star's death could not account for a strong enough

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to venture into space. At just after 9 am local time at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Gagarin launched into low earth orbit, completed a full orbit in 108 minutes, and returned safely. This achievement not only firmly set the Soviet Union has the leader in space technology at the time, but marked the beginning of the human exploration of space. Internationally, April 12 is now "Yuri's Night," an evening of celebration meant to

Human's have been launching satellites into space since 1957, and now the current number of objects in orbit larger than 10 cm is about 23,000. The growing number poses a real threat to the future of space exploration. Humanity will need to solve this problem moving forward, and ideas are currently being discussed.

NASA recently released a more in-depth look at its missions beyond low-Earth orbit. The whole vision is being dubbed the 'Journey to Mars:' a 2 phase program designed to step further and further way from Earth. The first phase will place a space station in lunar orbit. The second phase will see humans launching off to the red planet.