Venus, our nearest solar neighbor, lies closest to Earth in terms of distance. Its orbit is nearly circular, keeping Venus close by always. Mercury follows Mars in the planetary lineup. But Jupiter stands out, reaching its closest approach in 59 years this evening and appearing larger than usual at rare planetary opposition as it rises…
We sometimes forget that the Apollo 11 landing occurred during a time of rapid change and political upheaval in America – yet its lunar ambition galvanized an entire generation and took spaceflight to new heights. Michael Collins watched with pride as Armstrong and Aldrin descended the LM Eagle to the lunar surface despite many hurdles…
As sunlight passes through the atmosphere it gets refracted or scattered by air molecules; light nearer the blue end of the spectrum tends to get scattered more than other colors, giving a blue hue to the sky. At sunrise and sunset, light traveling through longer distances in the atmosphere becomes less scattered, allowing more red…
As sunlight passes through our atmosphere, its energy becomes scattered in various directions. Shorter wavelength light waves such as blue tend to disperse more widely than their red counterparts. John Tyndall and later Lord Rayleigh helped reveal why the sky appears blue. What is the colour of the sky? Rayleigh scattering is responsible for creating…
Have you noticed how the sky is an endless sea of blue? Closer to the sun, its hue becomes lighter while moving further from it. Light travelling through Earth’s atmosphere collides with molecules and particles such as oxygen and nitrogen, scattering light in various directions. Shorter wavelengths like blue are scattered more than longer ones…
Orion is the spacecraft designed to transport astronauts between Earth, the International Space Station, lunar orbit and Mars. It was specifically developed with safety, durability and affordability in mind. Orion will launch on top of a Space Launch System rocket and feature an escape tower to protect astronauts during reentry. When Orion returns to Earth,…
Each stage in a butterfly cycle involves complete metamorphosis. From egg, larva, pupa and adult stages. Once a caterpillar has reached maturity, they form a protective outer shell called a chrysalis that shields them until they’re ready to transform into butterflies. Caterpillar Stage When butterfly eggs hatch and develop into larva, they quickly transform into…
Flowers play an essential part in our ecosystem. Not only are they beautiful, attracting pollinators and providing food to animals; but flowers also filter toxins out, recycle carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere, and generate oxygen through photosynthesis. All plants go through an annual cycle of growth, flowering and producing seeds. Seedlings produce flowers which…
The Solar System is a vast network of celestial bodies composed of the Sun, eight planets with their respective moons (150 or so in all), hundreds of asteroids, comets and cometary objects; plus other objects ranging from giant gas planets to minute dust particles. Solar system first emerged 4.6 billion years ago from a cloud…
