Guest Author • Nov 06, 2019 •
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz If tiny concentrations of carbon dioxide can hold enough heat to create a global warming impact on Earth, … Read More
Duncan Steel • Dec 17, 2018 •
There are bits of Mars on Earth already, samples of the Red Planet blasted off its surface by comet and asteroid impacts and delivered to us as meteorites. Read More
Guest Author • Nov 20, 2018 •
David Weintraub, Vanderbilt University The closest place in the universe where extraterrestrial life might exist is Mars, and human beings are poised to attempt to colonise this planetary neighbour within the next decade. Before that happens, we need to recognise that a very real possibility exists that the first human steps on the Martian surface will lead … Read More
Guest Author • Jul 27, 2018 •
Briardo Llorente, Macquarie University Preparations are already underway for missions that will land humans on Mars in a decade or so. But what would people eat if these missions eventually lead to the permanent colonisation of the red planet? Once (if) humans do make it to Mars, a major challenge for any colony will be to … Read More
Guest Author • Jun 29, 2018 •
Becky Turner Theoretical physicist and one-man-phenomenon Stephen Hawking contributed a wealth of knowledge to mankind during his lifetime. One of his recommendations was that humans would need to colonise other planets in the next hundred years to avoid annihilation. His fears took the form of deadly viruses, nuclear war, asteroid impacts, and global warming. In order to avoid … Read More
Guest Author • Jun 08, 2018 •
Monica Grady, The Open University It was to a great fanfare of publicity that researchers announced they had found evidence for past life on Mars in 1996. What they claimed they had discovered was a fossilised micro-organism in a Martian meteorite, which they argued was evidence that there has once been life on the Red Planet. Sadly, … Read More
Guest Author • Apr 30, 2018 •
Katarina Miljkovic, Curtin University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. When we look up at Mars in the night sky we see a red planet – largely due to its rusty surface. But what’s on the inside? Launching in May, the next NASA space mission will study the interior … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 22, 2018 •
Helen Maynard-Casely, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation Roughly every two years Mars and Earth wander a bit closer to each other, making the leap between these two planets a little easier. In July this year, Mars will only be about 58 million kilometres away – and NASA is set to take advantage by launching their next mission … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 12, 2018 •
Leif Karlstrom, University of Oregon and Joseph Byrnes, University of Minnesota This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. The end of the Cretaceous period 66 million years ago was a rough time to be living on Earth. Three global catastrophes occurred nearly simultaneously: The Chicxulub meteorite slammed into … Read More
Guest Author • Jan 18, 2018 •
Gary Li, University of California, Los Angeles; Danielle DeLatte, University of Tokyo; Jerome Gilleron, Georgia Institute of Technology; Samuel Wald, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Therese Jones, Pardee RAND Graduate School This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. Forty-five years have passed since … Read More