Guest Author • Apr 21, 2021 •
Gail Iles, RMIT University Yesterday at 9pm Australian Eastern standard time, the Ingenuity helicopter — which landed on Mars with the Perseverance rover in February — took off from the Martian surface. More importantly, it hovered for about 30 seconds, three metres above the surface and came right back down again. It may not sound like a huge … Read More
Guest Author • Mar 01, 2021 •
Robert Greenberg, University of Auckland The world was excited by the news last week that NASA’s Perseverance rover had successfully landed in a Martian crater. The rover will now set about collecting samples from what scientists say was an ancient lake fed by a river. The name of this exotic Martian crater is Jezero. As a South Slavic … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 19, 2021 •
James Scott, University of Otago NASA’s Perseverance rover successfully touched down on Mars this morning, and has already begun beaming back images. Hello, world. My first look at my forever home. #CountdownToMars pic.twitter.com/dkM9jE9I6X — NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover (@NASAPersevere) February 18, 2021 But people might be surprised to learn … Read More
Duncan Steel • Dec 20, 2020 •
There have been many articles in the mass media about the ‘Great Conjunction’ between Jupiter and Saturn that will occur on December 21st. Some of them have been good, and informative. Many have been fairly poor. Others have been… well, weird. Some writers have imagined that there is something vitally significant about the conjunction (the close approach to each other … Read More
Guest Author • Feb 25, 2020 •
Katarina Miljkovic We’ve all heard of earthquakes, but what about marsquakes? NASA’s InSight mission has, for the first time, recorded seismic activity coming from Mars’ interior. The observations, recorded in 2019 and published today, will help understand the red planet’s internal structure, composition and dynamics. It opens a new chapter in planetary geophysics and exploration. The NASA InSight … Read More
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