Explore the vast expanse of the cosmos, where stars twinkle like celestial whispers and galaxies dance in a cosmic symphony. Let your imagination soar beyond the boundaries of Earth, for in the depths of space.
Explore the latest advancements in space exploration as we delve into the missions that have shaped our understanding of the universe. From historic expeditions like the Apollo moon landings to cutting-edge projects like the Mars Rover missions, our articles provide a comprehensive overview of the incredible feats achieved by scientists, engineers, and astronauts.
FAQs
Will the Sun really burn out?
Yes it will. The Sun is burning fuel at a rate of 600 million tonnes a second and even though it is enormous, at that rate, eventually it is going to run out. But you do not need to worry because it will be in something like 5 billion years time.
Professor Brian Cox
How many stars are there in space?
In our galaxy, the Milky Way, it is thought there are around a few hundred thousand million stars, that is a few hundred billion stars. You can actually only see a few thousand of those if you go out at night and look at the stars on a clear sky, unless you are using a telescope. But scattered across the sky you might see the faint glow of all these other millions of stars - this is called the Milky Way.
Our galaxy is not the only galaxy there is. In the observable Universe there are roughly a hundred billion galaxies. And each one of those galaxies has got maybe a hundred billion stars. So that basically turns out to be ten thousand million million million stars in the bit of the Universe we can see and actually the Universe might even go on beyond that.
Dr. Tim O'Brien
Are we ever Likely to go back to the Moon?
Man will definitely go back to the Moon. It is not a question of if, it is simply a matter of when. The Moon is a fantastic place to study, a four billion-year repository of the Solar System's history and we have a lot to learn. We will go there, we will colonise it and it will be an amazing and exciting time when it happens.
Major Timothy Peake
Some people talk about the multiverse - does that mean there is an end to our Universe?
We used to say the Universe was everything there was and so in that sense there would be no end. But actually if we look out into space, if we think about whether there is an end to the Universe, it could be that the Universe goes on forever.
There is a bit of the Universe we can see, it is called the observable Universe which is the bit of the Universe that light has had time to reach since the Big Bang about 14 billion years ago. But outside that, there is definitely more Universe, we just do not know quite how much and it may even go on forever.
Dr. Tim O'Brien
How fast does a shooting star travel?
A shooting star whizzes across the sky at about 50 thousand miles an hour. So that is much faster than a rifle bullet. It is actually not far above your head though - it is nothing to do with stars, it has actually got more to do with dirt than stars.
They are grains of sand-sized things that come from the tails of comets. When they crash into the Earth's atmosphere they rush though the atmosphere very fast and they get very hot, just like your hands would if you rubbed them together. That makes them glow very brightly and they burn up in the atmosphere above our heads.
Dr. Tim O'Brien
What came before the Big Bang?
The standard answer to what came before the Big Bang is that nothing can come before the Big Bang because the Big Bang was the start of everything - the start of time and the start of space. And it is a bit like asking a question: What is north of the North Pole? And the question does not make sense. So that is one way of thinking about it.
But recently people have started to think about whether there has been more than one Big Bang. Maybe there is even more than one Universe. And so perhaps before the Big Bang, there was another Big Bang - we do not know.
Dr. Tim O'Brien
Where do black holes come from?
Black holes usually form when a very large star reaches the end of its life and explodes as a supernova and what is left at the centre is a black hole.
Dr. Marek Kukula
What shape is the Universe?
We really have no idea what shape the Universe is because we cannot see an edge to it so it is a big mystery.
Dr. Marek Kukula
Will man ever land on Mars?
My dream is one day to retire to Mars! I think humans will go to Mars. I think humans in the future will live on Mars. We have a number of challenges facing us here on Earth and Mars can be the solution to many of them - overpopulation, growth of food. Mars is our sister planet and I think in the future we will live on Mars and utilise it to the good of mankind.
Dr.Maggie Aderin
How big is the biggest star?
As you can imagine, stars are so far away it is quite hard to be certain about exactly how big they are. But we think that one of the biggest stars is a star called VY Canis Majoris which is about 4,000 light years away. And it is about 2,000 times bigger than our Sun. So if you plonked it in the middle of our Solar System it would actually extend out to the size of the orbit of Saturn.
It has a funny name - VY Canis Majoris. It is actually in the constellation of Canis Major, the Great Dog. And the VY bit is because it varies or changes in brightness and we have a system of calling them after all the letters of the alphabet. So it just lets us distinguish it from other stars in that same constellation.
Dr. Tim O'Brien