Space junk: Astronomers worry as private companies push ahead with satellite launches

SpaceX recently launched 60 satellites into orbit around Earth as part of its Starlink programme.

Martin McCoustra, ScotCHEM Chair in Chemical Physics, Heriot-Watt University • conversation
May 13, 2020 • ~6 min

Touching the asteroid Ryugu revealed secrets of its surface and changing orbit

It is a pretty spectacular achievement to not only rendezvous with an asteroid as it is whizzing around the Sun but also collect a sample. Here's what the researchers learned.

Paul K. Byrne, Associate Professor of Planetary Science, North Carolina State University • conversation
May 7, 2020 • ~6 min

How could an explosive Big Bang be the birth of our universe?

The term 'Big Bang' might make you think of a massive explosion. Put the thought out of your head. Rather than an explosion, it was the start of everything in the universe.

Michael Lam, Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Rochester Institute of Technology • conversation
April 30, 2020 • ~6 min

Four amazing astronomical discoveries from ancient Greece

From the Moon's size to the first calculator, the ancients made some jawdropping discoveries without modern technology.

Ian Whittaker, Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University • conversation
April 24, 2020 • ~8 min

How the Hubble Space Telescope opened our eyes to the first galaxies of the universe

Thirty years ago the Hubble Space Telescope began snapping photos of distant stars, providing a time machine that has taken astronomers back to when the universe was less than a billion years old.

Rodger I. Thompson, Professor of Astronomy, University of Arizona • conversation
April 24, 2020 • ~9 min

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