A dying star explodes in a luminous supernova.
Shutterstock / NASA photographs
The universe is full of wild and fantastic mysteries, scenes of mind-blowing magnificence and extremely highly effective forces. It can be house to New Scientist’s Chelsea Whyte and Leah Crane, who current Dead Planets Society. In this new podcast, our two intrepid hosts think about what it may be like in the event that they got cosmic powers to rearrange the universe.
Along with professional astronomers, physicists and planetary scientists, they discover all the things from comparatively benign situations – Could we make Pluto a planet once more? Is it doable to show Venus right into a liveable planet for people? – to the downright harmful. Subscribe to New Scientist Weekly for entry to all of our podcasts, together with Dead Planets Society, and be taught what would possibly occur if we punched a gap in a planet, chiselled Earth right into a dice, or put out the solar.
While you’re ready for brand spanking new episodes to drop, take a look at seven of our hottest in-depth articles that discover the photo voltaic system and past. To have fun the launch of Dead Planets Society, we’re making these premium articles free to learn till 25 July. Unlock your entry by clicking via and registering as a newscientist.com consumer.
A cosmic catalogue
What, precisely, is on the market? Explore our stock of the universe, a concise information to all the things we all know of in the cosmos, from stars and planets to galaxy clusters and darkish vitality. Powerful telescopes have given us a deep take a look at a menagerie of moons and black holes, super-Earths and scorching Jupiters – and offered a deeper understanding of how the universe works.
Saving Earth from an asteroid
What would we do if scientists detected an asteroid the dimension of a big constructing rushing instantly in the direction of Earth? Figuring out which cities to evacuate, who to inform and learn how to preserve the human race going is the purpose of planetary defence initiatives. In this text, comply with together with a bunch of scientists who met in Washington DC to hash out how we would reply to a cosmic worst-case state of affairs.
Black gap choose-your-own-adventure
Imagine your self being pulled into one of the universe’s widespread giants – a black gap. A looming darkness washes over your eyes and your physique is stretched into ribbons, “spaghettified” as scientists name it. But then what? In this choose-your-own-adventure story, you resolve. Will you be devoured and evaporate into Hawking radiation? Would your atoms get crushed down and spewed again out in a white gap? Or might you find yourself in one other universe altogether?
Postcards to the stars
Since industrial radio started in the Nineteen Twenties, we have now been inadvertently broadcasting our presence to the stars. About half a century later, scientists started intentionally sending messages into the universe with the hope that there may be some clever life on the market to obtain them. So what sort of image do aliens have of us? If they’ve ears or eyes, they’ve heard Morse code and seen The Simpsons. They have additionally acquired a missive with binary code depicting the double helix of DNA and and perhaps even hummed alongside to Across the Universe by the Beatles. More just lately, researchers have been engaged on an up to date message to ship into the cosmos – however some say there’s potential hazard in revealing an excessive amount of about Earth.
How to get to Mars
Earth and Mars are worlds aside. The Red Planet is a frigid wasteland with decrease stress and gravity than our house planet. But that isn’t the solely problem for any people hoping to arrange home there. Just attending to Mars is an endeavour that we are able to solely confidently set out on after we have now answered some large questions: how can we construct a sufficiently big rocket for the journey, can it carry all the meals and spare elements we would want to make the months-long journey, and who can we ship as the first people to set foot on one other planet? And the greatest query of all: can we carry them house?
Black holes from the daybreak of time
As the early universe quickly expanded, space-time unfold out sooner than the pace of mild. Out of this chaos arose primordial black holes. Or did they? These historical black holes have been theorised for many years, and a few scientists assume we could have already noticed them – which might be a monumental discovery. Not solely would they be the first black holes ever to kind, however the most attention-grabbing ones in the cosmos. Read extra to be taught what they might inform us about darkish matter, the accelerating growth of the universe and the forces that maintain collectively all the things that exists.
Making a moon base
There has been renewed curiosity in the moon for years, with plans for landers and rovers popping out of China, Russia, Japan, India, Europe and personal area corporations. But NASA doesn’t simply wish to go go to – the US area company needs to remain. It has plans to assemble samples of moon ice and discover outdoors the touchdown areas of the Apollo missions from many years in the past. But first, the astronauts it sends must overcome the challenges of area radiation and harmful moon mud to construct and energy a moon base.
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