The stars, planets and Milky Way we see at night are part of a wilderness shared across the globe and across centuries. But does BlueWalker 3 herald a night sky polluted with bright satellites?
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on September 10 — with 34 Starlink satellites and a rideshare package for AST SpaceMobile. (Craig Bailey/Florida Today via AP)
Craig Bailey/AP
Starlink has plans to connect phones, planes and even cruises to its space satellites. But there are hold-ups.
The electromagnetic spectrum we can access with current technologies is completely occupied. This means experts have to think of creative ways to meet our rocketing demands for data.
NASA Johnson/Flickr
Free space optical communication will allow the same connectivity in space we already have on Earth. And this will provide benefits across a number of sectors.
The vast amounts of data from more than 650 Earth observation satellites are transforming how we see and shape urban landscapes.
Pitney Bowes Australia courtesy PSMA
Research suggests a new threat to life on Earth from the meteorite’s crash: Via seismic waves, the impact triggered massive undersea eruptions, as big as any ever seen in our planet’s history.
Where there’s smoke, there will be lava?
U.S. Geological Survey via AP
Greenland’s ice is largely responsible for the accelerating pace of sea-level rise. A new analysis shows that, while Greenland accounted for just 5% of the rise in 1993, that figure rose to 25% by 2014.
Climate models have been criticised because observations could not find the predicted “hot spot” of strong warming in the troposphere. But analyses now show that the tropospheric hot spot is indeed real.
OK, but which sea’s level? And how do you know what it is?
Wally Gobetz
The tides come in, the tides come out. But what is a sea’s level? Technology has evolved since we first started gauging the height of the ocean in comparison to the land.
Rising sea levels are one of the clearest and most widespread manifestations of climate change.
Steven Godfrey
Since 1993, satellites have been used as well as tidal gauges to monitor sea level. A new calibration of this satellite record now shows that the rise in sea level is gathering pace.
The Hubble Space Telescope hovers at the boundary of Earth and space.
NASA
Twenty-five years on and the Hubble Space Telescope is still taking some amazing images. But there have been a few glitches over the years, right from day one.
An artist’s concept of two NASA Earth-orbiting cube satellites with a typical volume of just one litre (10cm x 10cm x 10cm).
NASA/JPL-Caltech
We’re already building satellites that can sit in the palm of your hand. But getting them into orbit can be a challneg, and not only for technical reasons.
Time exposed photo of the Auroral Spatial Structures Probe Launch into the aurora.
Merrick Peirce
The aurora borealis lights up the Arctic night skies. Also called the Northern Lights, the phenomenon is the result of beams of charged particles tracing along the Earth’s magnetic field and entering the…
For Google, the map is not the end product.
Lee Bennett/Flickr
Google has managed to map most of the world. Recently, the company offered a behind-the-scenes glimpse into how it’s built the Google Maps application using a combination of technology (the Google Street…
Remote households trying to telecommute rely on satellite connections to high-speed broadband – which sometimes don’t work.
AnnieAnniePancake/Flickr
Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull reiterated the importance of the National Broadband Network (NBN) for regional and rural Australia in an address to the NBN Rebooted conference in Sydney last week…
Earlier this year, the Russian Federal Space Agency received a hand-luggage-sized delivery from the UK. It came with a request to launch the contents aboard a rocket, along with the Russian three-tonne…
The US government has lifted restrictions on the use of high-quality satellite images in a move that will be welcomed by industry but could have serious privacy implications for the man or woman on the…
Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and Deputy Dean Research at Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology, The University of Melbourne