Blog

NASA has spent the last nine years navigating New Horizons towards Pluto. Within days, the first high resolution images will be beamed back to earth giving the world its first real insight into what makes the tiny ‘planet’ tick.

Fossilisation is not a gentle process. Flesh, skin, organs and feathers are often destroyed, leaving just the bones. Now, a team of scientists think they may have found something protected deep within those bones – dinosaur blood!

It’s drier than any desert on Earth. On Mars, pure water exists only as a gas or a solid. Vast amounts of ice are found at the north and south poles and buried underground, but there’s not a drop to drink.

By Mike McRae This activity uses water and food colouring to explore fluid systems. It’s a good idea to do this activity in a safe place outside, and to wear old clothes while you do it! Safety: This activity uses hot water, so younger scientists should ask an adult to help.  

Written by Beth Askham How can we predict extreme weather events like the Sydney storm in Australia last week? The wild storm that hit Sydney was the result of a weather system called an east coast low.

Written by Beth Askham The New Horizons spacecraft has begun sending back images of the much loved dwarf planet. As it gets closer, we will see features on Pluto’s surface for the first time. Craters, canyons, mountains will appear in New Horizons’ images. But what shall we call them?

Written by Beth Askham Deep underground in the centre of Australia is evidence of the biggest asteroid impact in the Earth’s history. It wasn’t just a single impact, but a twin strike from a meteorite that may have split into two as it plummeted towards Earth.

Written by Beth Askham When mysterious lumps of pumice stone washed up on beaches in Tasmania, Australia, Rebecca Carey knew that they must be coming from an underwater volcano. Rebecca is a Tasmanian volcanologist (someone who studies volcanos), and she had been tracking the travelling pumice for more than a year.

Written by Beth Askham A minor geomagnetic storm was forecast for around midday (Australia time) Friday the 13 of March. The storm is a result of three solar flares from the Sun that occurred earlier this week. Looks like we’re in for some rough space weather!

Written by Beth Askham On Monday, the Earth survived a close encounter with a very large asteroid. If you think that a massive rock hurtling through space close to Earth is terrifying, be comforted that in this case, close is still 1.2 million kilometres away.