| Category Archives: Space

Warp Speed – how close are we?

November 9, 2018 · cloudtales · Posted in Internet, Quantum Physics, Quantum Sciences, Space ·

Everybody knows ‘the speed of light’ is fast. The only thing faster is Chuck Norris, who, the legend goes, can turn out the lights and be under the covers before the room gets dark.

But just how fast is light?

And does it always move the exact same speed? Can we use light to transmit data in a way that harnesses its speed as one of the fastest actors in the known universe? There is has always been a dream of teleportation or using wormholes to jump across time and space at warpspeed, but some scientists now believe that such technology may be more feasible than once thought.

And even if we are centuries away from transporting anything meaningful at the speed of light, the idea of lightspeed may soon jump from the realm of Star Wars to something much more tangible.

Read Full article: Could we actually achieve ‘warp Speed’?

News | What Looks Like Ceres on Earth?

July 26, 2018 · cloudtales · Posted in Space ·

Left: Hlíðarfjall dome, Iceland. Right: Ahuna Mons on Ceres. Credit: Hansueli Krapf/Creative Commons/NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA

With its dark, heavily cratered surface interrupted by tantalizing bright spots, Ceres may not remind you of our home planet Earth at first glance. The dwarf planet, which orbits the Sun in the vast asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, is also far smaller than Earth (in both mass and diameter). With its frigid temperature and lack of atmosphere, we’re pretty sure Ceres can’t support life as we know it.

But these two bodies, Ceres and Earth, formed from similar materials in our solar system. And, after combing through thousands of images from NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, which has been orbiting Ceres since 2015, scientists have spotted many features on Ceres that look like formations they’ve seen on Earth.

By looking at similar features on different bodies — what scientists call “analogs” — we can learn more about the origins and evolution of these bodies over time. Check out these prominent features of Ceres, and see if you recognize any of their earthly cousins!