epistemology
The Wire July 16, 2015 We may all harbour a gene that moves us to explore and find new realms of experience but the physical act of discovery has become far removed from the first principles of physics. At 6.23 am on Wednesday, when a signal from the New
Alan Stern
The Wire July 6, 2015 In the last mile of its 3,464-day journey and only ten days away from a historic rendezvous with the dwarf planet Pluto, the New Horizons probe experienced an anomaly on July 4 and prompted the on-board computer to switch to ‘safe mode’. The event
barycenter
The Wire June 22, 2015 It may not look like much, but this heavily pixelated GIF image is cause for celebration. It effectively cost a robotic space probe more than nine years of travel and $600 million in manufacturing and operational charges. But then again, that’s not why the
Grand Tack Model
In August this year, the New Horizons spacecraft will cross into the region of space beyond Neptune’s orbit. It won’t be the first human object to go this far: the two Voyager space probes have already done that, and then Pioneer 10 with them. What will be special
