The sun might be 93 million miles away, but its flares cause blackouts and GPS to break down here on earth. Get ready. We are approaching the solar maximum. Passengers on the MS Trollfjord watch as an aurora covers the sky along the Norwegian coast on 19 October 2019....
Light pollution interferes with the breeding patterns of animals and insects. How can we look to the stars if we can’t even see them? Two night scenes. On the left, stars fill the sky over the Coconino National Forest. (Credit: Coconino National Forest, U.S....
Light pollution affects more than just our ability to see the Big Dipper at night. Dive into the environmental and human consequences of too much light and discover how we might turn the night sky on again.
Exercise: After reading the article, divide students into groups of 3-4 to discuss main takeaways from the text. Then, instruct each group to come up with a one-sentence public service announcement to get people to turn off unnecessary lights in their local community. The class can then vote for their favorite PSA.
Despite conflicts on Earth, satellites orbit in peace. But use of Elon Musk’s Starlink to aid Ukraine has Russia looking to the sky with hostile eyes. A rocket booster carrying three Gonets-M satellites and the first Skif-D satellite of the Sfera programme lifts...
While all kinds of international conflicts occur on the ground, up in space things have been pretty peaceful. We depend on peace in the skies because such things as social media, multiplayer video games, Google classrooms and Zoom sessions rely on satellites bouncing signals across the earth. Correspondent Tira Shubart tells us why tensions on the ground in Ukraine could disturb the tacit and explicit agreements over satellites in the sky.
Exercise: Let’s imagine that each student has been hired to draw up an international agreement to govern and protect satellites that need to cross the skies over international borders. What are the five most important considerations that would have to be included in this treaty? Some things to consider are: The citizens in every country want fast and reliable Internet; people want their privacy protected; and countries are concerned about the possible military use of satellites.