Good morning EUROAVIAns, in today’s FactFriday we talk about Planet Nine! How many planets are in our Solar System? If you answered eight, we’re sorry to inform you that, as shocking as it sounds, there might be a ninth planet out there! No, we’re not talking about Pluto (sigh), but of an undiscovered planet hiding …
In Isaac Asimov’s “The Naked Sun”, social distancing – as we would now call it – is not just a useful device to underscore the difference between Earth and another planet: it is an integral part of the novel’s plot. First published in 1957, The Naked Sun is the second of Asimov’s four ‘Robot’ novels. …
Good morning EUROAVIAns,in today’s Fact Friday we’d like to introduce you to the oldest trophy in international sport: the America’s Cup. The most famous regatta in the world dates back to 1851, when a syndicate of businessmen from New York sailed the schooner “America” across the Atlantic Ocean for the World’s Fair in England. The …
Good morning EUROAVIAns, in today’s fact friday we talk about the first helicopter to ever fly on another planet: Ingenuity! Ingenuity is a technological demonstration part of the Mars2020 mission that successfully landed on Mars on the 18th of February. Designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it will attempt the first flight in the spring of 2021. The average …
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality is a book on physics and cosmology published in 2003 by Brian Greene. Greene is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician, string theorist and scientific speaker. In this book, some of the most important physical experiments and discoveries of the last century are described, …
Dear Euroavians,if this year has been a bit troublesome and you want to express some wishes for the upcoming one, why not do that with the last meteor shower of 2020? In today Fact Friday we talk about the Geminids and the Ursids. A meteor shower consists of a stream of particles of variable sizes …
Good morning EUROAVIAns!This Weekend Review is about “The Imitation Game” by Morten Tyldum. This film is about the true story of Alan Turing, an English mathematician and cryptanalyst, who during the Second World War was able to decipher the German messages created by the Enigma machine. The movie concerned both Turing’s private life and his extraordinary project. When …
Good morning EUROAVIAns,in today Fact Friday we talk about composite materials. Have you ever wondered why they are of particular interest in many structural applications? That’s because composites are materials usually constituted by two heterogeneous materials (or substances), meaning that even after their mixing, the original substances can be physically distinguished. This way, their mechanical …
“The Martian” is a science fiction film set on Mars in the year 2035. When the protagonist Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is exploring the planet with his crew, a huge dust storm forces an emergency evacuation. But Mark is struck by debris during the storm and can’t take off with his colleagues and is presumed …
Good evening EUROAVIAns,in today Fact Friday we will ask you a question: have you ever wondered what is the green paint that can be seen on a Formula1 car? It’s the “flow-viz”, slang for “Flow-visualization” and it’s a special fluorescent powder that gets mixed up with a light oil, usually paraffin. This liquid is used …
We live in time like fish in the water. Time flows. This seems unquestionably true and universal. But “reality is often very different from what it seems”. This is the idea with which Rovelli opens “The order of time”. In the introduction he explains the book’s structure, and how it is divided into three “unequal” …