Physics

By Logan Eskildsen In an age of rapid, multifaceted technological development, aerospace organizations continue to investigate practical solutions to issues that the cosmos, specifically asteroids, may impose on our planet. Among these fascinating developments, a collection of scientists from NASA and John Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory made a headlining breakthrough with their Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), surfacing global news in September 2022. Tasked with creating a device to mitigate the paths of near-Earth objects (NEOs) in November 2021, the team devised a plan to collide a human-made spacecraft into a nearby asteroid and observe if the impact yielded significant changes. Didymos, meaning “twin” in Greek and hence the derivation of “double” within t...

By John Moran For nearly seventy years, the prospect of a nuclear world has existed. The experiments with Chicago Pile-1, the first functioning nuclear reactor, displayed the near limitless power that can be produced through nuclear means. Yet, after all these years, the world is still extremely limited in its use of nuclear energy. Nuclear energy throughout history has been shown to be efficient, powerful, and relatively clean. However, due to fears that it is more dangerous and dirty than already established fossil fuels, nuclear power is largely ignored and therefore underdeveloped. Now, what is the validity of these fears, and what could come of the nuclear energy industry if we committed to investing more into the field?  Nuclear energy often evokes images of public health ...