Tag Archives: NASA

Will an astronaut explode if he takes off his helmet?

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We’ve all seen it happen in science fiction films. The expendable character is outside the space ship, or trapped in the air-lock.  The space suit is damaged, or the helmet is removed.  His friends frantically bang on the glass as we get a nice close-up of his face as it blows up like a balloon.  And then… well it depends on the film.  Sometimes he freezes solid and shatters like glass, other times he explodes in a messy shower of … Continue reading →

Theory of Relativity confirmed! Again!

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Ever since Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity in 1916, which revolutionised the world of physics, scientists have been testing it with ever tougher experiments.  It’s accepted in the world of science that no theory (or “Law”, to the lay person) is ever fully descriptive of the universe, and that each new theory is merely more accurate than the one that came before.  NASA’s Gravity Probe B (GP-B) is the latest attempt to test one of the more … Continue reading →