habitat
The natural home and environment for all things sci fi, including future homes and territories.
Binary Asteroids: The Cosmic Dance of Twin Worlds
When most people think of an asteroid, they picture a lonely, rugged rock drifting through the solar system—silent, solitary, and self-contained. But space, as it often does, surprises us. Not all asteroids travel alone. Some of them form remarkable partnerships: binary asteroid systems, or what you might call asteroid twins, orbiting around a shared center of mass. These systems behave like miniature versions of binary stars, engaging in an endless gravitational dance that can last billions of years.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
Earth’s Mysterious “Third Radiation Belt”: What NASA’s Van Allen Probes Really Discovered
When NASA launched the twin Van Allen Probes in 2012, scientists expected to study something familiar — the two well-known belts of charged particles surrounding Earth, first discovered in 1958. These “Van Allen radiation belts” had been mapped, modeled, and largely understood.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
Earth: The Only Planet That Breathes, Moves, and Holds Liquid Water
When we gaze up at the night sky — a vast ocean of stars scattered across the darkness — it’s easy to forget how special our home planet really is. Among billions of worlds orbiting distant suns, Earth stands alone. It’s the only known planet that combines two astonishing traits: active plate tectonics and liquid water flowing freely on its surface.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
Laika: The Stray Dog Who Became the First Space Explorer
A Little Dog, a Giant Leap for Science On November 3, 1957, a small stray dog from the streets of Moscow made history. Her name was Laika, and she became the first living creature to orbit the Earth. While humans had long dreamed of touching the stars, it was this humble dog who first crossed the boundary between our planet and the vast unknown.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
The Curious Case of Space Fire: Why Flames Turn Spherical in Zero Gravity
When you picture a flame, you probably imagine a flickering teardrop stretching upward — the warm glow of a candle or the orange tongues of a campfire dancing toward the sky. But take that same flame into space, and something extraordinary happens: it stops stretching. Instead of a flickering tongue, it becomes a floating, glowing sphere, calm and ghostly blue.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
Where Wild Spider-Horses Roam
Only three things remained constant in these Days of Despair— _______heat, death, and mechanics. It was gratifying to know that, for as long as his synthetic heart continued to pump rejuvenating blood, the Old Thinking would survive.
By Lightning Bolt ⚡2 months ago in Futurism
TRAPPIST-1: Seven Worlds Around a Tiny Star — and Three Could Be Alive
When astronomers announced in 2017 that a faint red star just 40 light-years away hosts seven Earth-sized planets, the news shook the world of science. For the first time, we had discovered an entire system of rocky worlds that might resemble our own. The name of that modest little star — TRAPPIST-1 — soon became synonymous with the search for life beyond Earth.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
The Largest Known Structure in the Universe: The Hercules–Corona Borealis Great Wall
A Cosmic Giant Beyond Imagination When we think of the vastness of space, our minds tend to drift toward galaxies — those shimmering islands of billions of stars. Yet even galaxies are mere grains of dust in the cosmic desert. In 2013, astronomers stumbled upon something so massive, so mind-bendingly vast, that it stretches the limits of our understanding:
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
Space Junk: How a Tiny Screw Can Shatter a Satellite
High above our planet, thousands of satellites orbit Earth — connecting phones, tracking storms, and streaming your favorite shows. But along with this incredible network of technology comes a growing hazard that few of us think about: space junk.
By Holianyk Ihor2 months ago in Futurism
When Galaxies Collide: The Future Cosmic Dance of the Milky Way and Andromeda
A Slow-Motion Collision in the Night Far beyond the reach of our telescopes’ finest details, an extraordinary cosmic event is already underway. The Milky Way—our home galaxy—and its massive neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are locked in a slow, gravitational embrace. Although they are separated by about 2.5 million light-years, the two galaxies are inching toward each other at a staggering 110 kilometers per second.
By Holianyk Ihor3 months ago in Futurism
The Coolest Star in the Universe: WISE 1828+2650, the “Room-Temperature” Star
When we think of a star, we imagine something blazing hot — a roaring sphere of plasma like our Sun, burning at thousands of degrees and flooding space with light. But the cosmos loves to challenge our assumptions. Somewhere out there, about 40 light-years away, floats a celestial oddball that defies everything we expect from a “star.”
By Holianyk Ihor3 months ago in Futurism
