796 search results

Economic incentives for countries to decarbonise
Money & Business

Economic incentives for countries to decarbonise

...solar and wind energy are already (or will soon be) as low as the cheapest fossil fuels. Climate policy. The Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global temperature increase to well below 2 °C, has now been signed by 194 states plus the European Union, while more than 130 countries have now set or are considering a target of net-zero emissions by 2050. These pledges will...
Planetary Protection of Icy Worlds
Science, Maths & Technology

Planetary Protection of Icy Worlds

...Solar System. But how can we strike a balance between exploring these new worlds and ensuring they remain unspoilt?...In the late 1970s, NASA’s Voyager mission provided the first tantalising clues that Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, might have an ocean beneath its thick icy shell. Since then, missions such as NASA’s Galileo and Cassini-Huygens spacecraft have...
White dwarfs and neutron stars
Science, Maths & Technology

White dwarfs and neutron stars

...energies in the alternative units of electronvolts (where 1 eV = 1.60 × 10-19 J, with 1 keV = 103 eV and 1 MeV = 106 eV for convenience). This OpenLearn course is an adapted extract from the Open University course S384 Astrophysics of stars and exoplanets...White dwarfs and neutron stars: Learning outcomes - After studying this course, you should be able to: appreciate...
Can a space rock from Costa Rica reveal the origin of water on Earth?
Science, Maths & Technology

Can a space rock from Costa Rica reveal the origin of water on Earth?

...Solar System. Meteorites are incredible rocks. For generations, their dramatic entrances into Earth’s atmosphere have been revered by civilisations as signs from deities of vast cosmic power. These space rocks act like time capsules from the very beginning of our Solar System, some 4.5 billion years ago, preserving information about the conditions at that time....
Galaxies, stars and planets
Science, Maths & Technology

Galaxies, stars and planets

...Solar System; the Sun and other stars; galaxies and the composition of astronomical objects...This free course, Galaxies, stars and planets, is a general introduction, including scale of the universe from the very large to the very small; orbits and gravity; the Solar System; the Sun and other stars; galaxies and the composition of astronomical objects....Galaxies, stars...
Level 1: Introductory 8 hrs
In the night sky: Orion
Science, Maths & Technology

In the night sky: Orion

...solar system. Finally you’ll think about the Milky Way, the galaxy of which our solar system is but one small part, and consider the history of the universe from the Big Bang to the present. Requirements You do not need a professional telescope for this course, but you may find at least a pair of binoculars extremely useful. No prior experience of the subject is...
Level 1: Introductory 24 hrs
Is there life on Europa?
Science, Maths & Technology

Is there life on Europa?

...energy. Even though you may be familiar with these types of metabolisms, the microbial world offers an enormous diversity of alternatives which mean they can be found in environments on Earth where other organisms could not survive. On Europa, the thick ice layer (4–20 km) prevents any light from reaching the ocean and so, if life is present, it must be sustained by the...
From space to laboratory in four days
Science, Maths & Technology

From space to laboratory in four days

...Solar System, including how our own planet came to possess such vast oceans. To do this I look at water rich meteorites called CM chondrites, which probably come from very old asteroids formed early in Solar System history, and may have even brought water to Earth when the Solar System was in its infancy. I use the element oxygen to trace what water was up to all those...