Mars presents significant challenges for human colonisation, featuring a thin atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide, extreme cold, and high levels of toxic perchlorates in the soil. Its lack of a magnetic field would expose any future inhabitants to harmful radiation, complicating survival. Understanding these factors is crucial for future exploration and habitation.
This post considers the ways in which humans wearing protective cold weather clothing in the Antarctic winter at minus 80, and insulated spacesuits on Mars, also at minus 80, lose heat to the environment and arrives at the interesting conclusion that it is easier to stay warm on Mars at very low temperatures
The proliferation of social media accounts sharing astronomical content has led to a significant amount of misleading and inaccurate information, primarily driven by engagement rather than accuracy. Facebook's algorithm favors sensationalist, low-effort posts, often created with minimal knowledge, diminishing the reliability of astronomical information on the platform.
The post clarifies the distinction between a planet's rotation period and its day length, emphasizing that for planets like Venus and Mercury, these can differ significantly. It explains the calculation of a day length and examines prograde and retrograde rotation, revealing misconceptions found in popular science.
The standard unit of time in the SI system is the second, historically defined as 1/86400th of a mean solar day. The modern definitions since 1967 is based upon a caesium atom transition. The Earth's rotation is gradually slowing down meaning that in thousands of years' time the second may need to be redefined to bring it back in line with the mean solar day.
Explaining Science 