News about Carl Sagan

Unbelievable as it may seem today, the computers on the Voyager 1 spacecraft, considered state-of-the-art back in 1977 - the year Elvis left the building for the last time - have 240,000 times less memory than an iPhone. The radio antenna, protruding from the central circular dish like the antenna on a robotic insect, is equally archaic, emitting as many watts as a refrigerator lightbulb. As for the onboard tape recorder, which is constantly on, it differs little from the one in a typical 1970s car, like, say, a Ford Cortina. The reason the machine is permanently whirring, by the way, is because the small amount of heat it generates is enough to keep the nearby fuel propellant line from freezing. Today, after nearly 50 years exploring the cosmic unknown and clocking up, incredibly and against all expectations, 15 billion miles, this little tin can - the size of a small car - is still going and communicating with ground control on Earth.

The first thing to make clear: you can't outrun a nuclear bomb. As newsreader Peter Donaldson warned in his Cold War-era message on behalf of the BBC in the event of a nuclear attack: 'Remember, there is nothing to be gained by trying to get away.' A nuclear attack on Britain from a hostile state such as Russia is most likely to involve one or more 'atom bombs' with an explosive yield equivalent to one megaton of dynamite. This is 80 times the strength of the Little Boy bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which had a yield equivalent to just 15 kilotons of dynamite and killed up to 140,000 people. According to modelling by the website NukeMap, a single bomb on this scale would likely kill everyone and destroy all buildings within a 1.4 mile 'heavy blast radius.

Eclipse hunters have not been dissatisfied by recent weather forecasts that predict cloudy skies for the eclipse. Many have continued with their plans to host lavish eclipse-viewing parties. Other viewers are planning to attend eclipse festivals, like the one in Burnet, Texas, which will feature live music and stimulating addresses. The Texas Eclipse Festival in Burnet, Texas, is pictured at the top. A wealthy eclipse hunter and a private jet are among the top left on the page. Bottom right: eclipse-related traffic jam on a Texas highway

This report, which depicts what the moments after a nuclear missile launch might look like, is based on fact from exclusive interviews with presidential advisers and declassified documents. The scenario described here takes the reader up to the razor's edge of what can legally be understood as the preparations for a General Nuclear War are among the most classified information held by the US government.

A new video on social media is causing a lot of buzz about the potential death of the Earth if it loses all of its oxygen for just five seconds. Although most humans can hold their breath for long suffuffs, the disappearance of this vital gaseous component would cause our world to crumble. Some of the effects, such as the disappearance of Earth's protective ozone layer, would come as no surprise to some, but the prolific TikTok user who outlined this hypothetical doomsday scenario, Mr. K.D., had few surprises.

It was an announcement that shocked the world. Two reportedly "non-human" alien remains discovered in a Peruvian mine (pictured left and top right). The mummified specimens appeared to be a cross between humans and the extraterrestrial creature from the film E.T. with their small bodies, three-fingered hands, and a curious elongated skull. Even more bizarre is the fact that their internal cavities also contained rare metals and eggs. The 'aliens' were officially unveiled at Mexico 's Congress as politicians held their first ever hearing on UFOs , but was everything as it seemed? MailOnline takes a look at the possibility that mummies were really made of a'hodgepodge of human and animal bones', including the skull of a llama.

Carl Sagan, an astronomer, made a forecast of what a future version of America would look like, but some commenters believe it's strikingly close to the world today. The scientist's prediction is full of warnings that some believe are a little too close to reality, ranging from 'clutching our crystals' to 'awesome technological powers.'

Last month, the legendary Voyager 2 gave NASA engineers a scare when an unfortunate case of human mistake led to the US space agency losing touch with the 46-year-old probe. A wrong command was sent to the spacecraft, causing it to point its antenna just two degrees away from Earth, but not enough for NASA to 'lose' Voyager 2's position in space. However, during a regular scan of the skies, the space agency said a 'heartbeat' signal had been detected. This confirmed Voyager 2 was alive and operating - but where in space is the probe and its twin Voyager 1? MailOnline takes a look at the new offerings.

Space Perspective, a Florida-based space company, has acquired a 292-foot shipping container (top right), which it intends to convert into a'marine spaceport' for luxury human spaceflights aboard its Space Neptune capsule (bottom right). By staging launches of the capsule (depicted right), the ship will act as a'marine spaceport,' an alternative to more traditional land-based launches.

The newly discovered, three-mile-wide natural satellite (depicted left) orbits the 17-mile-wide asteroid Polymele from a distance of 125 miles (top right). According to NASA, the pair were 480 million miles (770 million km) from Earth at the time of the survey, so the latest find is about equal to seeing a quarter on a sidewalk in Los Angeles from a skyscraper in Manhattan. Polymele is one of the Trojans, a large number of asteroids referred to as the 'fossils' of the solar system that orbit Jupiter's orbit around the sun. It's also one of the asteroids to be explored by Lucy, NASA's space probe, which launched in October last year. When a meteor passed in front of a star and blocked out its light, astronomers were able to determine its size and distance (bottom right).