Posts

Showing posts from December, 2024

Barcelona Metro

If you live in Barcelona, chances are you take the metro nearly every day. Even if you prefer other means of transport, you probably pass a handful of metro stations on your daily commute. With 180 stations and 12 transport lines, the Barcelona metro is the second largest metro system in Spain, runner up to Madrid. It is used by millions of residents and visitors each year. But even if you use the metro several times a day, you might not know some of its hidden secrets. The beginnings of the Barcelona metro go back to the turn of the twentieth century when the city was experiencing massive population growth thanks to the industrial revolution. Metro construction began and the first piece was opened in 1924 between Lesseps and Plaça Catalunya which now forms part of Line 3. Today, the metro connects the entire city for affordable and convenient transport. In the hundred years since construction, the metro system has seen many changes. In fact, the only original metro entrance that st...

National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA)

Things are heating up for the USA's National Aeronautical Space Administration (NASA). One of the agency's missions is to study the Sun. In 2018, NASA sent a small research probe to photograph our nearest star. The spacecraft is called the Parker Solar Probe. It made history on Christmas Eve by going closer to the Sun than any spacecraft has ever gone before. Parker flew to within 6.1 million kilometers of the Sun. This is very close. Parker also holds another record. It is the fastest object ever built by humans. In September 2023, it flew at a speed of 635,266 kph. At this speed, the probe could travel the 10,846 km from New York to Tokyo in just 1.025 minutes. The Parker Solar Probe is named after the astrophysicist Dr Eugene Parker. He spent most of his life studying the Sun and its solar flares. He wanted to know why the flares, which shoot off from the Sun's surface, are hotter than the surface. This is known as the "coronal heating problem". It is a long-st...