Belinda Nicholson

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When it was young, the Sun spun fast – very fast. It would do one rotation in a just one or two Earth days. www.pixabay.com

Curious Kids: does the Sun spin as well as the planets?

Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland

Yes, the Sun absolutely spins. In fact, everything in the universe spins. Some things spin faster than the Sun, some are slower and some things spin ‘backwards’.
Today, we’re asking two astrophysicists and a planetary scientist: what’s the likelihood we’ll be living on Mars or the Moon in future? Pixabay/WikiImages

What’s the next ‘giant leap’ for humankind in space? We asked 3 space experts

Molly Glassey, The Conversation and Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation

What’s the next ‘giant leap’ for humankind in space? We asked 3 space experts The Conversation, CC BY27.3 MB (download)
What's the next thing that will blow us away or bring us together the way the Moon landing did in 1969? Moon mining? Alien contact? Retirement on Mars? Three space experts share their predictions.
The South Pole Telescope and BICEP telescopes (pictured above) may discover clues that could teach us if there was something else ‘before’ the Big Bang. Dr. Keith Vanderlinde/NSF

Curious Kids: What existed before the Big Bang? Did something have to be there to go boom?

Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Josh Calcino, The University of Queensland

Long ago in the distant past, our entire Universe was microscopic – just like an atom – and obeyed completely different rules of cause and effect.
Lasers being shone from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. These lasers help remove the twinkles in the night sky and help astronomers see stars clearer on Earth than ever before. F. Kamphues/ESO

Curious Kids: Why do stars twinkle?

Jake Clark, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland; Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland, and Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland

How exactly do the stars twinkle in the night sky? As it turns out, the answer is full of hot air… and cold air.
Artist’s impression of the planet Kepler 62-f which could lie in the habitable zone of its host star 1,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Lyra. NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech

The tools needed to seek out new worlds out there in space

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland

More than 1,000 exoplanets have now been discovered by the Kepler Space Telescope, announced NASA this month, and the figure continues to climb. Three of the newly confirmed Kepler planets are thought…
Artist’s impression of an Earth-sized planet in the Kepler 186 system. But what makes one planet more habitable than another? NASA Ames/SETI Institute/JPL-Caltech

What makes one Earth‑like planet more habitable than another?

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland

When it comes to finding the right kind of planet to target in the search for life elsewhere in the universe, the size of the planet matters. All planets are believed to form by a process of competitive…
A reconstruction of the path and damage caused by the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in February 15, 2013. Flickr/Sandia Labs

Impacts, extinctions and climate in the search for life elsewhere

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland

Every so often our Earth encounters a large chunk of space debris which reminds us that our solar system still contains plenty of debris that could potentially have an impact on life on Earth. While the…
In the coming years, many planets that could host life will be discovered. But which will we target in the search for life elsewhere? IAU/L Calçada

Giant impacts, planet formation and the search for life elsewhere

Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland

In the search for life beyond our solar system, we need to consider the system in which a planet moves, including the other planets and assorted debris that accompany it on its journey through the cosmos…
Artists conception of the a star with two Saturn-mass planets discovered by the Kepler satellite. NASA/Ames/JPL-Caltech

For life to form on a planet it needs to orbit the right kind of star

Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland; Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland, and Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland

In the search for life-sustaining planets we must first choose the right host star. There are many factors that would make a star system too hostile for life to even get started, let alone survive for…
Artist’s impression of a sunset on the planet Gliese 667Cc. While that planet is likely not an ideal target, we will discover planets far more like our own. ESO/L. Calçada

Exo‑Earths and the search for life elsewhere: a brief history

Brad Carter, University of Southern Queensland; Belinda Nicholson, University of Southern Queensland, and Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland

The criteria for life on other planets is the focus of the 4th Australian Exoplanet Workshop, hosted by the University of Southern Queensland this week. The first in this series on exoplanets looks at…

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