Science & Space

Explosions, signals and missions that went wrong.

5 rabbit holes

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  Strange physicsWhy some sand dunes singIn a few deserts around the world, a sand dune can suddenly start to hum, a low drone you can hear from kilometres away. Marco Polo blamed evil spirits. Physicists have spent decades arguing about what really makes the sound.3 stages · 22 min
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  ExplorationThe deepest hole on EarthIn 1970 Soviet scientists started drilling near the Norwegian border to see how deep they could go. Nineteen years later they were more than 12 kilometres down. They found water where there shouldn’t be any, fossils of tiny plankton, and rock too hot to continue.2 stages · 9 min
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  SETIThe Wow! signalAugust 1977. An astronomer looking through computer printouts from an Ohio radio telescope sees a burst so strong and so narrow that he circles it and writes “Wow!” in the margin. It lasted 72 seconds. It has never been heard again.3 stages · 1 h 10 min
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  ImpactsThe Tunguska explosion30 June 1908, Siberia. A fireball crosses the sky and explodes above the forest with the force of a large nuclear bomb. Some 80 million trees are flattened over more than 2,000 square kilometres. Yet nobody ever found a crater.2 stages · 15 min
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  SpaceflightApollo 13: “Houston, we’ve had a problem”April 1970, two days into the flight to the Moon. An oxygen tank explodes and cripples the spacecraft. Three astronauts squeeze into the small lunar module, built for two people and two days, and use it as a lifeboat to get home.3 stages · 29 min