Allen Versfeld

Recent Articles

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  Why Don't Titan's Seas Have Deltas?

  May 13, 2025

  Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, looks more Earth-like on its surface than any other place in the Solar System. With its thick atmosphere and liquid methane rain, it has lakes, rivers, sand dunes and seas. But appearances can be deceiving and in other ways, Titan is in fact a very alien world. One baffling difference, recently discovered, is that Titan's rivers do not seem to form deltas when they reach the sea.

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  African Space Agency takes flight

  May 04, 2025

  On 20 April, 2025, the African Space Agency (AfSA) was formally launched at an inauguration ceremony in Cairo, Egypt. The decision to create AfSA was made by the African Union (AU) in 2016 to coordinate the continent's approach to space, and enact the African Space Policy and Strategy. AfSA will coordinate African space cooperation with Europe and other international partners.

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  More Greenhouse Gases Means Less Room for Satellites

  April 13, 2025

  Whether your views on climate change are informed by politics or science, it's getting harder to ignore it's effects on our lives down here on Earth. But a surprising study reports that increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere could also be affecting the problem of space junk. As the heat energy stored in our atmosphere increases, its ability to scrub debris from Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) decreases, increasing the risk of satellite collisions and making it more likely that humanity could lose access to space entirely.