Space and astronomy news
[/caption] You may have heard that there is an 86 per cent chance that in a mere million years or so Gliese 710 will drift close enough to the solar system to perturb the Oort cloud and perhaps send a rain of comets down into the inner solar system. Also, you have probably heard that …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Say No To Mass Extinction”
[/caption] It’s about fifty years since Frank Drake sent out our first chat request to the wider universe. I say about as I think the official date is 11 April 1960 – but I notice a lot of fifty year anniversary blogs and interviews are already being published, so what the heck, I’m not waiting …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – How To Impress An Alien (Or Not)”
The most powerful operational heavy-ion collider in the world, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) recently recorded the highest ever temperature created in an Earth-based laboratory of 4 trillion Kelvin. Achieved at the almost speed of light collision of gold ions, this resulted in the temporary existence of quark-gluon soup – something first seen at …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Home Made Quark-Gluon Soup”
Short on fuel, but good at astrophysics? It is possible to tour the solar system on less than 30 Altairian dollars a day by using the Interplanetary Transport Network (ITN). The ITN is based on gravity assist manoeuvres and low energy transfer orbits around and between Lagrange points. Using the ITN, it is theoretically possible …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Hitchhikers Guide To The Solar System”
The axiom that what goes up, must come down doesn’t apply to most places in the universe, which are largely empty space. For most places in the universe, what goes up, just goes up. On Earth, the tendency of upwardly-mobile objects to reverse course in mid-flight and return to the surface is, to say the least, remarkable. …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Gravity, Schmavity”
You should always put out the old dinner set when you have astronomers around. It all starts innocently enough with imagine this wineglass is the Earth rotating on its axis… But then someone decides that large plate is just right to show the orientation of an orbital plane and more wine glasses are brought to …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Don’t Make a Meal of It”
Escaping a gravity well is never an easy proposition. Unlike other kinds of wells there are no walls, so your options are ilimited. Over the years we humans have experimented with a variety of ways of getting out – with varying levels of success. Trying to build your way out was first attempted – at …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Only Way Is Up”
My dog keeps me in touch with the universe. There are important reasons why he has to go out into the backyard about 9pm and then again around 5.00am – and at both times there are stars out. He has this very particular sound, the canine equivalent of ahem, to let me know it’s time. …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Let’s Go Around The Room”
Living on a planet comes with certain advantages. Gravity, for instance. The only reason hot air rises on Earth is that colder, denser air will always fall to displace it upwards. On the International Space Station everyone has to sleep next to a fan or they end up being enveloped in a bubble of their …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – Wake Me When We Get There”
Whatever hectic pressures may be at play in your life, you can always look forward to one quiet moment each week to contemplate the night sky in peace. I refer, of course, to when you have to take out the garbage – or as the Americans would have it – the trash. Bin night observing …
Continue reading “Astronomy Without A Telescope – More Than Meets The Eye”