Astronomy
Spirals, Tides, and M51
Spiral galaxies are undoubtedly one of the most beautiful structures in the universe. Yet, their simple elegance belies a complex…
Forming Planets Around Binary Stars
[/caption] Fanciful science fiction and space art frequently depict the lovely visage of a twin sunset where a pair of…
Megaparsec
[/caption] A megaparsec is a million parsecs (mega- is a prefix meaning million; think of megabyte, or megapixel), and as…
How Galaxies Lose Their Gas
As galaxies evolve, many lose their gas. But how they do this is a point of contention. One possibility is…
dotAstronomy Conference
I'm attending the .Astronomy (dotAstronomy) Conference this week Leiden, The Netherlands, where we are discussing novel concepts of thinking and…
Solo Sailor Spots Pacific Bolide
Solo around the world sailor Jessica Watson spotted a bright bolide over the pacific during the peak of last weeks…
High School Students Get Published in Astrophysics Journal
From the left: Klaus Beuermann (group leader), Jens Diese (back,teacher), and the high-school students Joshua Zachmann (front), Alexander-Maria Ploch (back),…
Who Invented the Telescope
The history of the telescope dates back to the early 1600s. Galileo Galilei is commonly credited for inventing the telescope,…
Altazimuth
Altazimuth is a contraction of altitude-azimuth; in astronomy it most often refers to a type of telescope mount (and is…