Everyone responds to tragedies like the recent horror in Connecticut in a different way, each of us seeking comfort where we can find it. There is no real sense to be made of the evil that slaughters six and seven…
Year: 2012
Astronomical Travel
Most of the time astronomy is not a hobby that requires extensive travel. All that is usually required is a clear sky and the curiosity to actually look up into the heavens where wonders abound. Perhaps a little attention to…
Survivor
The formation of our solar system, with multiple planets and other bodies of varying sizes and compositions—this was not a simple process. The more planetary systems we discover around other stars, the more we confirm the truth of this. Scientists…
Will Curiosity Find Life On Mars?
Well, probably not like this. But it does carry instrumentation designed to look for biosignatures, evidence that simple microbial life may have existed at some point in the Martian past, even if it no longer does so.
Tagged with: Mars Curiosity Rover
Once In A Blue Moon
I must confess that I am puzzled by people who ask me if I am excited about a “blue moon”—commonly understood to mean a second full moon in the same calendar month. It’s nice and big and bright, but it…
Tagged with: blue moon
Neil Armstrong (1930-2012)
Anyone above the age of 50 remembers where they were when Neil Armstrong took his famous one small step on the moon. It was the culmination of an age-old dream, to fly through the sky and to set foot on…
Tagged with: Neil Armstrong
Curiosity’s Communication With Earth
You may have read that the Curiosity Mars rover is communicating with Earth mostly by relaying data through one of the spacecraft orbiting Mars, and wondered why that is so. Even if you haven’t wondered, I have! Hence this post.…
Tagged with: Mars Curiosity Rover
How To Satisfy Your Curiosity About Curiosity
Quote: “This is just insane. The Internet is still totally exploding over what happened…” Rather than try to recap everything, I’m just going to point you to the two best web sources: the Curiosity site itself, and Emily Lakdawalla’s blog,…
Tagged with: Mars Curiosity Rover
Curiosity on Mars–One Way or the Other
In just a few more days, the largest and most complex spacecraft ever to land on Mars will either have six wheels on the ground or will be a smoking billion-dollar crater. I’ve posted this video before, but it’s cool…
Tagged with: Mars Curiosity Rover
Pluto’s Fifth Moon
Poor little Pluto! Every third-grader’s favorite planet got officially downgraded to a “dwarf planet” in 2006, and nothing’s been the same since. Although planetary scientists have known for more than 20 years that Pluto is just one of the larger…
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