For most people, if they are aware of a meteor shower, it is the Perseid shower in August. It’s pretty reliable, and it takes place at a time of year when being outside in the wee hours of the morning…
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Data in Trickles and Floods
In July 2015 the New Horizons spacecraft flew by the dwarf planet Pluto, taking thousands of images and as many other scientific measurements over the course of a few weeks and days. Views both global and close-up revealed the nature…
In Praise of Darkness
A classic science fiction story (“Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov) was set on a planet in the midst of a globular cluster, its sky ablaze with six suns that prevent true night from ever falling. Once every 2000 years or so,…
Four for the Solstice
Four short takes for the 2023 June solstice. 1. Solstice At 10:58 a.m. EDT (14:58 UTC) on June 21st, the Sun will have reached its highest point in the sky as seen from the northern hemisphere, and the lowest point…
Farewell to the Leap Second
In a few days we will reach the December solstice, with the shortest hours of sunlight in the northern hemisphere (a few seconds less than 9 hours and 35 minutes in Lynchburg, Virginia) and the longest days in the southern…
Getting to Space
The hardest part of getting into space is the first 30 or 40 miles. A fully fueled rocket, at its heaviest, fighting its way through the thickest part of the atmosphere—once you get past this it’s not exactly easy to…
The Nature of Science
This is an unusual post for StarStruck. Only one image, and that one more than 400 years old, and no videos. This is a speech I gave to Lynchburg College’s (now the University of Lynchburg) Senior Symposium class in 2010.…
Causality Is Dead
This is a little different from the usual subjects of this blog, but may be of interest to many of you. I have been reading a book about the birth of quantum mechanics. Although I taught it for decades, I…
Morning Musings
One of the things that attracts most of us who love science is its explanatory power. Previously mysterious phenomena are revealed as the working out of natural processes. Rainbows are due to refraction through raindrops. Those wandering points of light…
Lots of Sunshine
The June Solstice this year occurs at 6:07 am EDT on Thursday, June 21st. This marks the farthest north that the Sun travels in our sky, the official beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere and winter in the southern…
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