Let’s talk today’s big science news! I remember — or I think I remember — Carl Sagan saying in the original Cosmos, “We are made of starstuff.” That’s true. We are. The Big Bang produced a lot of plasma and a lot of hydrogren. The hydrogen came together and formed the first stars. As starsContinue reading “Cosmic Death and Rebirth: The Discovery of Supernova ASASSN-15lh”
Category Archives: Astronomy
Space Brings Back Boyish Wonder
There’s a Carbon Leaf song that’s an especial favorite of mine — “Blue Ridge Laughing” from Ether-Electrified Porch Music has this magnificent line: “Space brings back boyish wonder.” I cite it from time to time, especially on clear nights when you can see clear into infinity, such as here or especially here: The sky tonightContinue reading “Space Brings Back Boyish Wonder”
Pluto and the Solar Systems of Distant Suns
This morning, on my way into the office, I was thinking about Pluto and why its surface appears to be so young. I began to formulate a hypothesis in which Pluto, in the early days of the solar system, was actually in the inner solar system, then through gravitational interactions it was flung into theContinue reading “Pluto and the Solar Systems of Distant Suns”
Apollo-Soyuz: Forty Years Later
I’m too young to remember the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Thankfully, NASA produced this video to commemorate the 40th-anniversary of the joint American-Soviet space mission, the ASTP. For this space nerd, seeing Deke Slayton and Alexei Leonov in space together is downright magical. Sometimes I think about a world where we didn’t abandon Apollo and the ASTPContinue reading “Apollo-Soyuz: Forty Years Later”
Making Spacescapes
For no particular reason, I wanted to make a spacescape. I have graphics editing software (specifically, the GIMP), and I was sure there was a tutorial online somewhere. Google was my friend, and within two minutes I had an article that fit my needs — How to Create Space Scenes Quickly and Easily in Gimp.Continue reading “Making Spacescapes”
On Carl Sagan’s Message to Martian Explorers
There’s a link that’s making the rounds on my Facebook and Twitter timelines — io9 has an article about a message recorded by Carl Sagan to future Mars explorers. I shared the link on my Facebook wall. This is the comment I appended to it: Carl Sagan did a lot when I was very smallContinue reading “On Carl Sagan’s Message to Martian Explorers”
On a Place in the Universe
Some cosmic thoughts for a Saturday morning, taken from a Serbian proverb: Or as Carl Sagan puts it: Cosmic!
On the New Horizons Stamp Petition
A few days ago my parents told me that my three-year-old niece had developed an interest in astronomy, that she had been asking her parents questions about Mars and Uranus, and she wanted to know what all the planets. “Oh,” I said. “That’s easy.” And I rattled off the list of planets, from Mercury onContinue reading “On the New Horizons Stamp Petition”
On Space and Boyish Wonder
You’d be forgiven for mistaking today for spring even though, by the calendar and by Copernicus, spring is still a month away. Nonetheless, today was gorgeous, and there was nothing prettier than seeing the crescent moon, itself a bare sliver, in the western sky at twilight with Venus and Jupiter shining brightly higher in theContinue reading “On Space and Boyish Wonder”
On the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Dayton Ward reminds us today that, twenty-six years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lift-off, killing all seven members of her crew. In my brother’s attic is, I assume, a box filled with newspapers I collected at the time, articles on the crew, articles on the disaster itself, articles on the investigation,Continue reading “On the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster”