I’ve talked at length about Solar Flares. They are massively energetic, and due to the Sun’s 11 year maximum period of activity, we have seen a lot of powerful ones this year. With the holidays in full swing, sometimes the Universe can put up its own lights. Which is More Powerful? A Solar Flare or all the Lights on Earth during the season? First of all, we need to figure out how much energy lights produce, and roughly how many homes put them up, and for how long. We will have to make some assumptions, but we will start...
Have you ever wondered how they differ? The Asteroid Belt, shown above, consists of hundreds of thousands of rocks, with all kinds of different shapes, ranging in size from the Dwarf Planet Ceres at 950 Km in Diameter, down to small bits the size of dust particles. It lies between Mars and Jupiter. The Kuiper Belt (pronounced Kai-per) consists of Icy rocks, and it a major source of short-period Comets in the Solar system. Extending beyond the planet Neptune, Pluto was discovered to be one of the largest objects in the belt. The mysterious Oort cloud is a collection of...
Time to celebrate! It’s the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the longest in the southern. The first day of Winter here, and the first of Summer down south. Although as a Canadian, Winter usually starts a lot earlier. Why do we have seasons? A common misconception is that the Earth is closer to the Sun in Summer, and further in Winter. Well I can tell you the Earth reaches perihelion (its closest point to the Sun) on January 3rd, and it certainly isn’t a warm day in Canada, historically speaking. So the reason for the...
A set of questions I get from kids and adults alike while doing my Astronomy in Action planetarium shows consists of the following: Does the Universe have an end? How big is the Universe? Where is the center of the Universe? What is the ‘Observable Universe?’ How is it different from just saying ‘the Universe?’ First of all, let me say that it is really hard to imagine the Universe as it is, even with a solid understanding of large-scale Physics. This is because there is no analogy in our lives, no reference point in our everyday experience. It’s very...
The New York Times has come out with some amazing Space features lately, and the latest one is the best visualization of exoplanets I’ve seen. With the Kepler mission’s discovery of nearly 3000 candidate planets, it’s a lot of work to put each system on paper, or digital paper for that matter. Check it out here. Enjoy some exoplanet surfing, from the comfort of your own home.
With the extra lights shining in cities across the world at this time of year, we are outputting a significant number of photons into Space. So many that Satellites in orbit have been able to see the difference. In the maps below, the areas in green are locations where the brightness has increased by as much as 50%. Being able to see the difference from Space is amazing. The maps also exist for Caribbean nations, where much of the population celebrates Christmas. Now I’m not avoiding any one particular holiday in my use of the phrase ‘holiday lights,’ because it turns...
It’s been an amazing week for detection and study of water in our Solar system. Just last week we received the first results of the Rosetta mission’s analysis of water from comet 67P. Now we’ve received the latest breakthrough from the Curiosity Rover on Mars, results on Water, Methane, and even Organic material! The Sample Analysis at Mars instrument (SAM) took measurements of the Martian atmosphere over a period of 20 months, and for two of these months in late 2013 and early 2014, the Methane levels were 10 times as high as measurements before and after the spike. “This temporary...
Voyager 1, launched way back in 1977, is still giving us Science, far away beyond the influence of the Sun. In the past few years, the spacecraft has passed the boundary between the Solar System and the Interstellar Medium, the so called Heliopause. This has given scientists the first ever direct look at the Space between stars. Since then, Voyager has felt some interesting shock waves, which are being referred to as ‘Tsunami Waves.’ When the Sun emits a Coronal Mass Ejection, the charged particles travel through the Solar System as a pressure wave. When this wave hits the Heliopause...
Pretty cool footage of the Orion capsule as it lands in the Pacific Ocean after last week’s test flight. Recovered 600 Miles South-West of San Diego, the test flight was a complete success. The footage from the airborne drone is especially amazing.
I am an astronomer, and have spent vast amount of my time studying Space and Astronomy, and even a bit of Planetary Geology. As a Science communicator and someone interested in how the world works, all types of Science fascinate me, and sometimes stories pop up that are really interesting to me. It also helps that the current exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre is about the Brain. This has me spending a lot of time learning how the Brain works and how it has evolved over the generations that led to our current human brains and bodies. So in the...
