If you have ever seen the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, in the sky or through a telescope, you’ll find it’s reminiscent of a small blurry, fuzzy patch, almost like a cloud. The cloudy look is similar to looking at the hazy white glow of the milky way’s concentrated disk. But that cloudy view is not all of M31. The galaxy is so far away, around 2.5 Million light years, that you’re only seeing the concentrated light from its central bulge. You’re actually missing a large portion of the galaxy because its just too dim for your eyes to see. If you can take a...
Every time a comet slowly approaches the inner solar system, astronomers get excited. We are hopeless romantics, wishing the new comet will brighten enough to be labeled the next ‘comet of the century.’ Yet we have had our hearts broken before, more often than not. The most recent fizzled comet was nearly two years ago with the burn up of comet ISON as it passed close to the Sun. It made for a spectacular view for SOHO and SDO looking at the Sun, but for the rest of us it was just another heartbreak. But once again we have hope; A...
Rosetta captured comet 67P in all its glory this past week, as it reached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun. This marks the point where the comet feels the most solar energy, resulting in streams of gas and dust shooting from the nucleus. Rosetta captured a series of images to show the brilliance of the comet. It’s been just over a year since Rosetta first injected itself into orbit around 67P on August 6th, 2014, and it has been hitching a ride around the Sun with the comet ever since, collecting amazing science data and observing the comet through its...
The Prime Meridian is the imaginary line of zero longitude, the geographic starting point for any East-West degree measurement of any place on the Earth. It was selected by an international delegation that convened in 1884 in Washington, DC. It’s a North-South imaginary line that run right through the Airy transit circle at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. This is also where we get the measurement of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). As our ability to measure position and time improves with the Global Positioning System (GPS), the precise position of the prime meridian has actually changed, moving 102 meters East...
The rendering I’ve been waiting for is finally here! A conceptual video of the flyby of Pluto from far away, leading through closest approach and turning back to see the dark side, all together. This will give you a sense of the motion of New Horizons, and the state of the Pluto system in the Kuiper Belt. The credit goes not just to NASA, but to space enthusiast Björn Jónsson, who created the rendering from the latest Pluto images and data from New Horizons. The strangest part of watching this was the sense of longing I felt as we fly past...
I’m back from vacation! And what a time it was up north seeing the Perseid meteor shower this year. With no Moon and the best dark skies I have had all summer, the shower did not disappoint, with at least 50 per hour and perhaps as many as 80 where I was viewing! I saw a few great shots on Reddit’s Astronomy sub. I didn’t catch any meteors in my photos, and not for lack of trying. I am still a rookie astrophotographer, so I had some trouble getting the settings right on my camera, even though I spent two...
It’s that magical time of year once again, the best meteor shower of the year is upon us: The Perseids! Generally the most reliable meteor shower and the one that most people know about, the August meteors have one of the highest rates, typically anywhere from 50 – 100 meteors per hour. Its amazing how well known it is considering most people don’t know there are more than nine showers during the year. Either way, this year will be particularly good for a very special reason: It’s a new Moon. The Moon is the enemy of a meteor shower. Its...
Occasionally it’s strange to see photos from the Curiosity Rover on Mars. Some of them feel distinctly like home. I can almost imagine a person walking by on the soft sand, through the pathway of rocks, and over the horizon, like a traveller navigating the desert. The latest panorama of Mars gives me that feeling in spades. And yet, this rusty world has too thin an atmosphere to allow a human to breathe. It has no water to drink, and intense radiation from the Sun that prevents life from blanketing its surface. It is human, and yet alien. No homo...
I was with my friend and fellow astronomer Jesse Rogerson discussing the fantastic book from xkcd author Randall Munroe, called What if? We were talking about the brilliant analogy used by Munroe when talking about how big a supernova is. The questions asked was “Which of the following is brighter, in terms of the amount of energy delivered to your retina?” 1. A supernova, seen from 150 Million Kilometers, about as far as the Sun is from Earth. 2. The detonation of a Hydrogen Bomb, pressed against your eyeball. What a great question. The answer, surprisingly, is the Supernova, which is...
One of the big questions in astrophysics is about variation of the laws of Physics. The laws we know and are familiar with; angular momentum, gravity, energy, are the same everywhere on Earth. But what about beyond Earth? The universe is so large and so vast, we may be in a local region where the laws of Physics are set, and our laws may be different from a distinct region somewhere else in the universe. The good news is that we can make predictions based on our understanding of physics. And with our powerful telescopes that allow us to view a variety of...
