People have been
upset about Pluto's demotion for some time now. (While
classical music fans have just had a love/hate relationship with this whole process.) But
astronomical hate mail has never been as cute as the missives Neil deGrasse Tyson has received over the years from tots upset at poor Pluto's ouster.
posted by greekphilosophy
on Mar 15, 2010 -
46 comments
One of the hardest things for people to understand about the universe is just
how big it is. There are three approaches typically used in describing its size. The first, the song, was pioneered by
Monty Python (NSFWish, wireframe of naked woman) and then done just as masterfully by
the Animaniacs. The second, the zoom method has been featured
twice before here on the blue. The third method is the
comparison method (skip to 1:30, unless you like looking at a image of the solar system with terrible distorted orbits), yielding some truly
beautiful videos (this one found via the fantastic
Bad Astronomy blog). These videos go, at most, as far as looking at the local cluster or the Virgo Supercluster. There are two videos that attempt to show the size of the entire universe,
one unsuccessfully (although with great music) and
one successfully. (Warning, all links except the first one, are to YT videos).
[more inside]
posted by Hactar
on Jul 1, 2009 -
74 comments
"
The arc of the Milky Way seen from a truly dark location is part of our planet's natural heritage," said Connie Walker, and astronomer from the U.S. National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. Yet "more than one fifth of the world population, two thirds of the U.S. population and
one half of the European Union population have already lost naked eye visibility of the
Milky Way." In these areas, people are effectively living in
perennial moonlight. They rarely realize it because they still experience the sky to be brighter under a full moon than under new moon conditions. "
Reducing the number of lights on at night could help conserve energy, protect wildlife and benefit human health," astronomer Malcolm Smith of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. One study found an increased risk of breast cancer for women living in areas with the most light pollution (
abstract). Some communities are
embracing their dark skies, such as
the New Zealand community of Tekapo, possibly home to first "
Starlight Reserve," waiting on UNESCO's official approval. Not sure where to look
in the vast night sky?
Follow some guidelines, or
check the view in Chile,
Queensland, Australia, or
Texas.
posted by filthy light thief
on Jun 13, 2009 -
74 comments
Around the World in 80 Telescopes Starting at 09:00 UT on April 3 (figure out what time that is for you
here) join in for a 24 hour webcast visiting 80 of the world's astronomical observatories. What are the astronomers up to? What is it like to spend a night at a telescope?
[more inside]
posted by kms
on Apr 1, 2009 -
4 comments
Tonight NASA is scheduled to launch the
Kepler Mission (named after planetary legislator
Johannes Kepler) with the goal of finding Earth size planets in orbit around stars in the
Cygnus-Lyra region of the sky. Over the next 3 and a half years it will maintain a nearly unblinking gaze on the approximately 100 thousand stars in the region. NASA expects it to find about
50 Earth size planets, as well as hundreds that are larger. You can watch the launch live on
NASA TV.
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posted by borkencode
on Mar 6, 2009 -
42 comments
Astronomer Tycho Brahe was one of the more colorful characters of the scientific Renaissance. He
lost his nose in a duel; flouted the rules of Danish nobility and married a commoner; built, on the island of Hven,
Uraniborg, the best astronomical observatory of his day; kept a
beer-drinking pet moose; and amassed the data that would ultimately allow Johannes Kepler to derive the
three laws of planetary motion.
His chief sponsor had been Danish king Frederick II, but Frederick's heir, Christian IV, quarreled with Tycho and kicked him out of Hven. Insulted, Brahe left Denmark for Prague and the sponsorship of Rudolph II. New evidence has emerged suggesting that the offended king
may have had Tycho assassinated.
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posted by CheeseDigestsAll
on Jan 18, 2009 -
30 comments
Once every 27 years or so, the mysterious binary star system of
Epsilon Aurigae undergoes an eclipse, lasting nearly two years. This gives this system the distinction of having both the longest eclipse and the longest period of any known binary system. However, it is not clear why the eclipses last so long, or even what the structure of the system actually looks like--
the main star is a supergiant, with a radius as big as the distance from the earth to the sun, and yet its light is dimmed for two years by something yet bigger. The next eclipse is due to begin in August of 2009, and as part of the
International Year of Astronomy in 2009, amateur astronomers are being called on to make their own observations of the changing brightness of Epsilon Aurigae. If you want to try it yourself, you can read the
training guide to find out how to do your own observations and report them. In addition, the two scientists who organized observations of the previous eclipse both have webpages [
1,
2] which are coordinating the organization for the upcoming observation. If you want to learn more about the science behind ε Aurigae, a good rundown with links to papers is available
here.
posted by Upton O'Good
on Jan 8, 2009 -
32 comments
"Some people hustle pool; some people hustle cars. Then there's that man you've heard about, the one who hustles stars!" Greetings, greetings, fellow stargazers! Looking toward your computer screen today, you'll find
Jack Horkheimer: Star Gazer, a five-minute show that has been in weekly production for over thirty years, airing in-betweensies on many PBS stations. Contrary to the
cheeky bio on
Jack's website, it wasn't always easy for Jack to "keep looking up!"
This 9/19/1982 Miami Herald article reveals that he grew up as a sickly boy, eventually meandering to Florida to stumble into his avocation and vocation as Director of the
Miami Space Transit Planetarium, only to watch his life's work almost crumble due to a PR nightmare. Since then, however, things have been much better:
Star Gazer (
originally called Star Hustler, then changed in 1997 due to internet search engines leading people to Hustler Magazine's website) has been nationally syndicated since 1985 (and internationally since 1989), chalking up over 1500 episodes. A
book of his
monthly cartoons has been published. The Astronomical League sponsors
The Jack Horkheimer Award for Exceptional Service by a Young Astronomer. (2008's winner.) So whether you find Jack
avuncular or
creepy, Jack Horkheimer is, to many, the face of popular backyard astronomy.
[more inside]
posted by not_on_display
on Dec 16, 2008 -
37 comments
A sixteen year long astronomical study, led by Dr. Reinhard Genzel of the Max-Planck-Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, has provided what is considered to be the best empirical evidence yet of the existence of
supermassive black holes, specifically one a relatively cozy 27,000 light years away.... "The
stellar orbits [QT] in the
Galactic Centre [QT] show that the central mass concentration of four million solar masses must be a black hole,
beyond any reasonable
doubt."
[more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth
on Dec 13, 2008 -
43 comments
