Blog Profile / Bad Astronomy
| URL : | http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/ | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Academics / Astronomy | |
| Posts on Regator: | 5173 | |
| Posts / Week: | 18.9 | |
| Archived Since: | February 24, 2008 | |
Blog Post Archive
Big Picture Science: Doomsday live show
My friends at SETI’s Big Picture Science podcast – what used to be called the Are We Alone radio show – want to put together a live show for the October 27 Bay Area Science Festival, a huge public gathering of folks where they can learn about science. Show More Summary
Wheels on Mars
Speaking of amazing pictures from Mars, over the weekend Emily Lakdawalla tweeted about a shot from the Curiosity rover that is simply too too cool:
I love the perspective on this! [Click to hotwheelsenate - and you really should to see just how awesome this picture is.]
It was taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) on October 6, 2012. Show More Summary
Veronicarmageddon
My pal Veronica Belmont hosts a show on TechFeed called Fact or Fictional, where she investigates the science of a movie based on viewer suggestions. She recently took on the wonderful fantastic gawd-awful piece of festering offal "Armageddon",...Show More Summary
A dying star weaves a spiral in the night
The number of ways stars can find to die bizarre deaths will never cease to amaze me.
Some explode, supernovae which blast radiation across the Universe. Others fade away slowly over hundreds of billions of years, longer than the cosmos has been around. Show More Summary
ISS^3
Here’s a slice of weird: a photo taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station of three small cubes floating by:
What could they be? Balok’s warning buoy? Tiny little Borg ships? The ISS trying to roll a crit 18?
Nope. Those are CubeSats, small satellites about 10 cm (4 inches) on a side and having a mass up to a little over a kilo. Show More Summary
Curiosity got shaved?
Yesterday, the Mars rover Curiosity was using its scoop for the first time to grab a sample of Martian regolith (the crumbled sand, rock and dust covering the planet) when scientists back here on Earth spotted something funny looking. Show More Summary
The Sky Is Calling
So I sit down to go through my email, and it’s the usual slew of press releases, spam, space enthusiast questions, and marriage proposals. No, wait, I don’t get those last ones. Still, it’s a lot of email.
But one cataches my eye. The subject line is "Space Pop". Show More Summary
Vaccines: opinions are not facts
There’s an old phrase among critical thinkers: you’re entitled to your own opinions, but not your own facts. The idea is that these are two different things: opinions are matters of taste or subjective conclusions, while facts standShow More Summary
One small tread for Curiosity, one giant leap for roverkind
I’m posting this just because I can: a closeup of the tread track left by the Mars Curiosity rover’s wheel in the sand:
That image was taken by the left MASTCAM on Sol 57, the 57th Mars day after the rover landed – October 3, 2012 to...Show More Summary
SpaceX Falcon 9 lost an engine on the way up; Dragon on its way to ISS
Last night (Sunday October 7), SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket with a Dragon capsule full of supplies on a mission to the International Space Station. The Dragon was deployed successfully (as were its solar panels to give it power) and it’s on its way to ISS. However, not everything went as planned. Show More Summary
Jaw-dropping rotating 3D nebula
A little over 2000 light years away, toward the constellation of Cepheus, is a place where stars are being born. It’s a nebula, a gas cloud, and it’s called IC 1396. It’s monstrous, well over a hundred light years across – even at its...Show More Summary
SpaceX set to launch Dragon to the ISS tonight!
Tonight, Sunday, October 7, at 20:35 Eastern (US) time (or 00:35 UTC on the morning of October 8) the private company SpaceX is scheduled to launch a Falcon 9 rocket to the International Space Station (PDF). Sitting on the top of the...Show More Summary
The US Congress Anti-Science Committee
[NB: As always with posts like this, I strongly urge you to read my note about posts covering politics and religion as well as my commenting policy before leaving a comment.]
Not too long ago, I (and pretty much the whole internet) wrote about the ridiculous and honestly offensive statements made by Representative Todd Akin (R-MO). Show More Summary
The Church of Who?
I have been remiss about keeping up with the new season of Doctor Who – I have the episodes recorded but haven’t had a chance to watch yet, so no spoilers, sweeties! – but this has not in any way tarnished my love for the show.
But love has different levels, different strengths. Show More Summary
Time lapse: Very Little Stars
I don’t know about you, but after this week I could use a nice time lapse video right about now. So soak up Very Little Stars, made by Ben Wiggins. It starts off like most do, showing beautiful nature scenery and using a slowly moving...Show More Summary
The Universe is still expanding. As expected.
The Universe is getting bigger!
But then, we knew this. We’ve known it for a long time! The reason you know Edwin Hubble’s name at all is because in the 1920s he was critical in figuring out the Universe was expanding. He and many other people did this by looking at a specific kind of star, called Cepheid variables. Show More Summary
The Helix has pink eye
One of the most amazing objects in the sky is the Helix Nebula, an expanding cloud of gas and dust surrounding a dying star. This type of object is called a planetary nebula, and it’s formed when a star a bit more massive than the Sun turns into a red giant and blows off its outer layers. Show More Summary
Time lapse: stunning Australian skies over a pathfinding array
In the Australian Outback, hundreds of kilometers from the noise and lights of any city, stand three dozen radio telescopes, each a dozen meters across. Working as a single unit, they patrol the skies looking at cosmic objects emitting...Show More Summary
To see little, build big
One of the greatest ironies of physics is that to see the smallest things in the Universe we need huge machines. The Compact Muon Solenoid detector (or just CMS for short) is one of two extremely complex – and very, very large – pieces...Show More Summary
Q&BA: How do we know some meteorites come from Mars?
This Q&BA video’s a bit longer than usual, but what the heck. It’s a fun topic!
First: every now again when I have time I do an interactive live video chat on Google+ where people can ask me questions about space and astronomy. I call...Show More Summary