esiegel |
“Don’t get involved in partial problems, but always take flight to where there is a free view over the whole single great problem, even if this view is still not a clear one.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein
You know how bad light pollution is for astronomy, and how hard we try to escape it. We search for the darkest skies possible, away from all man-made light sources. We try to get as high above the atmosphere to clear, stable air, we try and avoid the clouds and stay as far away from the Moon as possible.
Image credit: Gemini Observatory.
You might think, "What better way to do that than from an…
esiegel |
“Other than the laws of physics, rules have never really worked out for me.” -Craig Ferguson
When you think about the Standard Model of particle physics, you very likely think about all the matter, energy, particles, antiparticles, forces and interactions of the Universe. And you might legitimately worry that this is all there is.
Image credit: Fermilab, modified by me.
Never fear; it can't be! The Standard Model may be wonderful for what it does predict, but we know with absolute certainty that it can't be everything.
Image credit:the BICEP2 collaboration, via http://…
esiegel |
“Mr. Burns: Smithers, hand me that ice-cream scoop.
Smithers: Ice-cream scoop?
Mr. Burns: Damn it, Smithers! This isn’t rocket science, it’s brain surgery!” -The Simpsons
I bet you're one of those people who hears a term like "nuclear physics" and thinks that's hard stuff, way over your head. But in many ways, it's the easiest of all physics branches: if you can count protons and neutrons, you can do nuclear physics!
Image credit: Plasma Physics at University of Helsinki, via http://theory.physics.helsinki.fi/~plasma/lect09/12_Fusion.pdf.
Well, nuclear fusion is the process…
esiegel |
“When I was having that alphabet soup, I never thought that it would pay off.” -Vanna White
A couple of years ago, I had the idea to make a special entry showcasing 26 different astronomical phenomena, one for each letter of the alphabet. Today, that idea's been built upon and improved, and I'm happy to present to you, complete with rhyming couplets,
Image credit: Flickr user Image Editor / 11304375@N07.
from A for Aurora to Z for Zenith...
Image credit: The Milky Way through a Fisheye Lens, from Kitt Peak National Observatory.
the Astro Alphabet! Go and enjoy the whole,…
esiegel |
“All is well, provided the light returns and the eclipse does not become endless night. Dawn and resurrection are synonymous. The reappearance of the light is the same as the survival of the soul.” -Victor Hugo
During all other full Moons, I wouldn't dare show you a galaxy for Messier Monday. But when you get a total lunar eclipse on the occasion, not only do the nebulous deep-sky objects become visible, but Mars will be a more worrisome source of light pollution than the totally eclipsed Moon!
Image credit: Bethany and Amanda VanStavern at NOAO, via https://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/…
esiegel |
“I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.” -Elizabeth Taylor
You know how important music is to me, and for many of you it holds a similarly prominent place in your lives and in your hearts. A big part of that experience, going back to our youths, is that of the album cover and liner notes, something that's often lost here in the digital age of music. Have a listen to one of Nick Drake’s unique songs,
Things Behind The Sun,
while I share with you one of the most amazing art projects I've ever seen.
Image credit: flickr user…
esiegel |
"It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong." -Voltaire
It's been another great week over on the main Starts With A Bang blog, where we got to touch on a number of remarkable topics, including:
Why are we made of matter? (For Ask Ethan #31)
Trompe-l’œil Art (For our Weekend Diversion)
The Farthest Messier Object for now, M58 (For Messier Monday)
The secret of the galaxy’s most famous nebula
Incredibly rare “back-to-back” maximum eclipses are coming!
and The Lives and Deaths of Sun-Like Stars (For Throwback Thursday)
As always,…
esiegel |
“Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children.” -Dan Quayle
It wasn't that long ago that I myself was a student, and of course over the past decade-and-a-half I've been very heavily involved in education -- both formally and informally -- at a huge variety of levels. And over time, education methods have not only changed, but they continue to change, not always necessarily for the better.
Image credit: Quality Primary Resources, via http://www.qualityprimaryresources.co.uk/Phonics-Table-help-mat.
Well, this week's Ask Ethan is all about one of the…
esiegel |
“Man alone is born crying, lives complaining, and dies disappointed.” -Samuel Johnson
You might look up at our Sun in the sky, delighted at its brilliance and life-giving brightness, thankful for all it's brought to our world. But we're all just a little bit dismayed at the crushing realization that it won't live forever, and will someday burn through its fuel and die.
Image credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment: W. Sparks (STScI) and R. Sahai (JPL).
But the Sun is a very common type of star, and shares certain properties with the vast majority of them…
esiegel |
“And everything under the sun is in tune
But the sun is eclipsed by the moon.” -Pink Floyd
We normally think of eclipses as rare phenomena, something that happens only occasionally. While it's true than any particular location only experiences eclipses -- particularly solar eclipses -- infrequently, we actually experience these things around four times a year, typically, somewhere on Earth.
Image credit: Chaisson & McMillan, Astronomy Today.
If you've been paying attention, you might have heard that we're in store for a total lunar eclipse just next week here on Earth, and…
esiegel |
“The self-same atoms which, chaotically dispersed, made the nebula, now, jammed and temporarily caught in peculiar positions, form our brains; and the ‘evolution’ of brains, if understood, would be simply the account of how the atoms came to be so caught and jammed.” -William James
Summer is coming. No, not to Westeros, but to your night skies, and with it, views of the galactic plane and even the galactic center, which holds more than a few surprises inside. In particular, it contains the most famous nebula in the entire night sky: the Eagle Nebula.
Image credit: T.A.Rector (NRAO/AUI/NSF…
esiegel |
“When we are sure that we are on the right road there is no need to plan our journey too far ahead. No need to burden ourselves with doubts and fears as to the obstacles that may bar our progress. We cannot take more than one step at a time.” -Orison Swett Marden
Every Messier Monday, we've taken a look at one of the 110 remarkable and unique deep-sky objects that make up the Messier catalogue. Of all these objects, the galaxies are the largest, most distant and also the most numerous. But only one of these galaxies can be the farthest of them all!
Image credit: Steve Mandel / Adam…
esiegel |
“The contemporaries and rivals of Zeuxis were Timanthes, Androcydes, Eupompus, and Parrhasius. This last, it is said, entered into a pictorial contest with Zeuxis, who represented some grapes, painted so naturally that the birds flew towards the spot where the picture was exhibited. Parrhasius, on the other hand, exhibited a curtain, drawn with such singular truthfulness, that Zeuxis, elated with the judgment which had been passed upon his work by the birds, haughtily demanded that the curtain should be drawn aside to let the picture be seen. Upon finding his mistake, with a great degree of…
esiegel |
"For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's futures. And we are all mortal." -John F. Kennedy
After a great week over on the new Starts With A Bang blog, where we covered a whole slew of topics like:
Long Term Timekeeping (for Ask Ethan #30),
The Amazing Lives of Coral Reefs (for our Weekend Diversion),
The Biggest one of them All, M87 (for Messier Monday),
Why are there (at most) eight planets in our Solar System?,
The Multiverse is not the answer, and the great long-…
esiegel |
“You may not feel outstandingly robust, but if you are an average-sized adult you will contain within your modest frame no less than 7 × 10^18 joules of potential energy—enough to explode with the force of thirty very large hydrogen bombs, assuming you knew how to liberate it and really wished to make a point.” -Bill Bryson
At the end of every week, I entertain a reader-submitted question or suggestion for our Ask Ethan series, and every once in a while I get a question that science simply doesn't have the complete answer to. For this week, it's the question of the matter-antimatter asymmetry…
esiegel |
“There is no question that climate change is happening; the only arguable point is what part humans are playing in it.” -David Attenborough
If you had never heard of global warming before, how would you figure out whether it was happening, whether humans played a role, and what the magnitude of it was?
Image credit: NASA, Johnson Space Center, Apollo 17 crew.
Thankfully, we already have all of the scientific pieces in place, we just need for them to be put together in a way that we can understand it. What follows below is my attempt to do exactly that, with plenty of help from the…
esiegel |
“Physical reality does not require that we be pleased with its mechanism; we must see the implications of a theory for what they are and not for what we would like them to be.” -Kevin Michel
If you've been following along for a while -- particularly in light of the recent BICEP2 results -- you're well aware that not only do we understand the history of the Universe all the way back to a hot, dense expanding state, but we've gotten a window into what happened before that: there was a period of Cosmic Inflation!
Image credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration, modified by me for…
esiegel |
“I have announced this star as a comet, but since it is not accompanied by any nebulosity and, further, since its movement is so slow and rather uniform, it has occurred to me several times that it might be something better than a comet. But I have been careful not to advance this supposition to the public.” -Giuseppe Piazzi
I know there are many of you out there who miss Pluto "officially" being a planet, and I know that there are a large fraction of you who still count it as one in your hearts. After all, our Solar System is an amazing place, and the discovery of other large objects beyond…
esiegel |
“I recognize my limits, but when I look around I realise I am not living, exactly, in a world of giants.” -Giulio Andreotti
There are a huge number of deep-sky objects visible from Earth, and every Monday -- with the Messier Monday series -- I've made it my goal to tell you about one of them in spectacular fashion.
Image credit: Tenho Tuomi of Tuomi Observatory, via http://www.lex.sk.ca/astro/messier/index.html.
But only one can be the largest of them all. For today's Messier Monday, meet our supercluster's largest, most gigantic galaxy: Messier 87!
Image credit: John C. Smith of Hidden…
esiegel |
“Ten percent of the big fish still remain. There are still some blue whales. There are still some krill in Antarctica. There are a few oysters in Chesapeake Bay. Half the coral reefs are still in pretty good shape, a jeweled belt around the middle of the planet. There’s still time, but not a lot, to turn things around.” -Sylvia Earle
Each and every weekend, I'm committed to bringing you a unique and wondrous story about the Universe, along with a song to take you through it. This weekend's song comes from Laura Veirs, who sings about the beauty of a little piece of the world at night in…