New Horizons
milhayser | July 30, 2015New measurements from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft revealed that Pluto, named for the Greco-Roman god once called Hades, is a little more swollen with ice than previously thought, making it the biggest trans-Neptunian object—more voluminous than rival dwarf planet Eris, which is nevertheless more massive. Greg Laden explains why these orbs are not considered full-fledged planets on his blog.
While Eris orbits the Sun within the 'scattered disc,' Pluto orbits in the Kuiper Belt, a collection of gravelly snowballs that Ethan Siegel says outnumber all the planets in our galaxy. The Kuiper Belt…
milhayser | December 5, 2014On Aardvarchaeology, Martin Rundkvist compiles his best November tweets into one riotous and insightful document. First up: "This chocolate praline contains something that looks and smells like shampoo. Apparently it’s flavoured with elderflower extract." Elderberry has been used for medicinal purposes worldwide for thousands of years, but maybe the praline makers should use the delicious berry extract instead of flower. Kim Krisberg considers less odorous possibilities on The Pump Handle, citing research that says advantages such as "proximity to parks and open spaces" help children start…
carlyo | June 12, 2013Today's guest blog post is by Featured Science Author Dr. Fred Bortz
Tune in Thursday, June 13th on our Facebook page at 10 am EST to discuss this post with Dr. Bortz!
More than ten years after it was posted at the "Ask Dr. Fred" page "Why Isn't Pluto a Planet Anymore?" remains by far the most popular page at "Dr. Fred's Place" on the web, getting anywhere between 50 and 100 hits on a typical day.
That's a lot of interest in an icy world that is smaller than the moon and so far away that sunlight takes at least 4 hours to reach it! What could possibly be so fascinating?
The reason, of…
esiegel | January 24, 2010There are plenty of examples in the music world where a cover of a song is strikingly different from the original and still interesting. Take the song You Spin Me Round, which cracked the top 5 all over Europe and North America when Dead or Alive released it. (Click for video.) 15 years later, Dope released a cover of the song in a completely different style, with an incredibly different feel. Take a listen:
It's a pretty good cover. It's interesting to listen to, it's decidedly different from the original, and it's still instantly recognizable. But by time I get to the end of the…
esiegel | May 15, 2008Sure, astronomers might not call it a planet anymore, but every schoolchild knows how badass Pluto really is. It's got a giant moon, Charon, and two smaller ones, Hydra and Nix.
In addition to being colder than ice with an average temperature of 44 Kelvin (that's colder than liquid nitrogen), I'm here to bring you the news that despite the fact that it's so cold and so far from the Sun, Pluto has been melting!
Since its discovery by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930, astronomers have been fascinated with Pluto, making very careful observations of it, trying to learn more about this bizarre, icy sphere…