The first human to walk on the moon has taken one big step into the great beyond. Neil Armstrong, pilot and first to step off the LEM footpad with the immortal words captured above has passed away: [Read more…]
We know there’s some weird and rare stellar denizens in the cosmic jungle, galaxies hollowe dinto rungs like giant Ferris Wheels, dark matter pockets, pocean planets and diamond worlds. But it turns out one species of misfit may be way more common than thought. Cannibal stars, sometimes referred to as vampires, that suck the life blood out of their neighbors for a flush of youthful glory and may shape the evolution of future stars and planets: [Read more…]
If you want to know who murdered Pluto, it was Mike Brown! Mike greatly expanded the our understanding of the solar system with the discovery of Eris and several other Kuiper Belt Objects objects. He and two team members have landed the ‘Nobel Prize’ of astronomy: [Read more…]
Lunar Dawn circa 3 billion years ago by Karen Wehrstein
Courtesy of our moon, you get an extra long Saturday this weekend: one second longer. It’s because of the earth-moon interaction, the moon tugs on the earth’s tidal bulge, earth returns the favor by accelerating the moon slightly and pushing it further away. So every now and then we have to add in an extra second to keep up with it all. That day is today: [Read more…]
You didn’t know we had a secret space shuttle? I thought everyone knew! Well, this one is pretty small, and it’s unmanned. Which helps explain why it spent over a year in orbit: [Read more…]
The online Slooh observatory will be tracking a near earth asteroid big enough to cause global fall out this evening, and you can watch it live! [Read more…]
NASA’s SOHO and Venus in transit. Awesome! And there are more photos, I’ll be adding to this for the next few hours time permitting. [Read more…]
The eclipse from space
I’ve seen a few eclipses, even a total one as a kid. But I have never seen what I saw last night. I leave my office after a long, long day — which is why this site has been unattended the last few days — and totally forgot about the eclipse. Got into the parking lot and the light looked damn weird. The sun was just starting to think about setting. It was bright, cars and buildings were lit up all orange on one side, and yet it was dim. Hard to explain. Light twinkled oddly through the tree tops.
A few minutes later I was driving west, straight into it, and through the tinted top part of my windshield I could see it plain as day: something was taking a big black bite out of the sun! This is about what it looked like: [Read more…]
Get set, there will be a partial solar eclipse visible in some parts of the nation this evening and if you live a little west of thew Mississippi River you might catch a glimpse (Do not stare right into it, or you’re just an idiot): [Read more…]
Normal moon left, super moon right, click image for embigulation
Alas, the weather did not cooperate here in Central Texas for viewing the super moon. But we did get some badly needed rain. There were clear skies in other parts of the world though, and many photos have been posted. I’ll be adding a few below the fold throughout the morning. [Read more…]