It is that time of year again where those “once in a lifetime” kind of astronomy hoaxes begin circulating on social media and wow an uninformed crowd. Here’s a hoax which I came across today purporting that Saturn will appear closer to Earth than the moon to offer an spectacular sight. Anyone with a basic understanding […]
Read more "Yet Another Facebook Hoax"In the 18th Century, navigating across the seas was fraught with danger and error. With no practical method of determining longitude, sailors had no accurate means of pinpointing their position at sea. Ships had sailed forth only to blunder off course and never return. Sailors had died by the thousands. And, mistakes had jeopardized trade […]
Read more "The Clock That Changed the World"The mere happenstance of a coincidental sequence of events, put together by the blind works of nature, has serendipitously manifested itself in this fascinating complexity around us today, that only appears to bear the illusion of an orderly calibration of deliberate design. This happenstance of undirected natural processes has led to self-directed sentient beings, pondering […]
Read more "The Happenstance of Existence"Rogue planets wander about in interstellar space, detached from their stars and dislodged from their orbits to float freely into the desolate void of the cosmos! A mechanism which presents a very intriguing phenomenon for astronomers. Although such planets are quite elusively hard to detect owing to their relatively faint nature, a number have been discovered. […]
Read more "The Wandering Planet"The asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter offers an excellent platform to survey the origins of our solar system. Therein lies Ceres, a dwarf planet and the target of an ongoing NASA mission. This dramatically cratered and inviting world has piqued the interest of astronomers and astrobiologists alike. In 2007, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft was launched in order to […]
Read more "Celestial Worlds Beyond Our Own: The Story of Ceres"It seems to me that Facebook has become a breeding ground for factually inaccurate information on almost anything. I have come to learn that with most of these pervasive viral posts, chances are there is probably going to be something which is not quite accurate. That’s why when I came across this photo today about […]
Read more "Track Santa’s Sleigh on Christmas Eve"As our sense-extending technologies continually project the far elusive reaches of the universe into the confines of our cognition, we find ourselves constantly defining the word observable. NASA’s long-awaited Hubble successor, the James Webb Telescope, is finally taking shape as it promises to give us an unprecedented glimpse into the history of our early universe. Just today […]
Read more "Peering Back into the Cosmos"Today marks a very important day indeed as it would have been Carl Sagan’s 84th birthday. I did not grow up with Carl Sagan and therefore did not experience much of the cosmic influence that he was able to engender concurrently. But, indeed, Sagan’s timeless classic words still continue to reverberate in and ring through […]
Read more "In Memory of Carl Sagan 1934 – 1996"Jupiter’s spectacular surface is further embellished by a vast cosmic wonder, a signature feature that wonderfully complements the planet’s majestically colourful layers. The largest known storm in the Solar System, Jupiter’s Giant Red Spot has always been exceedingly fascinating since its discovery in 1655 by Italian astronomer Giovanni Cassini. Located below Jupiter’s southern equatorial belt, it […]
Read more "The Raging Cosmic Superstorm"A very remarkable mission has finally been brought to pass by the European Space Agency! Set to be launched in 2022, the JUICE (JUpiter ICEy moons Explorer) will venture into the Jovian system, with planned flybys at Jupiter’s moons Europa, Callisto, and finally Ganymede! A very ambitious project to reconnoiter the basic lay of these […]
Read more "An Intrepid Jovian Explorer"
The BLOG of the cosmos 