Syzdekistan

Wednesday, Mercury will pass between the Earth and the Sun in what is called a transit. Transits of Mercury are pretty rare, they only occur 12 times a century and the last one was in 2003 (see photo). Transits of Venus are even more rare. Transits used to be very important to astronomy. By having [...]

Today NASA reinstated a Space Shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission had been previously cancelled due to safety concerns after the Columbia disaster in 2003. Flights since then had been to the International Space Station which could offer refuge in case of a problem with the shuttle. The Hubble is an [...]

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) General Assembly ruled last week on a new definition of planet: 1. It must have enough mass and gravity to gather itself into a ball. 2. It must orbit the sun. 3. It must reign supreme in its own orbit having gravitationally “cleared the neighborhood” of other competing bodies. Since [...]

Today is aphelion day — the day the Earth is farthest from the sun. The eccentricity of the Earth’s orbit means we are about 3 million miles further from the Sun then we are at perihelion. Of course our climate is dominated by the 23.5° tilt of the Earth’s axis so it is summer here [...]

NASA astronomers got some cool video of a 10 inch diameter meteoroid hitting the moon. You may think that is a small object, and it is. However, it was moving fast. When it hit at 85,000 miles per hour, that kinetic energy was mostly changed to heat energy, 4 billion joules worth, creating a flash [...]