Why does the Universe expand the way it does? Why does it accelerate? Einstein’s equations offer an explanation of gravity that works on the scale we know, but does it work on the grandest scales of space and time? Humanity now has a way to find out. The General Theory of Relativity predicts the behaviour […]
For 4.5 billion years, life evolved on planet Earth. Not once were the inhabitants of this tiny blue mote of dust able to gaze upon their home as one entity. To them it had always been an endless land without borders and an endless supply of food and resources. Most of them were blissfully unaware […]
For three years I’ve been talking about this eclipse. August 21st, 2017 is a date that feels etched into my skull. With solar eclipses being few and far between, and usually occuring far from my home in Canada, I’m excited that the great american eclipse of 2017 will be within my budget for travel. Though […]
I hate the term ‘supermoon’. In fact that is the only time I’m going to use that term during this entire post. The Moon does appear a tiny bit larger in the sky, but it’s not an uncommon thing. Here’s why this one was particularly good at driving headlines. The technical term for the full […]
Tomorrow, one way or another, the ESA’s Rosetta mission is coming to an end. In a final maneuver, the craft will attempt to land on the surface of the comet, following in the footsteps of the Philae lander, though hopefully with more success. The video shows the final orbit plan, and really highlights how amazing […]
In the past year or so it’s been interesting to see space agencies and companies produce movie-type trailers for scientific expeditions. The technology is there, and it is a proven way to inspire the general public. It also creates an opportunity to create some of the amazing science being done, even if it’s just a […]
Here is a map of the nations of the world that use the two systems of measurement. Metric shown in blue and imperial shown in red. While it’s not always good to go with the crowd, there is a reason why more nations use the metric system. An often-cited passage from the book Wild Thing […]
The challenge of learning astrophotography, and photography in general, is two-fold. There’s the work you do at the eyepiece, requiring you to choose the right settings for the right shot. Then there’s the work you do at the computer screen, the post-processing and adjustments. Ultimately the more important one is the camera work. If you […]
When you start to think about the most massive and extreme ‘stuff’ in the universe, you inevitably go to Dark Matter and Dark Energy. They exist as opposites, one with incredible gravity holding the universe together, and the other a mysterious vacuum energy tearing it apart. Studying this cosmic tug of war gives astronomers a […]
In the year 1610, it was commonly believed that the Earth was the center of the Universe, that all bodies rotated around the perfect planet, placed by god with the heavens around it. Galileo Galilei dealt a major blow to this idea, by using an early telescope to improve his vision and look up at some […]