Category Archives: Space

Breaking News: Pluto is the Largest Dwarf Planet!

Posted on July 13, 2015 by

At this writing, the New Horizons spacecraft is only hours away from its closest approach to Pluto. Except in the unlikely event that it crashes into something (*knocks on wood*) or the more likely event that its computer crashes (*knocks … Continue reading →

Posted in Current events, Space, Space exploration | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

What If? Rejects #4.2: In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream

Posted on April 7, 2015 by

Previous post in this series: Volcanoes. Q: A friend of mine is convinced that there is sound in space. There isn’t, right? Randall’s response: A guy floating in space speaks, but the speech bubble is empty. My answer: actually, there … Continue reading →

Posted in Space, What If? Rejects | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

The Sun’s big brother found

Posted on May 14, 2014 by

The Sun was born 4.57 billion years ago from a giant molecular cloud, as one of probably hundreds or even thousands of members of a freshly-minted open star cluster. So where are all these brothers and sisters of the Sun? … Continue reading →

Posted in Science, Space, Sun | Tagged , , , ,

Dwarf planets and the problem of the IAU

Posted on March 31, 2014 by

What is a dwarf planet? Under the definition accepted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a dwarf planet is any object orbiting the Sun that is large enough to become round under its own gravity, but is not large enough … Continue reading →

Posted in Planets, Space | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

2012 VP113: a weird new “dwarf planet”

Posted on March 28, 2014 by

Astronomers Chad Trujillo and Scott Sheppard announced this week the discovery of a new icy world in the outer Solar System, named 2012 VP113. Trujillo is a colleague of Mike Brown, who discovered the dwarf planet Eris, which is larger … Continue reading →

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How to take a picture of the universe

Posted on March 21, 2013 by

Astronomers take pictures of stuff in the universe all the time, but it’s not every day that we get to take a picture of the universe. Today was one of those days, and this is the picture. This is a … Continue reading →

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2012 DA14 will pass us by, but what is the risk from elsewhere?

Posted on February 13, 2013 by

You may have heard that an asteroid called 2012 DA14 will pass close by Earth this Friday, dipping below our ring of communications satellites at just 28,000 km (17,000 miles). At 50 meters wide (half the size of a football … Continue reading →

Posted in Current events, Meteors, Space | Tagged , , ,