Author Archives: Allen Versfeld

About Allen Versfeld

Allen is an amateur astronomer, an IT professional, a podcaster, a father of five growing kids, a barely competent chess player, and the owner and publisher of the Urban Astronomer podcast and website. He has formerly served as Director of the Astrophotography and Citizen Science sections of the Astronomical Society of South Africa. You can find his personal social media feed on Mastodon!

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Timeline of exoplanet discovery Less than a month ago, I attended a public lecture in which the president of the International Astronomical Union (IAU), Dr Robert Williams, reported that astronomers around the world had found over four hundred planets outside our own Solar System.  He joked that these exoplanets were being discovered so rapidly that he might have to update his presentation to four hundred and fifty planets by the time his tour ended. He must be laughing pretty hard … Continue reading →

Oxygen on Saturn’s Moon

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The Cassini mission has collected an impressive body of data from Saturn and its many moons and rings.  Evidence collected in 2008  seemed to suggest that its second moon, Rhea (about half the size of our own moon) may have a tiny ring structure of its own.  Follow-up observations showed that this discovery was mistaken and that these rings do not exist, but did reveal something just as interesting:  An atmosphere rich in oxygen. The chemistry is complex and scientists are still sifting … Continue reading →

Visitors from another star

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As any astronomer knows, there are two zones in the Solar System packed with small loose bodies, two to three kilometers across, of rock and ice:  The Kuiper belt out past Neptune and the Oort cloud, a mind-numbingly vast region marking the very distant outer reaches of our Sun’s territory at a distance of about a light-year.  Every now and then some sort of gravitional perturbation (a close encounter with a larger object, or passing star) will disturb the orbit of … Continue reading →

Commercial Space Flight Licenses

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Amongst all the american rhetoric about the future of space travel and the roles that should be played by government and private enterprise, one fact stands out clearly:  If it is ever to become financially viable it has to be commercialised.  Space technology development needs commercial pressures to increase efficiency and bring prices down.  One of the many companies currently working to provide space travel products is SpaceX. The FAA has just awarded SpaceX the first ever commercial license to … Continue reading →

South Africa confirms commitment to SKA

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STATEMENT ON THE SOUTH AFRICAN SQUARE KILOMETRE ARRAY BID INTER MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE MEETING. The South African Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the Square Kilometre Array met in Cape Town today, 11 November 2010.   The South African Inter Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the Square Kilometre Array met in Cape Town today, 11 November 2010. The IMC was established following a Cabinet decision on 21 October 2009. South Africa is leading the African bid to host the world’s most powerful radio … Continue reading →