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!

Wet Asteroids

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Astronomers working with the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel space telescope have found yet another place in our Solar System that has water: the asteroid Ceres.  They believe that the water comes from icy patches near the surface melting under the Sun’s warmth, but have not yet discounted the possibility of icy cryovolcanoes binging up water from deep within the asteroid’s body. Back in 1801 when Ceres was first discovered, it was hailed as a new planet. Astronomers of the … Continue reading →

A New Medium

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For some years now, I’ve toyed with the idea of taking Urban Astronomer beyond the medium of webpages and into something new. I’ve considered writing a book, creating classroom posters, recording videos for Youtube, starting a podcast, and delivering public lectures. So far there’s been no progress, apart from the occasional talk given to conservation groups or to other astronomers at symposia. Similarly, I’ve thought about creating offering Urban Astronomer branded merchandise for sale, to raise a bit of cash … Continue reading →

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Carnival of Space #354

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Welcome back to the 354th Carnival of Space! This week we’re hosting it right here at Urban Astronomer, so settle in for your round-up on what’s news in the worlds of space science and astronomy. We’re in a good mood today, since we got a step closer to achieving our long-term goal of bringing Urban Astronomer to you through alternative media channels – check out CliffCentral to see where we’ve set our sights. But back to the Carnival.  First up … Continue reading →

How to study gravitational lenses with X-rays

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Researchers working with the Fermi observatory have used gamma radiation coming from a distant supermassive black hole (SMBH) to measure the amplifying effect of a gravitational lens. When distant galaxies are lined up just right with even more distant ultra-bright objects, the galaxy’s gravitational field bends the distant object’s light and curves it back into our line of sight, just like a gigantic lens. Astronomers have used these chance alignments for years to study things that would otherwise be too … Continue reading →

Cosmic Dust Mystery – Solved by Supernova?

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Although galaxies are composed primarily of empty vacuum, the space between stars is filled with mind-bogglingly huge clouds of gas and dust. The dust is a fine mix of microscopic particles of various carbon and silicon compounds, and is a major component of some the most breathtaking nebulae in the sky. But despite the amount of time astronomers have spent studying these dust clouds, they have never been quite sure where it comes from. That might be set to change, … Continue reading →