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!

South African involvement with Curiosity Mars rover

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Two weeks ago, the 900kg nuclear-powered Curiosity rover was hoisted into the sky and sent on its year-long journey to Mars, where it will explore the planet’s surface and try to determine whether Mars is, or ever has been, capable of hosting life.  The Atlas V rocket flew flawlessly in a textbook launch, and the departing spacecraft was even visible to amateur astronomers in East Asia and Australia. But did you know that the South African National Space Agency (SANSA) … Continue reading →

Kepler discovers most earth-like exoplanet yet

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NASA’s Kepler mission recently announced that they have come one step closer to finding an Earth-like world by identifying their first exoplanet which both orbits a star similar to our own Sun, and does so within the so-called “habitable zone”.  This is pretty amazing, considering what it takes to see something as small as a planet from so far away.  The Kepler space telescope keeps an unblinking eye on a region of our galaxy packed with hundreds of thousands of … Continue reading →

What is an exoplanet?

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An exoplanet is a planet which is not a part of our Solar System.  Although nobody knew for sure if they even existed 20 years ago, they are now being discovered at an incredible speed – more than one every single day.  Because even the nearest stars are so far away, they are incredibly hard to see, which is why so far even the smallest yet discovered are much much larger than the Earth.     Comments?  Questions?  Why not … Continue reading →

Darker cities have less crime: Official

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  Dark Sky activists, campaigning to reduce light pollution by reducing useage of artificial lighting at night, have long scorned the common-sense idea that the easiest way to reduce crime in an area is to light it up.  Now the city of Bristol, which cut back the number of street lights to save energy and reduce the carbon footprint, has proven them right, with night-time crime dropping by up to 50% in some areas.  Why?  Because it turns out that, … Continue reading →