“Shooting star” is the common name for a meteor, because it looks just like a regular star shooting across the sky. The Solar System is full of dust and debris left over from when it first formed, and thousands of tonnes of this stuff falls on Earth every year. When larger particles (about the size of a grain of sand) hit the atmosphere, they’re coming in at speeds up to 70 kilometers per second, and have a tremendous amount of kinetic … Continue reading →
Meteor showers are one of the most accessible astronomical shows around. They usually last several days, they can be seen by anybody with functional night vision, and they don’t need dark skies to be enjoyed. Simply lie back and watch the shooting stars! Best of all, there are many meteor showers which appear throughout the year. But if you simply head outside and look upwards on the right date, you might find the experience a little frustrating – time will pass, … Continue reading →
We’ve all seen it happen in science fiction films. The expendable character is outside the space ship, or trapped in the air-lock. The space suit is damaged, or the helmet is removed. His friends frantically bang on the glass as we get a nice close-up of his face as it blows up like a balloon. And then… well it depends on the film. Sometimes he freezes solid and shatters like glass, other times he explodes in a messy shower of … Continue reading →
Andrew Versfeld writes: Dear Urban Astronomer The author of this URL (http://www.rdrop.com/users/tblackb/life_on_mars/life_on_mars.htm) claims to be in possession of actual photographic proof that there is life on mars. As you can imagine, I was, and still am very skeptical. But this got me thinking about other forms of life. I’ve heard rumours of bacteria and other unicellular organisms on mars. This leads me to my question.Have scientists actually found bacteria on mars?Could life actually survive on Mars? Before … Continue reading →
Twelve. There were six successful moon missions (Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17), and each of these had a crew of three. One crew member stayed in orbit in the command module, while the other two landed the lunar module, and walked on the Moon’s surface. Everybody remembers the names of the two men who landed in the first mission (Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin), but hardly anybody remembers that the third man was Michael Collins. … Continue reading →
