Meteor showers have their origins in comets, and the eta Aquarids come from the most famous of all: Halley’s Comet. Every time it swings past the Sun, the comet heats up and sprays particles of dust out along its orbit and twice a year the Earth blunders straight into the debris streem. When these bits of grit hit the atmosphere, they flare briefly before burning up and we see a meteor. The first time we pass through the stream each … Continue reading →
In an earlier article, I dealt with one of the most annoying questions that astronomers seem to get asked routinely: “What’s your sign?” But even more frequent and way more annoying, is being described as an astrologer by people who don’t seem to know the difference between astronomy and astrology! To help those people, I’m going to answer the question that they never seem to ask, and really should: What is Astronomy? Well, astronomy is a science. It deals with the … Continue reading →
A lack of any convincing evidence, mainly. There have been countless thousands of reports of UFO’s over the last century, but most can be easily explained by natural phenomena or known human activity. For example, the sighting of a mysterious spinning spiral in the sky above Norway turned out to be a malfunctioning rocket spinning out of control. Other cases turn out to be the planet Venus (“There’s something hovering above the horizon, as bright as an aeroplane’s landing lights”), … Continue reading →
Return to Part One Planet X New Worlds On 13 March 1781, William Herschel discovered a new planet, which would be named Uranus (God of the Sky, father of Saturn). This was a huge deal, as it overturned millennia of established knowledge about the Solar System. Uranus was studied and observed until astronomers were able to plot it’s orbit and predict it’s movements. Unfortunately, no matter how carefully they refined their figures and checked their calculations, Uranus did not move … Continue reading →
Science fiction movies love a good Black Hole. It’s dark, mysterious, dangerous and you can wrap all sorts of interesting plots behind it. Unfortunately, the traditional bad science penned by script writers gets even worse when black holes are added. Let’s have a look at some of the properties black holes exhibit in fiction: They are unstoppable celestial vacuum cleaners, sucking up anything that strays close by. If you fall into a black hole, you will be teleported somewhere else … Continue reading →
