Some time between 15 and 20 November 2011, farmers in the Omusati region of northern Namibia were startled by what sounded like an explosion.  When the police came to investigate, they found no evidence of explosives but instead discovered a large metal sphere lying about 18 meters away from a shallow impact crater.  Unable to identify it themselves, they handed it over to the National Forensic Science Institute for further study. According to the institute’s director, Paul Ludik, the sphere, … Continue reading →

  To us in the Southern Hemisphere, December 22 marks the longest day and shortest night of 2011.  Since the Urban Astronomer has pretty much run out of ways to explain what a Solstice is, I thought I would try my hand at it:   The Solstice marks the days of the year when the Sun is at its furthest point from the equator, and are the days with the longest and shortest nights in the year.  This biannual phenomenon … Continue reading →

The University of Cambridge, as part of their Digital Library project, have digitised over 4000 pages of Isaac Newton’s writings and made them freely available on the web.  Available works include some old college notebooks, his rough work from when he developed his theories of calculus, and the mighty Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.  The Principia (as it’s more commonly known) was his crowning glory, in which he states and proves his Laws of Motion and his theory of Universal Gravitation. … Continue reading →