People I speak to are often surprised to hear me talk about imaging black holes. “But how can you see something that is just a black hole, something that has such powerful gravity that no light can escape it, against the blackness of space?” is a question they want to ask, but don’t for fear of looking like a fool. But it’s actually a really good question and the answer is that you actually don’t see it directly at all. … Continue reading →
Series of photographs showing possible water flow on Mars. Credit: NASA Critical to the question of life on Mars is the presence of liquid water. Even more important than oxygen, water is critical to all life on Earth for a number of reasons. If we can find liquid water on Mars, that greatly improves the odds of finding life. Now we’ve known for a long time that Mars has got plenty of water frozen in the polar ice caps, and … Continue reading →
A team of astronomers studying data from the WISE orbital telescope have discovered an asteroid sharing an orbit with Earth. The asteroid, dubbed 2010 TK7, dwells in one of Earth’s Trojan points where the gravitational attractions of Earth and the Sun come together neatly to provide a stable spot where space debris can accumulate without being dispersed. Trojan asteroids have long been observed belonging to Jupiter, and more recently near the other gas giants. But 2010 TK7 is the first … Continue reading →
On 18 August, I will be speaking on “Astronomy and Light Pollution” for the Modderfontein Conservation Society and you, dear readers, are invited to come hear what I have to say. The talk begins at 7:30 pm, at the Modderfontein Town Hall and entrance costs R20. I will talk about amateur astronomy, and the wonders that can be seen with small telescopes, binoculars and even the naked eye. Unfortunately the problem of light pollution is steadily getting worse, and … Continue reading →
On 18 July 2011, just after 2:30 UT, the Russian Astro Space Centre launched the Spektr-R space radio telescope into orbit. Spektr-R, formerly known as RadioAstron, is part of a larger project using the orbital platform as one element in a VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) array. When used in conjunction with ground-based radio telescopes, it will produce images in the radio spectrum with a resolution significantly higher than that of the Hubble Space Telescope. Originally part of the Soviet … Continue reading →
