Category Archives: News and Updates

News about Astronomy and Space Science. Find every news item and update here, in blog format. You can get these updates sent straight to your mailbox by subscribing here, or you can subscribe to the RSS feed by clicking the link.

Chilean Earthquake Moves Earth

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Richard Gross, research scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), calculates that the recent magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile was so violent that it shoved the earth’s axis a full eight centimetres from it’s original location.  Additionally, the resulting change to the Earth’s Moment of Inertia would have slowed its rotation down, to make the day several microseconds longer!   Earthquakes are caused by plate tectonics.  Plates grinding past each other tend to stick, and when they finally break loose, … Continue reading →

Space Underwear

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Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata spent two months on the International Space Station (ISS) last year, performing a large number of important scientific experiments, but will probably be best remembered for not having changed his underwear once during the entire mission.  As described here, one of his tasks was test driving special “J-Ware” underwear, designed for the Japanese space agency.  The underwear, and other clothing, is treated with anti-bacterial and deodorant chemicals, but also effectively wicks moisture away from the skin … Continue reading →

Martian Avalanche

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Back in 2008, the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter returned an astonishing photo showing Mars to be a dynamic and active environment.  The approaching martian summer had melted ground ice, and weakened part of one 700m high wall of the canyon, which had collapsed in a dusty avalanche just as HiRISE was passing over.  Now, Bernhard Braun has released his own images of the event, the result of intensive 3D processing to produce a beautiful visualisation of what … Continue reading →

Our dark skies need You!

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As part of the global fight against Light Pollution, Globe At Night recruit ordinary citizens twice a year to measure the light pollution in their neighbourhood.  All you have to do is print out their maps, and compare them to a certain area of the sky (This time around, it’s the constellation of Orion).  Different levels of light pollution drown out different numbers of stars, so well-known constellations take on different appearances depending on how bright the sky is in … Continue reading →

No more Climate confusion

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Let’s face it, there are so many claims and counterclaims about global warming that ordinary folk like us don’t know what to believe any more.  On the one hand we have legions of scientists presenting long-winded explanations about how human activity is accelerating the planet towards a ghastly thermageddon, and on the other hand we have dissenters gleefully exposing weakness in methodology and statistical methods, or suspicious emails to show that it’s all a giant con and that everybody’s going … Continue reading →