Astronomy buffs will know that two days ago there was an annular solar eclipse visible from Australia and much of the South Pacific (this eclipse occurs when the Moon blocks most of the Sun’s image, leaving a ring of fire, or annulus, around the edge of the Moon). Reader John Scanlon was in Oz to […]
Even a blind pig can find an acorn, and even HuffPo occasionally has something worth seeing, like this video: NASA has released a three-year time-lapse video of our star, compiled from incredible images captured by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) spacecraft. The time-lapse compresses about two images a day into a few minutes. And don’t […]
This clip was highlighted, without comment, at Sean Carroll’s Preposterous Universe website. I’ll post it, too, but add a comment: It shows Tyson losing it in a science discussion with Brian Greene, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krauss, Tracy Day, Ira Flatow, and Bill Nye. The discussion was at an Arizona State University panel on “The Storytelling […]
Alert reader P. has called my attention to a post on Sky and Telescope about tonight’s (and tomorrow’s) appearance of Saturn in the southern sky. If you don’t have a telescope, you can watch it online (check the box below for the website and the times). I’ll be watching, as I’ve never seen Saturn live. […]
Most of you know that there’s a big comet called Pan-STARRS that is now visible in many places. According to Wired Science, which has three videos, the comet was discovered in 2011: Pan-STARRS first peeked over the horizon in the Northern Hemisphere on Mar. 7 but shortly thereafter it disappeared when it went too close […]
This lovely image of a storm on Saturn is a Twitter picture via SpaceScenery. Click image to make really big. h/t: Matthew Cobb
According to many venues, including our own Chicago Tribune, a meter exploded over Russia this morning, scattering hot debris and injuring many people: CHELYABINSK, Russia — A meteor streaked across the sky and exploded over central Russia on Friday, sending fireballs crashing to earth that shattered windows and damaged buildings, injuring more than 500 people. […]
You can find a very high-resolution version of this photo here; it shows a crescent Moon over Earth from space. It was taken from the International Space Station and appeared on the Twitter site FragileOasis, which publishes photos like this. Nice eh? (Click to enlarge.) h/t: Phil Plait, Matthew Cobb
Over at Slate, Phil Plait has published a stunning series of 21 photos in “The best astronomy images of 2012.” While it doesn’t quite come up to “The best cats of 2012,” which will appear December 31, the photos are truly amazing. I will put up only five, but you owe it to yourself to […]
Alert reader Sigmund spotted a puzzling new finding by an older Mars rover, and I asked him to report it to the readers. His guest post follows: __________ Opportunity discovers puzzling concentration of spheres on Martian surface. by Sigmund While recent focus on Mars-related robotics has focused on the Curiosity rover, it is easy to […]
