A Guide to this Upcoming Celestial Event Looking out my window one recent night, I noticed the crescent moon with three other bright points of light trailing in an arc. I had often seen Venus and, less often, Mars and Jupiter. I hadn’t noted that arc before, though I must have seen it. What was… Continue reading The Parade of Planets:
Tag: Space
Goodbye Moon?
“Some say the world will end in fire…” —Robert Frost As we prepare for a spectacular eclipse on April 8, 2024, we can reflect on a cosmic question. Are we losing our moon? Although the moon seems constant in its orbit about 384,000 km from earth, it is moving slowly away. Each year the moon… Continue reading Goodbye Moon?
Nancy Grace Roman:
Gazing Beyond the Stars Last week’s post referred to the Nancy Grace Roman Telescope and a reader asked, “Who is Nancy Grace Roman?” NASA astronomer Dr. Nancy Grace Roman, a tireless champion of the Hubble Space Telescope, became the first woman to serve as Chief of Astronomy at NASA. Her pioneering work laid the groundwork… Continue reading Nancy Grace Roman:
Lone Wanderers
“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;” from W. B. Yeats’ poem “The Second Coming.” Imagine a planet without a star to orbit, drifting alone through vast space. Such lone wanderers, known as rogue planets, are planets not bound to any star. Astronomers think a collision with another proto-planet knocked them out of their star… Continue reading Lone Wanderers
The Biggest Comet Ever!
The biggest comet ever discovered, the lecturing astronomer told us, is speeding toward the sun at 22,000 miles per hour. I sat up straighter, as I’d guess did most of us in this Zoom class. We were here to learn why Pluto is no longer a planet and this was news. But, he continued, we… Continue reading The Biggest Comet Ever!