by Gordon | Oct 1, 2013 | Solar system
NASA has reported that its planetary probe, Voyager 1, has just burst through the Heliosphere and has entered inter-stellar space. This is the first time in history that man has sent a machine beyond the confines of the solar system. The space inside our solar system...
by Gordon | Aug 3, 2013 | Solar system, Uncategorized
This article is so good, I’ve just copied it whole. Thanks to David K. Lynch. “Shooting stars”, falling stars” or meteors, call them what you like. These pinpoints of light that streak across the night sky are tiny bits of rock from space. They...
by Gordon | Mar 7, 2013 | Solar system
This year, in the early morning of 15th February, an asteroid, 20 metre across with a mass of 11,000 tonnes, exploded in an airburst 23 km above the southern Urals just 40 kilometres from Chelyabinsk, a city of 3.5 million people. For 5 seconds the explosion flared up...
by Gordon | Nov 1, 2012 | Solar system
Somebody parked the space shuttle, Endeavour, outside Randy’s Donut Shop. It could only have happened in California. Trees had to be cut down, power lines raised and the donuts paid for before it could move on. All the space shuttles have now been retired and given...
by Gordon | Jun 29, 2012 | Solar system
When the Cassini spacecraft swung past Saturn in 2006, it found the sun eclipsed by the planet’s disc and the sun’s rays shining through the planet’s rings, a spectacular effect caught on camera. Planet Earth can be seen as a pale blue dot to the left at 10 o’clock...
by Gordon | Jun 29, 2012 | Solar system
After sundown, there is still enough light to pour your gin and tonic and sit on a desert rock and gaze at a glowing landscape, for the Sun’s disc is just below the horizon and its light is scattered by the Earth’s atmosphere. Cat thieves and burglars do not yet merit...
by Gordon | Sep 13, 2011 | Solar system
A stunning picture was released last month of the American space-shuttle, Endeavour, docked with the International Space Station, photographed by an Italian astronaut as he left the space station in a Russian Soyuz space capsule, a fabulous tribute to international...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
Just as the Sun and Earth were created together in the same vortex, so will they vanish together in the same apocalypse. The destinies of the Sun and Earth are bound together. And that’s why it’s time to get to know our partner better. And that’s why NASA has sent up...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
Mercury whips round the sun in only 88 Earth days but spins on its own axis at such a leisurely pace that it takes 176 Earth days to complete one Mercury day. As the sun rises over the bleak and blistered surface, it appears 3 times larger than on Earth and 11 times...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
With an atmospheric pressure 90 times greater than that on Earth and a temperature of 450 degrees Celsius, any man who dared venture onto the surface of Venus would be squashed as flat as a beer mat and baked like a turkey. And don’t be fooled by the planet’s uplands...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
A comet is a dirty snow ball of fused dust grains and frozen gases. On approaching the sun, it becomes hot and incandescent, the ice on the surface sublimates and the dust is released to form a glowing halo around the comet which is blown into a plume by solar...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
There was always something odd about Pluto. It’s orbit was much more elliptical than those of the other planets and inclined at a maverick angle. It was also extremely small: smaller than our moon! There’s no chance you can see it with the naked eye. Even with a 12”...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
In a recent speech at the Kennedy Space Centre, Florida, President Obama pledged the US to landing a man on Mars within the next three decades. To do this, he promised new funding and a streamlined NASA focused on developing cutting edge technologies and visionary...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
The Spring Equinox occurrs on the 20th March when night and day are of equal length, winter comes to an end and spring arrive. The Jewish Passover is calculated according to lunar cycles and must fall on the night of the first full moon following the Spring...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
If you are away from cities and sources of light pollution and preferably above 1000 m to escape the humidity and dust trapped in the lower atmosphere, you have a chance of seeing the Zodiacal light. After sunset as darkness falls, look for a faint pyramid of light in...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
Over a repeating cycle of 11 years, the sun develops a chronic case of recurring acne, its face becoming pockmarked with ugly black spots and blemishes which eventually fade away only to reappear again in the following cycle. These “sun spots” reflect the slow...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
On Wednesday, 2009 July 22, a total eclipse of the Sun was visible from within a narrow corridor that traversed half of Earth. The maximum duration of totality was 6 min 39 seconds, something that won’t be repeated again this century – but...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
Many still believe the moon landing in 1969 was a hoax, though the colossal conspiracy required beggars belief. And what about the 385 kilograms of moon rock stored in laboratories around the world? Such cynicism devalues a stunning achievement. Not only...
by Gordon | May 24, 2011 | Solar system
As shifting positions between Earth and Saturn bring our planet in line with the plane of Saturn’s ring, they are seen edge on, which happened in 2009. This is the best time to view the moons when they appear strung out like a string of pearls and can be easily...
