Tag Archives: Astrolunch

China Satellite Debris in Google Earth

China Satellite Debris in Google Earth

China’s Fengyun 1C satellite, which was destroyed intentionally by China last year, still presents a risk to satellites and other orbiting bodies. I have created a Google Earth file which will let you track the debris in real-time.

The Stability of the Solar System

The Stability of the Solar System

Yesterday’s Astrolunch talk was given by Prof. Mike Disney on the Stability of the Solar System. It was the first of two talks, and in of itself was very informative. Prof. Disney discussed the history of the question of whether or not the Solar System is a stable system. The final answer surprised me.
In his [...]

Perseids Overview from Astronomy Blog

Astronomy Blog gives a great little overview of the upcoming meteor shower, including a top pic from Stellarium. I love this shower because I’m often in France for it where I can much better skies.
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The Little Star That Could

The Little Star That Could

This week’s Astrolunch talk was given by Vanessa Stroud from the Faulkes Telescope Group. As is always the case though, this talk was unrelated to her PhD research and she was talking about a new example of a certain type of nova that has been found using GalEx, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer.
This composite image shows [...]

Ghost in the Machine

Ghost in the Machine

The image above shows the Bullet Cluster. Also known as 1E 0657-56, this is a pair of clusters of galaxies some 3.4 billion light years away. As Jon Davies told us in yesterday’s Astrolunch meeting however: you should be careful about believing everything you see. This image is not a regular photograph [...]

Pluto’s Still A Planet

So if you know me you’ll know that I’m annoyed about Pluto being demoted last year to Dwarf Planet. Well I’ve decided its now time to let it go. Pluto is still a planet, it may be a dwarf planet but just as dwarf stars are still stars and dwarf galaxies are still galaxies, dwarf [...]


Copyright © 2010 Robert J. Simpson. Twitter @orbitingfrog