China Satellite Debris in Google Earth
Apr 21
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
Jan 15
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 Principia Mathematica, Newton notes that the planets of the Solar System ought not to...
Perseids Overview from Astronomy Blog
Aug 10Astronomy 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. read more | digg story
The Little Star That Could
May 02
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 Z Camelopardalis, or Z Cam, a double-star system that features a...
Ghost in the Machine
Apr 24
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 by any means. You can see the galaxies scattered about with an orange glow. This much...
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