• Podcast: Should We Search for Extraterrestrial Life?

    Here is a podcast if you like the debate format so you can listen to both sides before settling on your own position. Intelligence Squared has great discussions involving experts on a multitude of topics, but few touch upon astronomy. Hence, this is an episode worth sharing. Here is the set up for this debate:…

  • Artemis I: Still Looking for a Window

    According to Artemis blog, NASA is looking at a new Artemis I launch date of either September 23 or September 27. The blog states NASA has requested the following launch periods:  Someone needs to update NASA’s Artemis I web-page, which as of today still shows a September 3, 2022 launch date. Success is key for…

  • Pic of the Week: Spiraling Optical Illusion

    This week’s fascinating image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows what appears to be two colliding spiral galaxies. A cropped version is shown below to highlight the colors. Here is more from ESA: The two galaxies, which have the uninspiring names SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461, lie more than a billion light-years from Earth.…

  • A Day in Astronomy: The Beginning of the Final Frontier

    On this day in 1966, NBC television broadcast the first episode of Star Trek. The new series lasted for three seasons. It was the beginning of a “cultural phenomena,” to quote Leonard Nimoy from the 1991 television special, Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special. While it may not technically meet the definition of astronomy, it definitely…

  • Where is This? September 7, 2022 Quiz

    Take a look at the image above. Can you determine where this image originated? Take a guess and then check your answer by going to the menu and selecting the “Where is This? The Answer Sheet” page.

  • RIP: Astronomer Frank Drake

    We lost a grand mind last Friday with the death of astronomer Frank Drake at the age of 92 (1930 – 2022). In addition to giving us the famous Drake Equation pertaining to the potential existence of extraterrestrial intelligence in our galaxy, he spent his life looking for signs that we are not alone and…

  • Podcast: Astronomy in a Nutshell

    In a recent Clear+Vivid podcast episode, Alan Alda interviewed Philipp Dettmer, who is the CEO of the online science channel Kurzgesagt (German for “in a nutshell”). Mr. Dettmer discussed his difficulties with school as a child, his eventual love of learning, and his desire to help others to learn. I recommend you listen to his…

  • A Fitting Tribute to Nichelle Nichols

    United Launch Alliance has announced that it will be sending the remains of Nichelle Nichols, also known as Star Trek’s Lt. Uhura, into space on a Vulcan Centaur rocket later this year in conjunction with the Celestis memorial program. About 150 memorial capsules in all with be part of what is named the “Enterprise Flight”…

  • Artemis I: Failure is Not an Option

    This is the mission status from 11:22 am today: The launch director waived off today’s Artemis I launch attempt at approximately 11:17 a.m. EDT. Teams encountered a liquid hydrogen leak while loading the propellant into the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket.  Multiple troubleshooting efforts to address the area of the leak by…

  • The JWST’s First Image of an Exoplanet

    It was only a matter of time, but even so it was pretty quick. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has taken a direct image of an exoplanet. HIP 65426 b, a gas giant that lies 355 light-years away, is from 15 to 20 million years old and about 6 to 12 times the mass…