Tag Archives: astronomy

The Periodic Table & Astronomy

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Notes from a presentation at Capricon 45, Chicago, Feb. 7, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker is not responsible for any errors here.

Larry Bartozek will describe the intimate relationship between astronomy and the Periodic Table by looking at how everything we learn about the distant universe comes from dissecting starlight, and starlight comes from excited atoms changing their energy states. Topics will include a brief history of the universe, electron shell structure, spectroscopy on starlight and more! All of this comes from an understanding of the unique “fingerprints” of atoms in the light they give off. Larry will also show the work that he did on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Telescope.

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Total Eclipse

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Mia and I flew to Austin, TX to visit old friends and watch the April 8 eclipse from their back yard. This was the first total solar eclipse either of us had ever seen. Clouds came and went, but the sky was clear enough during the period of totality to give us a great view. We used eclipse glasses before and after totality, but took them off during the main event. It was spectacular. I took a couple pictures with the camera on my cheap Android phone, but they were disappointing: The corona completely washed out the moon’s disk. I knew eclipse photography was hard and was not expecting much, and did not let worrying about the pictures interfere with my experience of the event.

Lucy’s Tour of the Trojan Asteroids

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Notes from a presentation at Capricon 44, Chicago, Feb. 2, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The speaker, Bill Higgins, is not responsible for any errors here.

Bill Higgins

The two swarms of frigid Trojan asteroids, circling the Sun at the same distance as Jupiter, have never been visited by spacecraft. NASA’s Lucy mission plans to change that. Launched in 2021, Lucy’s intricate trajectory will eventually fly by eleven asteroids, including eight Trojans of varying size and composition far beyond the main Asteroid Belt. Passing through the asteroid belt on her way to the distant realm of the Trojans, Lucy’s first flyby this past November held surprises—and if all goes well, the best is yet to come.

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Dust.. from… SPACE!!!

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Notes from a panel at Capricon 44, Chicago, Feb. 2, 2024. Any mistakes are mine. The panelists are not responsible for any errors here.

Bill Higgins, Henry Spencer

The OSIRIS-REx asteroid sampler has returned with a bounty of asteroid dust. Our panelists discuss what the findings have been so far, what is still to come, and what it all means.

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Alien technology found? Not so fast

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There has been some media buzz that some objects found on the ocean floor are evidence of alien technology. However, the Harvard astronomer’s “alien spherules” are industrial pollutants. For technical details see:

A couple notes on Ancient Greek Astronomy

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Following up on these posts:

Today I read Beyond the Book (and What the Greeks Knew About the Earth) in which Professor Matt Strassler explains one of the ways the ancient Greeks knew that the Earth was round and how one of them (Eratosthenes of Cyrene} was able to make a reasonably accurate calculation of its circumference. This calculation assumes that the Sun is much further away from the Earth than the Moon, and hence much bigger, than the Earth of the Moon. Which is Bigger, the Sun or the Earth? Check it Yourself! explains how the Greeks knew this.

Phosphine on Venus again

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Phosphine on Venus: Another Look

Back in 2020 there was a report that Phosphine had been found in the atmosphere of Venus. Since Phosphine can be a sign of life that caused some excitement. I posted about this three times:

  1. Possible Sign of Life on Venus
  2. More about phosphine on Venus
  3. Phosphine on Venus: Not so fast

The last of these was in reference to Re-analysis of the 267-GHz ALMA observations of Venus: No statistically significant detection of phosphine? At the time that seemed like the end of the story.

However, there have been a lot more observations since then and some re-re-analysis of the earlier work, leading to Phosphine Confirmed Deep Within Venus’ Atmosphere, A Possible Sign Of Life. I am looking forward to seeing the technical details.