Tag Archives: astronomy

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.

Seeing Stars on the Moon

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Why don’t moon photos show stars?. Specifically, why can’t we see the stars in the photographs of the Apollo Astronauts on the moon? As the article clearly explains, all of the pictures were taken during lunar daylight, during which the lunar surface is well illuminated by the sun. This completely washes out the light from the stars. If you made a long enough exposure to catch the stars, the lunar surface, the astronauts and their gear, and the lunar lander would be grossly overexposed. This would defeat the purpose of documenting human activity on the moon.

In fact, this issue was anticipated by Arthur C. Clarke in his classic science fiction novel A Fall of Moondust, first published in 1961, eight years before the first Apollo expedition landed on the moon. Continue reading →

Web Site Updates

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I fixed some dead links and made other minor corrections and updates, but did not make any drastic changes in the longer pieces, so their style reflects the times when they were written, years or even decades ago. However, I think they are still relevant to the subjects being discussed.

Chicon 8

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Thursday

On Thursday, Sept. 1, Mia McDavid and I drove to Chicago for Chicon 8: The 80th World Science Fiction Convention at the Hyatt Regency Chicago . This was our 5th Chicon. Previously we had attended:

Despite some glitches, we really enjoyed the Con, and visiting downtown Chicago again.

Continue reading →

Rang Gaeilge, 23ú lá Mí Feabhra 2022

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Duinnín i Ráth Maonais (tuilleadh)

  • ‘Rachaidh mé féin anseo isteach, ‘arsa an Duinníneach nuair
    a shroicheadar an eaglais. ‘Ba mhaith liom cúpla focal a bheith
    agam le Tom Merrigan.’

    Tharla cruinniú coiste de chuid bhuanchoiste an aonaigh
    saothair ar siúl ar ardán an halla nuair a bhuail an Duinníneach
    isteach agus bhí an tAthair Merrigan ag déanamh eadrána idir
    seastán na gcístí agus lucht roth an áidh. Chuir sé na mná uaisle
    ar fad in aithne don Duinníneach, a gheall go dtiocfadh sé chun
    aonaigh agus go gceannódh sé stocaí bána cniotáilte uathu dá
    mbeidís ar fáil. D’éalaigh siad on gcruinniú ansin agus shiúil
    siad thart ar an halla, idir na stainníní, agus iad ag caint.

    ‘I’ll go in here myself,’ said Dineen when they reached the church.
    ‘I would like to have a few words with Tom Merrigan.’

    A meeting of the standing committee of the job fair was taking place on the hall stage
    when Dineen came in and Father Merrigan was mediating between the cake stand and
    the wheel of fortune. He introduced all the ladies to Dineen, who promised to come to the
    fair and buy white knitted socks from them if available. They then escaped from the meeting and walked around the hall, between the booths, talking.

    coiste jury, committee m
    buanchoiste Standing committee m
    ardán platform, stage, stand m
    eadráin Separation of combatants; intervention in dispute; mediation, conciliation f gs eadrána
    seastán stand m
    roth wheel n
    ádh luck m gs áidh
    lucht Content, charge; fill, capacity; cargo, load;
    Class, category, of) people    		 m
    geall pledge, security m
    stainnín Stand, stall, booth m

    • Léigh tuilleadh

    Capricon Notes

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    As I wrote previously , Mia (my wife) and I spent last weekend at Capricon, a Chicagoland science fiction convention. We went to most of the Capricons in the ’80’s and ’90’s, but in our first years in Minnesota the pressures of parenthood prevented us from going. Those have eased somewhat and we have been to most of the Capricons (and Windycons) since 2009. While most Capricons have been in the Chicago suburbs, this year the convention was downtown, at the Sheraton Grand Hotel.

    Continue reading →