Author: Steve Hurley

Hi I am Steve Hurley. Although I work in the IT industry. I studied for a PhD in astronomy in the 1980s. My real passion is explaining scientific concepts to a non-scientific audience. My blog (explainingscience.org) covers various scientific topics, but primarily astronomy. It is written in a style that it is easily understandable to the non scientist. Publications and videos For links to my books and videos please visit www.explainingscience.org

Enceladus -Could there be life?

Steve Hurley2 Comments

Three years ago my first ever post was about Saturn's moon Enceladus. It is interesting that once again this small moon is in the headlines as a possible place on which there could be life. https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-missions-provide-new-insights-into-ocean-worlds-in-our-solar-system The Science Geek

The Trappist-1 system.

Steve Hurley12 Comments

Revised 12 December 2025 Many of you will be aware of the discovery announced back in February 2017 of seven Earth-sized planets orbiting a small cool star known as Trappist-1. (Gillon et al 2017). In this post I'll talk about this exciting finding and the possibility that some of these planets might support life. The planet around… Continue reading The Trappist-1 system.

The equinox March 20 2017

Steve Hurley5 Comments

Now that we are in the month of March, for most of us in the northern hemisphere the worst of the winter is over, and it is only a few days until 21 March, the first day of spring.   There is a commonly held view that March 21 is the spring equinox and that the equinoxes are the two… Continue reading The equinox March 20 2017

Satellite navigation – the next ten years

Steve Hurley9 Comments

Satellite navigation is such a vital part of day-to-day life that other countries of the world are planning to build up their own network of navigation satellites and move away from total reliance on the American system, GPS. America As mentioned in my previous post, the GPS system is operated and funded by the US government. The first… Continue reading Satellite navigation – the next ten years

GPS.

Steve Hurley20 Comments

The Global Positioning System, better known as GPS, has come to affect countless aspects of our daily lives, from directing our holiday aeroplanes to enabling us to drive round an unfamiliar city without any map other than the one on our mobile phone.  At the risk of making myself sound like a scary stalker, I… Continue reading GPS.