On 7 December 2010, after a six month journey, the Japanese spacecraft Akatsuki (named after the Japanese word for dawn) arrived at Venus after a six month journey. It was only the second spacecraft launched since 1989 to visit the Earth's sister planet and, if it had succeeded in orbiting Venus, it would have had… Continue reading Akatsuki – a second chance – 7 December 2015
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
A Christmas gift from The Science Geek
Christmas is almost upon us. Give yourself an early Christmas present, without it costing you a penny, by downloading my e-books for free during the first five days of December! "Is Anyone Out There?" is about the likelihood of there being extraterrestrial intelligent life. It is based on a number of posts from my blog. For readers based… Continue reading A Christmas gift from The Science Geek
Venus -A Mysterious World
In The Radio Man, a 1924 science fiction by the American author Ralph Milne Farley, a radio engineer, Myles Standish Cabot, invents a radio apparatus that teleports him to another world, Venus. This version of Venus has boiling hot oceans, but the land is much cooler, and the continent he lands on is inhabited by two races. One… Continue reading Venus -A Mysterious World
The Morning Star-Venus
Venus, is the brightest planet and third brightest natural object in the sky. It has an orbit closer to the Sun that the Earth, which it is mainly a daytime object and exhibits phases similar to the Moon. Galileo's observations of these phases supported heliocentrism, contrasting the geocentric model favored by the Church.
Dark Skies.
"All humans, everywhere in the world and throughout history, have looked up at the sky and wondered at it. This experience is now denied to most people, because of the background light in towns and cities. It is important to ensure that there will be somewhere in England where young people can fully enjoy a cosmic… Continue reading Dark Skies.
Explaining Science 