Like millions over people I was cheered to see that the probe Philae landed successfully on the 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet after a 6.4 billion km ten year journey. In a mission this complex there will inevitably be a few hiccups and the biggest one so far has been that the probe has been unable to secure itself to… Continue reading Philae has landed
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
Stardust
Last week I was on holiday in London. While I was there, I spent an afternoon at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, which is set on top of a hill in East London. It was commissioned in 1675, making it one of the oldest astronomical observatories in the world. Sadly, it can no longer function as… Continue reading Stardust
Space the Final Frontier- but where does it begin?
On 24 October 2014 a senior Google vice president 57 year old Alan Eustace (shown below) broke the world altitude record by jumping from a balloon from an altitude of 135,890 feet (41.4 km). When he was interviewed, after he had safely landed, he said: "..It was beautiful. You could see the darkness of space... " This made me… Continue reading Space the Final Frontier- but where does it begin?
Virgin Galactic: what next ?
Like many people, I was was saddened to hear about the crash of Virgin Galactic's Space Ship Two on a test flight yesterday, which resulted in the death of one of the pilots and the serious injury of the other. It is far too soon to say what caused the crash. That will have to wait… Continue reading Virgin Galactic: what next ?
The Universe Past, Present and Future.
The Universe is all existing matter and space, including all stars, planets, galaxies and the space between them. This post, which is the first in a series about cosmology discusses the origins of the Universe and its ultimate future. (All my posts on this topic can be found at https://explainingscience.org/tag/cosmology/) How large is the Universe ?… Continue reading The Universe Past, Present and Future.
Explaining Science 