In this post I talk about the unexpected finding made in the late 1990’s that the rate of expansion of the Universe is increasing due to dark energy. This was totally unexpected and won its discoverers the Nobel prize for physics. (This article is one my series on cosmology - the study of the origin… Continue reading The discovery of dark energy
Tag: Astronomy
Astronomy Items
Jim Peebles winner of the Noble Prize 2019
I was interested to hear that Jim Peebles, at the age of 84, has won a half share of the 2019 Noble Prize for physics for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. Jim Peebles (1935-) Image from Wikimedia commons In the early 1960s Peebles and his colleague Robert Dicke had predicted the existence of the microwave… Continue reading Jim Peebles winner of the Noble Prize 2019
The September equinox
In 2019 September 23 is the date of the September equinox and is also the first day of autumn (or the first day of spring if you're one of my readers in the Southern Hemisphere). In this post I’ll talk about the equinoxes and discus the commonly held view that they are the two days in… Continue reading The September equinox
12-13 August 2019 – the Perseids
The night of Monday 12/13 August will be the peak of the Perseids, one of the most famous prolific meteor showers Meteors (also known as shooting stars) are bright streaks of light caused by small lumps of rock or metal called meteoroids hitting the Earth's atmosphere at a very high speed (in the case of the… Continue reading 12-13 August 2019 – the Perseids
Apollo 11 lunar landing
20 July 2019 is the fiftieth anniversary of the first manned landing on the Moon. Mission Insignia of Apollo 11- Image from NASA On 21 May 1961 President John F Kennedy made the following address to the United States Congress: 'I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade… Continue reading Apollo 11 lunar landing
