In my next two posts I'll talk about the idea that the fundamental forces which govern our Universe and fundamental constants such as: the strength of gravity, the electric charge of the electron and the amounts of matter, dark matter and dark energy in the Universe have been in some sense finely tuned to allow… Continue reading Our Finely-tuned Universe Part I-Fundamental forces
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The Lyrids 2022
The night of 22/23 April will be the peak of the Lyrids, 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 very high speed. As they pass through the atmosphere they get heated… Continue reading The Lyrids 2022
Effects of Large Satellite Constellations on Astronomy
Many of you will have seen the images back in 2019 which showed long ‘trains’ composed of up to sixty SpaceX Starlink satellites crossing the sky in a straight line. These pictures hit the headlines not only because of the number of satellites, but because of their brightness. A 'train' of SpaceX Starlink satellites,… Continue reading Effects of Large Satellite Constellations on Astronomy
The equinox 20 March 2022
In 2022 March 20 is the date of the March equinox and is also the first day of spring (or the first day of autumn if you're one of my readers in the Southern Hemisphere). In this post I’ll talk about the equinoxes and discuss the commonly held, but incorrect, view, that they are the… Continue reading The equinox 20 March 2022
The end of the International Space Station?
There have been stories in the news recently that NASA intend to deorbit the International Space Station (ISS) in 2031. They are largely based upon a recent NASA report outlining the future of the ISS. This report makes interesting reading and describes how NASA will transition away from the ISS towards commercial space stations (which… Continue reading The end of the International Space Station?
Explaining Science 