Many of you will have seen the story widely reported in the media of the discovery of the gas phosphine in the clouds of Venus - if not, you can find the story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54133538. On Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria and it has led to the interesting speculation as to whether there could be… Continue reading Life on Venus?
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Surveying the Cosmos – Part II
In a previous post I talked about the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), a large telescope being built in Chile which will spend 90% of its time surveying most of the sky a total of 1000 times over a 10 year period (in the remaining 10% it will revisit areas of specific interest). In this… Continue reading Surveying the Cosmos – Part II
Why Venus Shines Brightly
Updated 22 November 2025 Anyone, even the most casual observer, looking at the evening sky in the last month will have noticed the brilliant white planet Venus shining in the west. Often known as the Evening Star, Venus is the third brightest natural object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. In this… Continue reading Why Venus Shines Brightly
SpaceX Starlink Satellites (2020)
Update 16 March 2022- click on the image below to view a video of much of the information in this post https://youtu.be/smCG4mWKjPA Many of you will have seenthe pictures in 2019 showing long ‘trains’ composed of as many as sixty SpaceX Starlink satellites crossing the sky. A 'train' of SpaceX Starlink satellites just after… Continue reading SpaceX Starlink Satellites (2020)
The evenings are drawing out already
Updated 13 December 2025 ------------------------------ As I complete this post, it's completely dark outside and it's only 5 o'clock in the afternoon; most people I come across think that it will continue to get dark earlier and earlier in the afternoons until the date of the winter solstice which for the UK in 2025 falls… Continue reading The evenings are drawing out already
Explaining Science 