These are some of my cosmology posts
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The evenings are drawing out already
Revised 14 December 2025 As I complete this post, it’s completely dark outside and it’s only 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Today is 14 December, and most people I come across think that it will continue to get dark earlier and earlier in the afternoons until 21 December (the date of the winter solstice in 2025), the…
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Akatsuki – a second chance – Updated (7 Dec 2015)
This an update to my original post from 4 December. In a press release today the Japanese space agency JAXA confirmed that the smaller rocket motors had fired as planned and the Akatsuki is now in orbit round Venus. The announcement (http://global.jaxa.jp/press/2015/12/20151207_akatsuki.html) went on to say: “The orbiter is now in good health. We are…
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Akatsuki – a second chance – 7 December 2015
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…
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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…
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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…
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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. … Continue…
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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…
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Enceladus Flyby 28 Oct 2015
On 28 October 2015 the space probe Cassini, which has been orbiting Saturn for the last 10 years, will pass within 50 km of the surface of Saturn’s moon Enceladus. This is an extremely close approach by an interplanetary spacecraft (by comparison the New Horizons mission only got as close as 12,500 km above the surface of Pluto) and…
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Why is the Sky Blue?
Explains the scientific reasons behind blue skies on Earth. It contrasts Earth’s atmospheric effects with those on the Moon, where the sky appears black due to a lack of atmosphere, and Mars, where a reddish-brown hue results from iron oxide dust.… Continue reading Why is the Sky Blue? →
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Lunar Eclipse 28 September 2015
On 28 September 2015 there will be an total eclipse of the Moon, which will be viewable from many areas of the world. It will be an interesting sight and worth getting up at an unsociable hour to see it, especially since there won’t be another total lunar eclipse until 2018. The Moon during a recent…
Explaining Science 