News that asteroid “2018 VP1“, will pass within about 480 kms of Earth on November 2, 2020, has raised social media hopes that it might be drawn in by the planet’s gravity and crash on the White House, thus ending any speculation about the reviled Donald “Putin’s Puppet” Trump’s re-election.
Continue readingTag: Astronomy
Scripturient: Oumuamua: just a piece of rock
If you can watch the whole bit of this piece of New Age woo hoo without flinching or giving up, you will likely shake your head at the utter, mindless gullibility of humankind. And it’s not even political. But by now you know the Net is crammed full of conspiracy
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: White Dwarfs – The Last Refuge Before the Universe Dies
Relax, this won’t affect you, but its interesting none the less. 🙂 Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, White Dwarfs
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Thinking about my dad on the 100th anniversary of his birth and Canada’s need for public post-secondary education
PHOTOS: My dad, John L. Climenhaga, as a University of Saskatchewan undergraduate. Below: My father, in the foreground, circa 1917, about the time the asteroid now named Climenhaga in his honour was discovered, and, many years later, in his modest office at the University of Victoria. Below those shots, the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Breaking Space News: Perseids set to be extra-spectacular this year
Scientists are predicting the Perseid Meteor Shower will be extra-spectacular this year, with up to double the usual number of meteors – up to 200 per hour! Arb and I are probably not going to get to see them: the forecast is for clouds and rain a good portion of the night. If any of […]
Continue readingScripturient: What KIC 8462852 Says About Us
KIC 8462852. Hardly a household name. But it may be, one day soon, or at least when it garners a more prosaic name. It’s a star and it sits rather forlornly in space in the rightmost edge of the constellation Cygnus, almost 1,500 light years away. And although it’s too dim to be seen
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Twelve Minutes on Neuron Stars – PBS Crash Course
Yes, this series is purposefully very user friendly – but it does cover some new stuff – who knew about Magnetars? You will. 🙂 Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, Crash Course, Neutron Stars, Science
Continue readingScripturient: Blog & Commentary: Chasing storms on Saturn
There’s a beautiful video about the Cassini mission and its images of the storms on Saturn at the New York Times website. It’s amazing to see what images and information science has given us about a planet 886 billion miles (1.4 billion kms) away and its odd collection of rings and 60 moons.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Ram Pressure Stripping – More than close shave.
Now for your astronomical news of the week. The latest from the Hubble telescope. Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, Ram Pressure, Science
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Full Moon is Better In Winter.
I’m pretty much done with Winter by this time of the year, but I have to agree with MinutePhysics that despite the rest of the seasonal maladies, the full moon is pretty spectacular. 🙂 Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, Full Moon in Winter, Minute Physics, Science
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Like the Earth? Thank a Black Hole
I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for popular astronomy shows. How amazingly small and insignificant our place is in the Universe is always humbles me when I am reminded of the fact. It is a humility I wish the religious minded among us could understand, instead of wasting time and
Continue readingChadwick's Blog & Commentary: Doomsday averted (again)
Seventeen thousand miles. Seems like a long way, but it’s less than one tenth the distance from here to the moon, and it’s within the satellite belt. In cosmic terms, it’s frighteningly close. Consider that the Sun is 93 million … Continue reading →
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: CONJUNCTION
GREAT CONJUNCTION: A great conjunction in the east south east sky tonight. Perfect visibility here in Winnipeg with Jupiter slightly to the left and above the waxing Moon. Gotta get out there with binoculars, 41 below windchill or not.Frozen but happy in Winnipeg.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Solar Flare – There goes my radio reception.
Solar flares make CBC radio 2 reception crappy. Completely a first world problem, but I really do like clear reception when Radio2 isn’t playing crap. Not to worry too much though, apparently the storm will not wipe our earth slate clean: “A solar storm that began with a massive
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: 1812 and All That: the Bicentenary of Dr. Charles Smallwood, Canadian Scientist (1812 – 1873)
Charles Smallwood 1872.jpg This is a guest post by Andrew McLaren With all the present glorification of the 1812-15 conflict being promoted by Canada’s Federal Government, another important bicentennial is being pointedly overlooked: the birth of Dr. Charles Smallwood (1812-1873), a Canadian physician and scientist who can be credited for the
Continue reading350 or bust: Science Brings Rare Planetary Event To Our Living Rooms
For those of you who, like me, didn’t have a pair of eyeball-protecting goggles to watch as the planet Venus crossed the face of the sun this past Tuesday, here’s some stunning HD images released by NASA yesterday. The pictures were collected by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which is,
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Death of Stars – Hubblecast
Astronomy is another passion of mine. Enjoy this short clip on the fate of our Sun and similar stars. Filed under: Science Tagged: Astronomy, The Sun, White Dwarf
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Transit of Venus – Worth Watching, but do it safely.
It is one of those lifetime events, as Venus rarely crosses the plane of our orbit while in front of the sun. “Our nearest planetary neighbour will be passing between the Earth and the sun starting at 6:04 p.m. ET on June 5 and will be aligned in such
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