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  • Blog Post: Help discover gravitational lenses

    [caption image="http://cs.astronomy.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-51-Deep_2D00_sky+objects/4571.abell370.jpg" position="right" targeturl="http://cs.astronomy.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-51-Deep_2D00_sky...
  • Blog Post: On the road: AAS January 2013 meeting — supernovae and dark energy

    It’s the end of the third full day, and my last, at the American Astronomical Society meeting. In addition to attending press conferences about exploding massive stars and cosmology, I spent time checking out some of the poster presentations and attending science sessions about imaging exoplanets...
  • Blog Post: On the road: AAS January 2013 meeting — more exoplanets and a donated telescope

    As the second full day of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting comes to an end, exoplanets yet again were a major focus. The first press conference of the day included announcements of surprising planetary systems. First, we learned of evidence of a planetary system in the Hyades star cluster...
  • Blog Post: On the road: January 2012 AAS meeting, Monday recap

    I’ve successfully survived the first full day of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting. I managed to attend all three press conferences, two invited talks, a session on extrasolar planets, a few science education presentations, and the poster exhibition hall. Plus, I caught up with a...
  • Blog Post: Higgs boson NOT discovered (yet)

    Last week, scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced findings related to their search for the Higgs boson , a long-sought elementary particle. In fact, it’s the only elementary particle predicted in the standard model — the current set of theories physicists...
  • Blog Post: On the road: IceCube and particle physics symposium, April 29–30, 2011

    Hundreds of astrophysicists were in Madison, Wisconsin, Wednesday through Saturday of last week to celebrate the completion of the IceCube neutrino detector — on time and on budget. (This is a pretty awesome achievement in astronomy experiments.) While talks on Wednesday and Thursday were geared...
  • Blog Post: On the road: The Antarctic Science Symposium, April 27, 2011

    The Antarctic Science Symposium in Madison, Wisconsin, started off with a few presentations about drilling technology. It’s definitely an important topic because one of the reasons scientists utilize Antarctica as a lab is the ice — either used as a detection material, or a record of climate...
  • Blog Post: Astronomy in Antarctica

    In December 2010, the IceCube collaboration placed its last string of detectors 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) into the Ataractic ice. This project consists of 86 strings, for a total of 5,160 detectors embedded in 0.4 square mile (1 square km) of ice. The IceCube project is searching for neutrinos —...
  • Blog Post: A ridiculously basic problem on the set of "Cosmic Adventures"

    Ever wonder what goes on behind the scenes of “Liz and Bill’s Cosmic Adventures”? We just debuted Episode 4 , and reviewing the final draft of the video reminded me how much of a pain it was to film one of the scenes. (Spoiler alert if you haven't yet watched it!) Bill and I...
  • Blog Post: My own cosmic microwave background

    Last week, my fiancé sent me a gift at work — a weird little stuffed toy. But after I looked closer, I realized it’s a toy plushie version of the cosmic microwave background radiation. Yes, such a thing exists. The company that makes it, The Particle Zoo ( www.particlezoo.net )...
  • Blog Post: Road trip: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, part 2

    When you hear the name Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab for short, cosmology likely isn’t the first thing to cross your mind. But Fermilab researchers are busy building an astronomical camera that could help confirm that dark energy rules the current universe — or the unsettling...
  • Blog Post: Road trip: Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

    The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, invited press and amateur astronomers to visit on November 17 and view a camera it’s building for a dark-energy study. Senior Editor Rich Talcott and I jumped at the chance to see the lab. Fermilab is about 2.5 hours south of Astronomy...
  • Blog Post: New book alert: “The Shape of Inner Space”

    Astronomy readers should know about a terrific new book exploring string theory and its implications for multidimensional space. Just published by Basic Books, The Shape of Inner Space: String Theory and the Geometry of the Universe’s Hidden Dimensions (377 pp., hardcover, New York, 2010, ISBN 978–0...
  • Blog Post: The end of the beginning

    One of the best parts of my job is reading the kinds of news stories and articles I used to read just for fun. “ Death Of The Big Bang, Or The Problem Of Time’s Beginning ” by frequent Astronomy contributor and astrophysicist Adam Frank on NPR’s blog 13.7 is such a story, about...
  • Blog Post: Introducing Caltech’s new home for astronomy and astrophysics

    A guest blog from Lynne Hillenbrand, Caltech’s executive officer of astronomy The Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics on the campus of the California Institute of Technology, in Pasadena, California, is home to many of the world's pioneers in astronomical discovery, experiment, and theory...
  • Blog Post: New video: Dark matter explained

    In my newest video, I give you an overview of dark matter , that mysterious stuff that makes up some 90 percent of the universe’s mass. During the last few decades, astronomers have gained convincing evidence that stars, gas, and dust aren’t all there is to the universe. Most of it is “dark” — both dark...
  • Blog Post: Send us your astronomy questions

    Perplexed by planets? Confused by cosmology? Baffled by black holes? Then send in your questions to Astronomy magazine at askastro@astronomy.com . If you have an astronomy question about observing, the planets, stars, cosmology, or astronomy history, send it in! Five are selected each month for publication...
  • Blog Post: New Video: The Big Bang explained

    In my newest video, I give you an overview of the Big Bang Theory (the cosmology theory, not the television show), and help clear up a few common misconceptions. Hopefully the crazy world of cosmology will make a bit more sense after you’ve watched the production. This clip is the first in a series...
  • Blog Post: Relativity rap

    It’s great how some people communicate science ideas. A few months ago we heard about the science writer at the Large Hadron Collider who filmed a rap video about the LHC and posted it on YouTube. So what does this have to do with Astronomy ? Well, Rob Wheeldon, a reader and fellow astronomy enthusiast...
  • Blog Post: Cosmologists issue challenge

    Are you good with statistics and interested in cosmology? Well, astronomers have issued a challenge to aid in the understanding of dark matter and dark energy — the mysterious stuff that makes up roughly 95 percent of our universe. Thirty-eight astronomers from 19 international institutions are issuing...
  • Blog Post: Why I love cosmology

    Yesterday I spent a bit of time reading through the scientific paper regarding the flow of galaxy clusters pulled by possible dark matter beyond the universe’s horizon. I don’t know what it is about cosmology, but I find it fascinating. It’s weird stuff, completely crazy ideas, and very difficult to...
  • Blog Post: LHC gets hip

    For those of you physics and cosmology enthusiasts who are into learning through alternative methods (or you’re just someone who likes some clever music and lyrics), you’ve got to check out the Large Hadron Rap video on YouTube. Of course, that’s if you aren’t one of the more than 1.5 million people...
  • Blog Post: John Archibald Wheeler (1911–2008)

    Best known to astronomical trivia buffs as the man who coined the term “black hole,” University of Texas physicist John A. Wheeler died this morning at the age of 96. Wheeler “was legendary for his way with words, coining such terms as wormholes, quantum foam, black holes, and the wave function of...
  • Blog Post: Light, mirrors, gravity!

    Yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a nice summary of efforts by the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee to detect gravitational waves. The article focuses on NEMO , the $1.8 million, 1,560 CPU, Beowulf-class computing cluster built and operated by the school’s gravitational-wave group. (Ah, I...
  • Blog Post: Bottom of the world

    One place I’ve always wanted to visit is Antarctica. It’s a continent seemingly designed for science geeks and natural-history buffs. Here’s a sampling of scientists now scattered across the bleak landscape: Cosmologists tweak the 10-meter South Pole Telescope , just completed last February; geologists...