Dave's Universe - Astronomy Magazine - Interactive Star Charts, Planets, Meteors, Comets, Telescopes

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Stephen Hawking will be honored at Starmus by the Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, global recording artist Sarah Brightman, and Anathema

Posted 7 years ago by David Eicher

Starmus will have its musical agenda through shows like the Sonic Universe concert, in which Hans Zimmer, Sarah Brightman, and Anathema will offer exclusive performances. From June 27 to July 2, Tenerife will become the meeting place for the brightest minds in the world in the fields of science and music. Madrid, April 26, 2016. Make science accessible and enjoy exclusive artistic performances inspired by the universe is the spirit of Starmus Festival. And in its third editio...

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Win a signed copy of THE NEW COSMOS!

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Here’s your chance to pick up an autographed copy of my latest book, The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions. You can visit (and like!) my official Facebook page between April 18 and May 2, 2016, for your chance to win! Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his Author Page on Facebook....

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Astronomy online story an award finalist

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Congratulations to Eric Betz, Chuck Braasch, Marie Kieckbusch, and the entire Astronomy magazine team that assembled our online feature story on the movie The Martian. This interactive digital story has been named a finalist in the Magazine Publishers Association Imagination Awards 2016, which recognize projects that capture the essence of a magazine brand, demonstrating innovative thinking and imaginative tactics. Eric has since moved over to become an associate editor of Discover magazine, acr...

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Is It Just Me, Or Are Asteroids More Dangerous Than They Used to Be?

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Every week we read about dangerous asteroids that whiz past our planet. How dangerous are the actual threats? Courtesy of the team at Asteroid Day, please enjoy the blog, which lays out a straight and sober reality. Thanks to Eric Christensen, director of the Catalina Sky Survey in Tucson, for writing such a nice piece. And for all on Asteroid Day, see Asteroidday.org.Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his Author Page on Facebook....

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Starmus Festival to address global concerns

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

I hope many of you will attend the Starmus Festival in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, June 27–July 2, 2016. I have written extensively about the festival in the April issue of Astronomy. In addition to the previous Starmus plans, Garik Israelian has announced a series of high-level talks on global issues — cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, global warming, threat from asteroids, and status of the global economy. For more on Starmus, see starmus.com. Press release follows ...

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Northeast Astronomy Forum 2016

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

The largest telescope show in the United States, the Northeast Astronomy Forum celebrated its 25th anniversary this year with a bang. The show took place at Rockland Community College in Suffern, New York, hosted by the Rockland Astronomy Club as always, and capably managed by Ed Siemenn and his talented staff. One of the show’s driving forces, Al Nagler of Tele Vue Optics, was present and all smiles as usual, with a huge crowd surrounding the Tele Vue booth. David and Sandy Nagler also bu...

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Eicher book signing at Northeast Astronomy Forum

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

This weekend I’ll be pleased to see many of you at the Northeast Astronomy Forum in Suffern, New York. The event will be held Saturday and Sunday at Rockland Community College and constitutes the largest gathering of astronomy enthusiasts in the country, built around a telescope show. More than 100 telescope manufacturers and dealers will be set up to show their wares. Cambridge University Press has set up a book signing for my new title The New Cosmos, at the Cambridge booth, at 11:30 AM ...

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Read Mark Boslough’s blog on the Jupiter impact

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

As many of you know, a small solar system body impacted Jupiter once again, this time on March 17, 2016, St. Patrick’s Day. Austrian amateur astronomer Gerrit Kernbauer was the first to observe the impact scar. I encourage you to read Mark Boslough’s blog on the Asteroid Day website.Boslough is chair of the Asteroid Day Expert Panel, and a physicist and authority on impacts at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. You can also read an interview with the discoverer.Follow Dave E...

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Asteroid Day’s Don Yeomans: Will asteroid 2013 TX68 strike Earth?

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Please read the expert panel story from JPL’s Don Yeomans, one of Earth’s greatest authorities on asteroid science. Don gives you the straight story on asteroid 2013 TX68, which originally showed a remote possibility of striking Earth, and the confusion and misinformation that has followed. There’s so much poor quality stuff out in social media now that it’s important to get the real story from those who know. This blog will give it to you! Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, ...

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Stephen Hawking remembers his best teacher

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

The BBC has just posted a really nice story about Stephen Hawking’s most influential teacher — an Armenian man who escaped genocide with his parents, and went on to affect the world greatly by encouraging Stephen. Dikran Tahta died in 2006, but Stephen has recorded a video commending his teacher, which you can see in the BBC story.Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his Author Page on Facebook....

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David Helfand lecture upcoming

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

If you’re in the New York City area in two weeks, you won’t want to miss an important lecture by astrophysicist David Helfand. A professor at Columbia University and brilliant writer, Helfand will discuss “Climate Change: What We Know and What We Don’t Know” as part of the One Day University live talks. The event will take place March 21, 2016, from 7 to 9 p.m. and will be hosted by Claudia Dreifus of The New York Times. The venue is the New York Institute of T...

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J. Richard Gott on The Cosmic Web

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

When we think of galaxies, we normally think of lots of objects that are very close to us in space. It’s difficult for the very distant galaxies, and very largest structures, to spring into our minds. And yet this is where the highest understanding of how galaxies function, and how the universe is organized, resides — in the large-scale structure of the cosmos. J. Richard Gott, professor of astrophysics at Princeton University, has been at the forefront of extragalactic research for ...

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Dava Sobel issues wonderful Copernicus play, And the Sun Stood Still

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Any lover of science literature knows the wonderful Dava Sobel, and I really count it as a privilege to know her — a wonderful spirit. You probably have read her Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, or A More Perfect Heaven — or at least you should read them. Dava has produced an entertaining work just out that describes an historic encounter of scientists. The story centers on the great Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who of course produced his landmark...

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Paul Spudis’ excellent The Value of the Moon

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Mars is most frequently the watchword in planetary exploration. The majority of NASA’s planetary exploration budget has been focused on it, it’s the next big leap in sending humans out into the solar system, and Buzz Aldrin has admirably led a campaign to publicize the need for a Mars mission with his “Get your *** to Mars” movement. But Mars isn’t the only game in town.Planetary scientist Paul Spudis, well known as a lunar expert for many years and a stalwart ...

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Please support the International Dark-Sky Association!

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

I encourage you to read the letter below, which was just published in The Reflector, the journal of the Astronomical League. In it, John Goss, president of the Astronomical League, Peter Tyson, editor-in-chief of Sky & Telescope, and myself have signed a letter urging astronomy enthusiasts to take action against light pollution. The vanishing night sky is a threat to everyone’s enjoyment of and understanding of the universe we inhabit. We jointly strongly ask you to communicate with an...

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A high precision book on a high precision measurement

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Two years ago, the Planck mission group at the European Space Agency produced a substantial data release that defined the best-ever measured age of the universe at 13.8 billion years. This was slightly older than previous best estimates. This important moment in defining one of the universe’s fundamental parameters caused John Gribbin, one of our premier science writers, to issue a new book. Gribbin’s 13.8: The Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything, ...

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Take the Asteroid Day Chelyabinsk quiz!

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

What to do on a winter Monday? How about testing your skills on the Chelyabinsk meteorite fall of 2013, which cascaded into Russia, produced an incredible fireball, and unfortunately injured people on the ground. Grig Richters, one of the founders of Asteroid Day, has produced a video blog update on Asteroid Day and a quiz relating to Chelyabinsk. Have fun! Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter, and please check out his Author Page on Facebook....

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A book you absolutely must read: David J. Helfand’s A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

I’ve known quite a few astronomers over the years who I consider to be geniuses. And David Helfand is one of them. Former chair of the Department of Astronomy at Columbia University; a founding tutor and president of Quest University in Canada; former president of the American Astronomical Society; and much more, Helfand is a man brimming with incredible insights on the universe. Some of you know that I’ve written about the current miserable state of scientific thinking in this count...

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New era in astronomy begins with gravitational wave detection

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

This morning’s historic press conference in Washington ushered in a new era of astronomy, in a very exciting way. The director of the National Science Foundation, astronomer France Córdova, led the discussion that announced the detection of gravitational waves from two merging black holes, the first such detection in history. Einstein predicted that merging black holes should produce ripples in space-time in his General Theory of Relativity a century ago. And the LIGO project, Laser...

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Dave Eicher’s The New Cosmos wins 2016 PROSE Award

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Astronomy Editor David Eicher’s book The New Cosmos: Answering Astronomy’s Big Questions has won honorable mention at the 2016 PROSE Awards, book awards given for excellence in professional and scholarly publishing. The awards are administered by the Association of American Publishers, and are recognized at the group’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Eicher‘s book won honorable mention in the category of popular science writing. The book has just been published by Camb...

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Asteroid Day 2016 announced, set for June 30

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

**PRESS RELEASE**ASTEROID DAY 2016 LAUNCHED AT EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY WITH SUPPORT FROM 20 GLOBAL PARTNERS, SIX INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES, AND A MESSAGE FROM OUTER SPACEAsteroid Day, a global movement supporting increased awareness and education of asteroids, announced its plans for 2016 in a press conference live from ESA ESTEC and live streamed to the world — with messages from every continent on the globe and a special message from outer space.Participants included co-founders Dr. Brian May...

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Uwingu announces 2016 Valentine's Day space gift ideas

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

PRESS RELEASE Boulder, Colorado — Make a Special Impact on Someone at Valentine’s DayToday, space public engagement company Uwingu announced three space themed ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day: Name a crater on Mars for family, friends, or loved ones on our Mars map! Each crater named receives a special Valentine’s Day certificate. Name an exoplanet around another star for family, friends, or loved ones. Send a yearlong gift subscription to family, friends, or love...

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Asteroid Day press conference set for Tuesday, February 9

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

**PRESS RELEASE**ASTEROID DAY 2016 TO ANNOUNCE NEW PARTNERS ANDORGANIZATION FOR WORLDWIDE EVENTS ON JUNE 30; PRESSCONFERENCE ON FEBRUARY 9 CO-HOSTED BY ESA ESTEC IN THE NETHERLANDSBuilding on the highly successful first-ever Asteroid Day in 2015, organizers, together with the European Space Agency, will announce partners and the addition of premier and independently organized events for Asteroid Day 2016, scheduled for June 30 around the world.Date of Press Conference: February 9, 2016Time: 15:0...

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Amy Shira Teitel’s Breaking the Chains of Gravity

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

The world has been flooded in recent years with books about spaceflight, particularly centered on the Apollo era. Those who adore the golden age of space exploration are very well provisioned for their intellectual journeys into the past. But such is not the case, until now, for the formative years of space exploration —i.e., pre NASA. Amy Shira Teitel is well known on social media for tireless promotion of the golden age of space exploration. She produced terrific video coverage of some h...

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Challenger after 30 years: a solemn reminder

Posted 8 years ago by Olympia

Thirty years ago today, Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its journey. Today we hold a special remembrance for the astronauts lost on that mission, as well as those of Columbia and Apollo 1. I took this image of the left side panel of Challenger on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida just a few weeks ago. Let us remember that space travel is hard, and that we all need to meet the coming frontiers together. That is the only way humanity can push forward, explore the uni...

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A Sickness Over the Land: Special online science feature now available!

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

In many places in the world, science is under attack. The quality of information shared between people is seemingly getting worse, plagued by inaccuracies, exaggerations, overreactions, and outright lies. In many places, pseudoscience is winning the day over science. “The Big Bang never happened.”“GMOs are bad for you and there’s a conspiracy to push them at consumers.” “Global warming doesn’t exist.”“Vaccines are killing children.” In ...

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New Asteroid Day website and Asteroids IV book review

Posted 8 years ago by Korey Haynes

Our friends at the Asteroid Day project have a brand new website loaded with resources for those interested in space rocks. And it will be the premier site for anything you’d like to know about pushing forward research on Near-Earth Objects, which we need to do. Of course planetary scientists know about the biggest NEOs, and they have now catalogued more than 9,000 such objects smaller than 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in diameter. But the work needs to continue to keep Earth’s future saf...

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A wonderful short astronomy video!

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Check out this beautiful video, “The Art and Science of Stars,” which was produced by the staff of USC-Dornsife in Los Angeles. It is a marvelous reflection on the night sky, the meaning of stars, and humanity! Follow Dave Eicher on Twitter and check out his author page on Facebook. ...

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Hey Dave, what happened to your book?

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

I’ve received a growing number of emails and messages over the past several days, so I think I ought to address this. My book The New Cosmos was published by Cambridge University Press a couple weeks ago, and it is suddenly very hard to find. We’ve had some wonderful press and reaction, and the book is ranked #1 in Astronomy and Astrophysics on Amazon.com. But it has been temporarily unavailable from many sources since the first day it went on sale.That is a nice problem to have, you...

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Asteroid Day: Mark Boslough on Younger Dryas, Carolina Bay depressions

Posted 8 years ago by David Eicher

Our friends at Asteroid Day have commenced an online series of questions and answers, and the first two have been answered by Mark Boslough. Mark is the chair of the Asteroid Day Expert Panel and is a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. He is an expert on impacts on Earth, among other things. I think you’ll find the discussion here captivating. The Younger Dryas is a period of cooling on Earth that commenced about 12,900 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Secon...

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