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Happy birthday, Hawking

Posted 9 years ago by Eric Betz

The world's most famous cosmologist celebrates his 73rd birthday today.The occasion marks 52 years since doctors told the then 21-year-old Stephen Hawking that he would ultimately die of the motor-neuron disease that eventually claimed all of his physical capabilities, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Thankfully, they were wrong.Despite his declining physical state, Hawking persisted in his Herculean mental feats and enriched our understanding of black hole cosmology in the process. His life...

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Are multiverses science or science fiction?

Posted 9 years ago by Eric Betz

That was the question posed by Max Tegmark of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle on Wednesday.Tegmark is a renowned theoretical physicist and author of the recently published Our Mathematical Universe (Knopf, 2014). By studying inflation, which he believes can be proven, there could be a scientific route to testing theories of parallel universes, Tegmark says.He proposes four levels of multiverses might be possible. The first model w...

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Is eyepiece time on a world-class telescope worth more than a Super Bowl ticket?

Posted 9 years ago by Eric Betz

Before your eyeball even approaches the glass, you notice a green glow pushing out from the eyepiece and spilling across the pitch black room. And as you peer through the telescope, the Orion Nebula (M42) comes into glorious focus. This diffuse nebula has long proven itself a hit during public viewing nights on instruments across the country.But this is not your average instrument. This is the 4.3-meter Discovery Channel Telescope, recently built at a dark-sky site in Arizona and equipped with a...

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Making dreams reality

Posted 9 years ago by Korey Haynes

One of the coolest things about being at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting is hearing about the future of space science straight from the source. Last night I got to hear about the far future of space observatories — what comes after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to launch in 2018. The next, next big project, currently dubbed the High Definition Space Telescope (if you don't like it, the name will almost certainly change before launch), imagines the world'...

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An overwhelming nebula

Posted 9 years ago by Michael Bakich

If you’re a regular Astronomy reader, the name Adam Block will be familiar to you. In addition to being one of the world’s preeminent astroimagers, Adam also contributes the “Cosmic Imaging” column each month. After a brief phone call, I encouraged Adam to submit a guest blog from time to time in which he highlights one of his latest creations. This is his first, and it’s a stunner! So, here's Adam in his own words. Each time I take a new image, I write a caption a...

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Astronomy across Africa

Posted 9 years ago by Korey Haynes

Hello, world! I'm the newest addition to the Astronomy staff, and I'm happy to be at the 225th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) this week in Seattle, covering all that's late-breaking or up and coming in the world of astronomy. It's the latter sort of news that caught my attention today. When you think of the top countries in astronomy research, African nations probably aren't the first that spring to mind. But South Africa in particular is looking to change that, and they're...

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Earth's Van Allen belts still offering up surprises

Posted 9 years ago by Eric Betz

Our planet's magnetic field holds in a toroidal band of radiation in a belt around Earth, which protects us from solar eruptions, growing and shrinking as it's excited. That find is known as the first great discovery of the Space Age. And despite Americans getting to space second, the discovery was ours.The Soviet Union had shocked the world with Sputnik. When they followed their feat with a second craft, the data it captured contained evidence of these radiation belts, but the data was received...

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Let Astronomy get behind your outreach efforts!

Posted 9 years ago by Michael Bakich

Astronomy has just announced that we're accepting entries for the magazine's 2014 Out-of-this-world Award, and I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of this great annual opportunity.If you’re part of a nonprofit group in the United States that presents the wonders of astronomy to the public, you’re eligible for this $2,500 outreach award. I've been in charge of accepting entries for the past few years, so I know there are tons of great programs out there. And I want to encourage a...

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Win a chance to name a Uwingu Mars crater

Posted 9 years ago by Karri Ferron

In February, Uwingu, a small, for-profit company with a mission to create new ways for people to personally connect with space exploration and astronomy and, in turn, raise funds for space exploration, research, and education grants, announced its Mars Crater Naming Project as its latest money-raising initiative. The project invites users to stake claim to one (or many) of the approximately 500,000 unnamed but scientifically cataloged craters on the Red Planet (the 15,000 features already with n...

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Biggest stories of 2014 on NPR's Science Friday

Posted 9 years ago by Liz Kruesi

What better way to recover from the your Christmas or Hanukkah celebrations and prep for 2015 than to reflect on the past year’s biggest science stories? On December 26, at 2 p.m. Eastern time, tune to your National Public Radio station for Science Friday. In the episode, I join host Ira Flatow, Scientific American’s Mariette Dichristina, CNET’s Bridget Carey, and National Geographic contributor Brian Switek to talk about the most notable news from all areas of science in 2014....

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More dark skies, Texas style

Posted 9 years ago by Michael Bakich

At Astronomy, we hear about new projects all the time. Sometimes one will catch my eye, and I decide to share it with you. A few weeks ago, Morton Hochstein of New York City shared with me the details of a new attraction in Marathon, Texas, that should interest all amateur astronomers. Here’s his report. In sparsely settled southwest Texas, three communities — Marfa, Fort Davis, and Alpine — have achieved unique identities. Marfa is an art mecca, largely due to the educational...

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Stunning photos from the Orion launch

Posted 9 years ago by Karri Ferron

On December 5, 2014, NASA’s latest endeavor to once again send humans beyond low Earth orbit took a major step forward. The agency’s Orion spacecraft passed its first test flight with flying colors. Chris Cook, a professional photographer from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, covered the event from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida for Astronomy and sent back some incredible photos.While Chris captured most of his photos of the launch from the NASA causeway, about as close as an im...

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Uwingu and eBay auctioning naming rights to biggest unnamed crater on Mars

Posted 9 years ago by Karri Ferron

Posted on behalf of the Uwingu team; Astronomy magazine is a proud partner of this effort to raise funding for space science. Looking for an out of this world holiday gift opportunity or an incredible marriage proposal or anniversary idea? Through Monday, eBay and Uwingu have partnered to give anyone the opportunity to naming rights for the biggest unnamed crater on Uwingu’s Mars map — a first of its kind auction.With over 14,000 craters named on it by the public in 2014 alone &mdas...

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Orion launch scrubbed

Posted 9 years ago by Michael Bakich

I just received this report from Contributing Editor Mike Reynolds, who was at the press site on Pad 39 of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Thursday, December 4th. T-minus … and holding! Today’s launch attempt of Orion via the Delta IV launch vehicle was scrubbed due to a valve issue in the Delta rocket, though from the start it seemed that it was not going to be a day to fly from the moment the launch window opened. The launch control team worked through several issues,...

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Looking back with "50 Years of Brown Dwarfs"

Posted 9 years ago by Sarah Scoles

“Face it,” says the sunglasses-sporting protagonist of a 1996 New Yorker cartoon. “In this town, you’re either a star or you’re just another brown dwarf.” While science jokes fill modern-day Facebook feeds (“What do you do with an old chemist? … Barium”), this one still holds its own. It doesn’t rely on punny-ness but, instead, explains what a brown dwarf is: an object that failed to become a bright-burning star. But that’s a p...

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Uwingu beams message to Mars

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

On November 28, Uwingu, a company that raises money for space research and education grants, will send the results of its efforts to collect names, messages, and photos — nearly 90,000 total — to the Red Planet via a radio signal as part of its “Beam Me to Mars” project. The transmission will begin just after 3 p.m. EST in the United States and will be repeated twice at a rate of 1 million bits per second by Universal Space Network."Beam Me to Mars" celebrates the 50th an...

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Eclipse minus 1,000 days

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

It’s November 25, 2014. Thoughts of the holidays are everywhere because it’s exactly one month until Christmas. But that’s not what’s on my mind. I’m currently on vacation. My wife and I are in St. Joseph, Missouri, visiting her parents for the week. This morning, I appeared as a guest on the morning show at KFEQ, a radio station here in St. Joe located at 680 on the AM dial. In about an hour, I’ll be speaking to the Downtown Rotary Club. And Saturday night, ...

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Pluto and awards at planetary sciences meeting in Tucson

Posted 10 years ago by Rich Talcott

The 46th annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) of the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, Arizona, continued apace on Thursday. Scientists discussed their latest research on diverse topics including asteroids, planetary rings, and active moons such as Enceladus, Europa, Triton, and my personal favorite, Io. And though Rosetta’s mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko held center stage at the meeting on Monday, attendees were still buzzing about yesterday&rsquo...

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Dusting off old research at planetary sciences meeting in Tucson

Posted 10 years ago by Rich Talcott

Most of the researchers attending the 46th annual meeting of the Division for Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in Tucson, Arizona, are reporting on their latest observations and models of our solar system as well as those around other stars. Yesterday, reports on late-breaking science about Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, Saturn’s largest moon, Titan, and a plethora of exoplanets filled the sessions. But one planetary scientist was dusting off his research from the...

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Day 1 of the Arizona Space and Astronomy Expo

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

It’s the first day of the Arizona Space and Astronomy Expo (ASAE), the two-day public event that follows the three-day-long SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar (SWAP) in Tucson, Arizona. Today (Saturday), the doors opened at 8:30 a.m. I worried a bit before arriving that the start time was a bit early, but when I walked in around 8:40 a.m., there were already scores of people wandering about and talking to vendors. This is my first year attending this event, but by all accounts it’s ...

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Day 3 of the SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

I’ve arrived at the third and final day of the SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar (SWAP) in Tucson, Arizona. Once more, all meetings will be at the Tucson Convention Center. Today, I decided to attend the vendor sessions. I want to hear what the latest and greatest products are, plus, I’m always looking for great gadgets to send out for review. First up was Kevin LeGore from SkyWatcher USA. Wow! This up-and-coming company has a great new product: Star Adventurer. This tiny mount wei...

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Day 2 of the SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

The second day of the SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar (SWAP) in Tucson, Arizona, involved a change in location. Yesterday, attendees gathered at the Hotel Tucson City Center InnSuites. Today through Sunday, however, all meeting sessions for SWAP and all activities associated with the Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo (that happens Saturday and Sunday) will be at the Tucson Convention Center. The first session I attended was in the vendor’s hall, which hosted half of the split schedule...

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Day 1 of the SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

It’s the first day of the SouthWest Astrophotography Seminar (SWAP) in Tucson, Arizona. Approximately 130 dedicated imagers have gathered at the Hotel Tucson City Center InnSuites to teach and learn techniques that will produce better celestial images. Promptly at 10 a.m., one of the conference’s organizers, Warren Keller, led off with introductory remarks. Next up was Dennis Conti. It was his idea that formed the basis for the first day’s activities. Called “Birds of a ...

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An astronomy convention in Arizona

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Tucson, Arizona, once again will be the center of astronomy, only this time it will be focusing on the general public. On Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2, the Arizona Science and Astronomy Expo (ASAE) will occur at the Tucson Convention Center. The doors open Saturday at 8:30 a.m. and the event goes until 6 p.m. Hours Sunday are 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tickets (available at the door or through Ticketmaster) for each day are $10 and allow access to all exhibits and talks. Kids 12 and under ge...

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New film focuses on Stephen Hawking's life: A Q&A with director James Marsh

Posted 10 years ago by Eric Betz

Then 32-year-old Stephen Hawking’s debilitating motor neuron disease was already rapidly advancing when his wife, Jane, found him tangled in his pajamas one day unable to move. He told her that he’d had an idea. It would become Hawking radiation.Director James Marsh says he relied on Newton’s-apple-type moments like this to help humanize science in his new film, The Theory of Everything. Along the way, he had help from theoretical physicist consultants who double-checked the eq...

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Meteorite hunters chase fireball near Grand Canyon

Posted 10 years ago by Eric Betz

A small team of veteran meteorite hunters is combing the desert south of Grand Canyon National Park in hopes of finding the remains of a fireball that lit up the skies of Flagstaff, Arizona, on Saturday.The daytime fireball sent out a sonic boom and left a small trail of smoke hovering in the sky just before 9 a.m. local time. Many residents took to social media to post photos of the strange sighting. Other witnesses reported seeing material coming out of the meteor as it broke up reentering t...

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Milestone for once-kidnapped Iraqi amateur astronomer

Posted 10 years ago by Eric Betz

Ten years ago, masked gunmen rushed the Baghdad offices of a humanitarian group working to rebuild schools, hospitals, and water treatment plants in Iraq. The men would kidnap Iraqi engineer and amateur astronomer Raad Abdul Aziz, along with two Italian aid workers and another Iraqi.As we are now, Astronomy was headed to print on the December issue at the time, which contained an aptly titled story on the then 35-year-old Abdul Aziz called “Wartime astronomy.” It detailed t...

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The 10 most important eclipses in history

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Before I begin, let me make one thing clear: Despite the all-encompassing title, these are my choices for the top 10 most significant eclipses in history. Your list may vary, but I’m pretty sure it would include some of the ones I list below.Also, I’m of a mindset these days to blog about the upcoming total solar eclipse that the United States will experience August 21, 2017. All 10 eclipses on this list, therefore, are solar eclipses, though not necessarily total.Ready? Here we go...

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Astronomy magazine subscribers get "beamed" to Mars

Posted 10 years ago by Karri Ferron

Last month, Uwingu, a company that connects the public with the sky in order to raise funds for space exploration and astronomy research, announced its "Beam Me to Mars" project. Astronomy magazine is already sending its logo to raise money for research grants, and now we're partnering with Uwingu to beam the names of our more than 80,000 subscribers as well.The focus of "Beam Me to Mars" is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the beginning of our exploration of the Red Planet by sending messag...

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10 images from the August 1, 2008, total solar eclipse

Posted 10 years ago by Michael Bakich

Everyone loves images of total solar eclipses. The first set I posted, from the March 29, 2006 event, proved popular. So, again looking forward to the August 21, 2017 total solar eclipse that will cross the United States, here’s a gallery of images from a similar event that took place August 1, 2008. The total phase of the eclipse began in northern Canada, then the track spent a lot of time over open water until it contacted Russia. Finally, people living under clear skies in parts of Chi...

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