Category: Astronomy

The Advent Calendar of Physics: Einstein’s Gravity

A week and a half ago, when the advent calendar reached Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation, I said that it was the first equation we had seen that wasn’t completely correct. Having done our quick swing through quantum physics, the time has come to correct that equation: If you say “Einstein equation” to a random… Continue reading The Advent Calendar of Physics: Einstein’s Gravity

The Manga Guide to the Universe by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp.

I’m still getting back up to speed with the blog, as well as the huge backlog of stuff I’ve read during the past few months when I was too busy to blog. Thus, I am semi-officially proclaiming this Book Review Week. I’ll post one review a day of books I was sent by publishers looking… Continue reading The Manga Guide to the Universe by Kenji Ishikawa, Kiyoshi Kawabata, and Verte Corp.

Wanted: Non-Academic Astronomer in Texas

Someone from the American Astronomical Society ran across the Project for Non-Academic Science posts here, and is looking for someone to participate in a career panel at their upcoming meeting in Austin, TX: The American Astronomical Society (AAS) Employment Committee is hosting a panel discussion at our annual AAS winter meeting in Austin on current… Continue reading Wanted: Non-Academic Astronomer in Texas

Because 4% of the Energy Controls 100% of the Photons

“I work around the clock– 1043 Planck times per second– providing the gravitational attraction to hold this galaxy cluster together. And some baryonic cosmologist wants to explain me away as a modification of Newtonian gravity? “I have been silent for 13.7 billion years, but no more. “I AM THE 96%” (Original Pandora Cluster image from… Continue reading Because 4% of the Energy Controls 100% of the Photons

Congratulations to Perlmutter, Schmidt and Riess, and also Evan and Cusp

The 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics goes to Saul Perlmutter, Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess “for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae.” Ethan will presumably have a post with about a gigabyte worth of images in it shortly, or if you prefer your information in… Continue reading Congratulations to Perlmutter, Schmidt and Riess, and also Evan and Cusp

Neutrino Hypotheses Non Fingo

The final sentence of the neutrino paper that everybody is buzzing about: We deliberately do not attempt any theoretical or phenomenological interpretation of the results. From a somewhat older work in physics: Rationem vero harum gravitatis proprietatum ex phænomenis nondum potui deducere, et hypotheses non fingo. Quicquid enim ex phænomenis non deducitur, hypothesis vocanda est;… Continue reading Neutrino Hypotheses Non Fingo

How Much Outreach Do We Need? Depends on What You Mean by “We”

Over Twitter, somebody pointed to this article on astronomy outreach (free PDF from that link), which argues that everybody else should stop trying to be Brian Cox: I’ve known Brian for years and worked with him before his celebrity status went supernova. I would love to say “I told you so” to all the TV… Continue reading How Much Outreach Do We Need? Depends on What You Mean by “We”