Blog | Universe Today

How Far are the Planets from the Sun?
What is the Closest Star to Earth?
Why Does Jupiter Have the Great Red Spot?
Why Can't We Launch Garbage Into Space?

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I signed up for Twitter a couple of years ago, but I never got around to actually using it. Some part of my brain thinks it would be a great way to do… something. But I have no idea what that would be. I'll need you to teach me, and help me understand what you'd like to see from my Twitter feed.

Obviously, you don't want to hear about the minutia of my life, but I think there's value in great big collaborative conversations. Part of me finds it very exciting, and part of me thinks it's a time sucking black hole. What am I missing?

Here's my Twitter feed.

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Okay, now I'm getting excited. As I've mentioned in the past, and will bring up again and again, the UN has designated 2009 as the International Year of Astronomy. There are some really great projects planned that will try to get as many people as possible interested in astronomy. The IYA has released a cool trailer to get us all inspired. It's working for me.

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How Long Will Life Survive on Earth?
How Does the Earth Protect Us From Space?
Will the Large Hadron Collider Destroy the Earth?
Why are Distant Galaxies Moving Away Faster?
How Can Galaxies Recede Faster Than the Speed of Light?

If you've got space and astronomy questions, just send them in to info@universetoday.com.

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Here is a round up of all the space questions answered on Universe Today for the week ending April 21st, 2008. If you have questions for our team, visit this page.

How Big Do Planets Get?
What is the Distance to the Moon?
What is the Far Side of the Moon?
What Kind of Star is Our Sun?
How Big is Apophis?
Why Do Stars Die?
Why are there Black Holes in the Middle of Galaxies?
Why Do Some Scientists Consider Pluto to Not Be a Planet?
Why Haven't Planets Been Detected Around Alpha Centauri?
Why Can't We Land on Mars?

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As you can probably imagine, I get an enormous amount of email, both through Universe Today and Astronomy Cast. I read it all, and I try to answer it all - so far, so good; although, I'm a little behind right now.

Instead of just emailing people back answers to their questions, I figured the information would be helpful to many of you. So I'm writing up little mini-articles to answer the questions, and I'm filing them under a special Questions section of the website.

The problem is that I'm going a lot of these, and I'd like to do even more (two birds, one stone). But I don't want to overwhelm the main page of the site and the RSS feed. I think it would dilute the news focus of Universe Today.

So I've got a listing of all the latest questions over on the right-hand side of the page, and they're in their own Questions section. And I'll probably provide a summary list of questions once a week in the main feed so you can read any that interest you.

If you've got a better idea… I'm all ears. I'll follow this story with an example of a summary.

If you've got a question, here's where to go.

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When I pitched a story idea to Tammy Plotner about how a president of a public observatory deals with those companies that offer to name stars, I was expecting (hoping) for something pretty negative. I think my request was something like, "could you debunk this please"? The article she actually wrote, Name a Star - Real or Ripoff, was much more nuanced, honest and forthright than I was expecting - I'm really glad she took the direction she did, and reminds me why I'm glad Tammy's writing for Universe Today.

It's an interesting dilemma. These people are selling something they have no right to sell and have to be dishonest about it. The best companies provide the coordinates to a real star, and the worst…

Anyway, Stuart over at Cumbrian Sky wrote the opinion I was expecting from Tammy. Completely hard line, but a very well defended position. It's a great read - Star Naming, Fun or Foul.

If any other blogs out there want to chime in on this topic, I'll be happy to update this page and link to your opinions as well.

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In episode 56 of Astronomy Cast, I noted that hoping that a black hole will lead to another dimension is sort of like a frog thinking that a blender will take him to another realm.

Astronomy Cast listener Isaac Windham animated the sequence, just to really drive the point home…

And here's the transcript from the show, so you'll all get the reference. Thanks Isaac!

Fraser: Why do people think we might live in a black hole? That seems kind of crazy to me.

Pamela: It's a lot of science fiction. There's this idea in science fiction that you can fly into a black hole and emerge in a completely different part of our universe, in an alternate universe… and so from these fiction writings, the idea has gotten into the zeitgeist that you fly into a black hole and you fly into a different universe – which means a universe can be inside of a black hole.

The problem is real black holes just lead to death.

Fraser: I guess that's the question – it's like a frog asking if I hop into that blender, will it lead me to another universe?

Pamela: Exactly

Fraser: No, no it won't – a universe of pain.

Pamela: It will lead to death, and yeah – where death leads to is a personal question not based in facts and not addressable in this show.

Fraser: Right, so it's almost like it's become a kind of philosophical question and it goes back to that extra-dimensional conversation we had in a well-received episode we did back in the day. I guess it's kind of like it's different – could it be so different that it's not really a devastating matter crusher? Could it be a bold new universe we could explore? (Says the frog hopping into his blender.

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Just in case there are some marketers out there, I wanted to let you all know that you can advertise here in Universe Today, in the Astronomy Cast podcast in the Bad Astronomy/Universe Today forum and other places. If you're wondering how you can reach almost a million space enthusiasts every month, check out the advertising page. Great demographics and competitive rates. And it's not just banner advertising either, we can come up with all kinds of clever ideas to help you reach the right audience, including giveaways and interactive programs. Drop me an email at info@universetoday.com with your needs and I can get back to you with some ideas.

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You might have forgotten, but the big Lunar and Planetary Society Conference is happening all this week in Houston - from these conferences come mountains of space news. Once again, the intrepid blogging team is bringing the conference to you (sort of live), with articles, audio, video, and photographs. Pamela and Rebecca are at the conference, and at the same time, we've got Scott Miller over at Cape Canaveral to cover the next launch of the space shuttle. And I'm back and Mission Control: Vancouver, reporting on all the news pouring out that they'll be too busy to cover. It should be a very interesting week.

I'll have reports here on Universe Today, but the best place is to go to our Astronomy Cast LIVE blog, where you'll see posts from all the contributors.

Click here to visit Astronomy Cast LIVE.

And if you want to meet Pamela and Rebecca, there's going to be having another listener meetup on Tuesday, 8pm at San Lorenzo’s. Here's a link to a map.

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If you're a member of the social network website Digg.com, read this. Otherwise, ignore this post.

As you know, Nancy wrote a cool article last week about a one-way, one-person trip to Mars. Digg.com picked up the story, but for some reason, it has showed up several times in different locations, so the vote is getting totally split up. Could you take a second and Digg the most popular one, here?

How About a One-Way, One-Person Trip to Mars

I'm not kidding, here are the others (but don't Digg them).

Here.
Here.
Here.
Here.
Here.
And here.

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If you're going to be anywhere near a TV on Tuesday, February 12th, you might be interested in watching the upcoming episode of Nova called Astrospies. Here's what it's about:

Amid the countdowns, launches, splashdowns, and parades that heralded the race to the moon, both the United States and the Soviet Union ran quiet campaigns to launch military astronauts on spying missions. Highly classified for decades, these top-secret missions might easily have triggered a shooting war in orbit. In "Astrospies," NOVA travels to Russia for exclusive access to cosmonauts and their restricted space facility and obtains candid first-time interviews with American astronauts in the Air Force-run military space program.

And here's a little preview:

Check it out, I'll be watching.

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Have you ever tried to point out the constellations to a friend? You huddle up close, point your arm out, and both of you try to locate the star you're looking at. "See that star? Right there? Now down a little, no, not that one. It's on the left… never mind, there's the Moon over there." I had a chance to play with a green laser pointer from techlasers.com, and let me tell you, that problem goes away once and for all.
Read more…

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Sure, it's quiet for space news right now, but just you wait. Astronomers from across the US are gathering together here in Austin, Texas to meet and announce their latest findings at the Winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society. There are going to be dozens of big announcements, and literally hundreds of papers presented.

I'm here at the conference, and I'm going to try and bring you as much of this news as is humanly possible. So don't be surprised if your feed reader starts to bog down with news, and you get gigantic email news updates from Universe Today.

The press conferences start Tuesday, January 8th, so don't expect much between now and then.

Pamela, Phil and I are going to be doing an experiment this year as well. We'll be liveblogging some of the big press events, capturing live video, and generally trying to give you all a sense of what it's like to be here at the meeting.

So if you're interested in catching our live updates, we're going to have a special section of Astronomy Cast that you can check out. Just point your browser to astronomycast.com/live. We'll have frequent updates during the meeting.

And one last reminder. If you're actually here in Austin and want to meet the Astronomy Cast team and Dr. Phil Plait, we're going to be having a reader meetup at the Iron Cactus on Tuesday night. Click here for more info.

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Phil mentioned it on Bad Astronomy, Pamela dropped a note on Star Stryder, we chatted about it on Astronomy Cast. And here's Universe Today's compelling coverage…

I'm going to be in Austin for the Winter Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. In addition to all the news journalism, we thought we'd get some socializing done too.

Phil, Pamela, Rebecca, and I will be hosting a reader/listener meetup at the Iron Cactus in downtown Austin on January 8th at 8:00pm. Here's a link that gives you directions from the Austin convention centre to the Iron Cactus.

If you're going to be coming, can you drop me an email and let me know so we can gauge how many people might be there.

I look forward to meeting you all.

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If you're a student or teacher, and you're working through astronomy right now, we'd like to help you out. Pamela and I will be running a special edition of Astronomy Cast for high school students.
We'll help you gather up all the astronomy questions from your class, and then we'll do a special episode just for you, answering everything.

If you're interested in participating, check out Pamela's blog, where she explains things in more detail.

We'll be announcing this in the podcast as well, but I just wanted to let you know here. A big thanks to NASA’s Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope Education and Public Outreach program for sponsoring this.

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I'm happy once again to be the host of the Carnival of Space, here at Universe Today. I also wanted to announce that I'm going to be taking over the reins of the carnival from the founder, Henry Cate, who's getting a little spread too thin with everything he's working on. A big thanks to Henry for putting the time to get things to this point, and I hope I'm able to live up to the high standards he created. If you have any questions, just drop me an email at info@universetoday.com.

Now, onto the carnival.

Space Files writes about a little known amateur-built satellite bound for Mars.

Have you ever wondered what the Milky Way would look like if you could get outside it? astropixie takes us on a tour out of the galaxy, step by step.

Maybe there isn't any such thing as dark matter. Centauri Dreams looks at an alternative theory to Newtonian gravity that might just solve the problem.

Surfin English shows the tricks, tools and techniques you need to photograph the planets.

As the media focuses its attention on the troubles with torn solar arrays and stuck joints affecting the latest shuttle/ISS mission, Stuart Atkinson, is frustrated by the lack of attention paid to a very special and historic meeting that took place at the start of the mission.

Once it was thought that moons could not exist within the Roche Limit. Now there is evidence of moons and possibly other massive objects. Since Saturn's Rings contain conditions similar to the Solar System's formation, they may shed light on how our Earth was formed. From A Babe in the Universe.

And finally, from my own Universe Today, I humbly offer up this article about the search for the origins of the Tunguska impactor.

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Thanks to everyone who responded to our listener survey a few months ago. As promised, the results of the survey are now available, and have actually been published in a research journal. So if you're interested in learning about who's listening to Astronomy Cast, check out the premier issue of Communicating Astronomy with the Public, published by the International Astronomical Union.

Our article is called, Astronomy Cast: Evaluation of a podcast audience’s content needs and listening habits. I guess the title sort of explains it all.

So once again, thanks to everyone who participated, you've given us great feedback, and helped us make some really pretty bar charts.

If I had to take away one piece of information, that really makes the whole podcasting thing worth while, it's the change in interest towards astronomy. Check this out.

We found that 25% of our listener respondents had no interest or a passive interest in astronomy prior to listening to astronomy-related podcasts. After listening to astronomy-related podcasts, 70% of these individuals had begun to actively seek astronomy content or had become amateur astronomers.

You can download our specific article here.

Fraser Cain
Publisher, Universe Today (and co-host of Astronomy Cast)

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It's my turn to host the Carnival of Space again. This time we're up to mighty 19! These carnivals grow up so fast.

First up, Advancednano considers a recent study suggesting how an Orion spacecraft could refuel itself in midflight, and then suggests a better way. Here's a hint: there's nanotechnology involved.

Speaking of Orion, it's a constellation too. And Orion and Beyond is a blog. And on this blog, Tommy Smith suggests how you can enjoy stargazing with the kids.

Emily Lakdawalla from the Planetary Society stitches together 11 images of Rhea taken by Cassini, and explains how you can follow along on your own.

A Babe in the Universe, Louise Riofrio recently attended the Mars Society conference in Los Angeles and reports on what happened. I wish I could have gone.

Which worlds should we colonize first? Darnell Clayton has a few suggestions.

Cumbrian Sky has this report on how we're being bombarded by amazing and stunning images from space probes and telescopes. But which ones can live on and become classics?

And finally, for my own humble offering, might I suggest this recent article by Universe Today contributor Nancy Atkinson. It's called A Submarine for Europa, and suggests undersea vehicles that could explore this ice-covered moon.

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As you can probably guess, running Universe Today is a pretty expensive process for me, so I'm always trying to figure out ways to offset the expense. I've signed up for a new banner network that's serving up the top and sidebar ads. Before the network is willing to run better targeted ads for the site, they need my readers to complete a quick survey. It should only take about 2 minutes of your time, doesn't store any personal information about you. Once enough people have completed the survey, the ad network will present Universe Today to more specific advertisers.

Here's a link to the survey.

I'd also like you to tell me if you see obnoxious and inappropriate ads. I'd especially like to know if you see anything trying to take over the browser or causing popup windows.

Email me at info@universetoday.com

Also, I don't mind if you're running something like Firefox with Adblock+. I run it too from time to time. If you're concerned about ads, feel free to turn them off in your browser.

Thanks!

Fraser Cain
Publisher
Universe Today

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The carnival is back in town. Once again, the carnival of space makes its home here at Universe Today. Enjoy the ride…
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I'm pleased to announce a new sponsor for Universe Today and Astronomy Cast: "The Universe" brought to you by the History Channel. This is a 13-week documentary series about, what else, the Universe.
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Universe Today is hosting the Carnival of Space for a second week. This time, it's the mighty carnival #4. Once again, we've got a round-up of cool space-related articles from writers and bloggers. If you want to get involved, and maybe even host the carnival in a future week, you can find out more at the Carnival of Space website. Thanks for dropping by, I hope you enjoy the stories.
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I'm sorry this is such late notice, nobody let me know this was happening. Although sidewalk astronomers have been hitting the streets in the US for years, Saturday, May 19, 2007 is going to be the first International Sidewalk Astronomy Night.
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Hi folks, if you're a member of the popular social networking site Digg.com, I was wondering if you could take a second and "Digg" our Astronomy Cast podcast. That will help us rise in the rankings of Digg.com, and get more publicity. If you're a member of Digg.com, you can access the page here: digg.com/podcasts/Astronomy_Cast
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