Astronomy Without a Telescope Returns as E-Book: Win a Copy!

Longtime readers of Universe Today will remember the series “Astronomy Without a Telescope” written by the witty Steve Nerlich, who also mans the Cheap Astronomy podcast. We were thrilled when Steve started writing for us and his weekly AWAT series (or is that Eh? What?) has now been compiled into an e-book, an anthology of …

Astronomy Without A Telescope – Special Relativity From First Principles

[/caption] Einstein’s explanation of special relativity, delivered in his 1905 paper On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies focuses on demolishing the idea of ‘absolute rest’, exemplified by the theoretical luminiferous aether. He achieved this very successfully, but many hearing that argument today are left puzzled as to why everything seems to depend upon the speed …

Astronomy Without A Telescope – Could Dark Matter Not Matter?

[/caption] You probably want to put on your skeptical goggles and set them to maximum for this one. An Italian mathematician has come up with some complex formulae that can, with remarkable similarity, mimic the rotation curves of spiral galaxies without the need for dark matter. Currently, these galactic rotation curves represent key evidence for …

Astronomy Without A Telescope – The Progenitor Problem

[/caption] With so much of our current understanding of the universe based on Type 1a supernovae data, a good deal of current research is focused upon just how standard these supposed standard candles are. To date, the weight of analysis seems reassuring – apart from a few outliers, the supernovae do all seem very standard …

Astronomy Without A Telescope – Orphan Supernovae?

[/caption] For some years now astronomers have been scratching their heads over the appearance of supernovae that detonate out in the middle of nowhere – rather than within a host galaxy. Various hypotheses have been proposed, notably that they might be hypervelocity stars – which are stars flung out of their host galaxy due to an …

Astronomy Without A Telescope – Inconstant Supernovae?

[/caption] Given the importance of Type 1a supernovae as the standard candles which demonstrate that the universe’s expansion is actually accelerating – we require a high degree of confidence that those candles really are standard. A paper released on Arxiv, with a list of authors reading like a Who’s Who in cosmology and including all …