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Category: Astronomy

By The Generalist Posted on June 26, 2022June 25, 2022

Lava planets

Earth-like planets that orbit too close to their stars are probably completely covered in lava.

Categories: Astronomy
By The Generalist Posted on May 17, 2022May 16, 2022

Return of the space dogs

Laika, the first space dog, died in orbit. But the next two – Belka and Strelka – survived. One of Strelka’s puppies was gifted to John F. Kennedy… but not before it was fully scanned for secret listening devices.

Categories: 20th century history, Animals, Astronomy, Europe, North & Central America, North & Central Asia
By The Generalist Posted on April 21, 2022April 21, 2022

February 30th

The calendar date February 30th has happened just once in history: in Sweden in 1712.

Categories: Astronomy, Early modern history, Europe, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on March 31, 2022March 30, 2022

Extreme geocaching

Geocaching is a recreational treasure hunt, with containers hidden worldwide just waiting to be found. And I do mean worldwide: they can be found at the very bottom of the world, the very top of the world, and even out of this world entirely.

Categories: 21st century history, Astronomy, Games & sport, The poles
By The Generalist Posted on March 3, 2022January 25, 2023

Space weather

When the solar wind hits the Earth, it can set off space storms, space hurricanes, and even space tornadoes.

Categories: Astronomy, The poles
By The Generalist Posted on February 25, 2022January 25, 2023

Viking sunstone

The Vikings navigated by the position of the sun. But what did they do when it was cloudy?

Categories: Astronomy, Europe, Medieval history, Physics & chemistry, Technology, The oceans
By The Generalist Posted on November 30, 2021November 29, 2021

Sun storm

In 1859 a geomagnetic storm from the Sun knocked out telegraph equipment in Europe and North America and sent auroras almost as far as the equator; it was the largest such event in recorded history.

Categories: 19th century history, Astronomy, Europe, North & Central America, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on November 24, 2021January 25, 2023

Sludge of the universe

Many moons, dwarf planets, comets, and trans-Neptunian objects are covered in a kind of complex chemical sludge sometimes called “tholins.” And this sludge may be much more common throughout the universe.

Categories: Astronomy, Physics & chemistry
By The Generalist Posted on November 12, 2021January 25, 2023

Cosmic sound

According to our understanding of the Big Bang, “cosmic sound” is older than neutral hydrogen. We can still spot its echoes today.

Categories: Astronomy, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on October 7, 2021January 25, 2023

Space probe software bug

NASA lost contact with the space probe Deep Impact in 2013 because of a single software bug.

Categories: 21st century history, Astronomy, Computer science
By The Generalist Posted on September 10, 2021September 8, 2021

Cosmic ladder (Part 2)

To measure distances in deep space, you need to look for candles in the darkness. [2 of 2]

Categories: 20th century history, Astronomy, Mathematics & statistics, North & Central America, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on September 9, 2021January 25, 2023

Cosmic ladder (Part 1)

It’s a lot more difficult to measure distances in space than you might think. [1 of 2]

Categories: Astronomy, Mathematics & statistics, Weights & measures
By The Generalist Posted on August 5, 2021January 25, 2023

Space junk

A bit of the Apollo 12 rocket from 1969 is still floating around out in space. It orbits the sun – but every thirty or forty years it comes back to orbit the Earth for a while.

Categories: 20th century history, Astronomy, Technology
By The Generalist Posted on July 22, 2021July 18, 2021

The Daylight Comet

Everyone eagerly anticipated Halley’s comet showing up in April 1910. It came as quite a surprise, then, when another brighter comet appeared just four months before: the Daylight Comet.

Categories: 20th century history, Astronomy
By The Generalist Posted on June 15, 2021January 25, 2023

First light

After the Big Bang the universe was dark for hundreds of million years, until the formation of the earliest stars and galaxies. And one of those galaxies was GN-z11, the oldest we have ever observed.

Categories: Astronomy
By The Generalist Posted on May 31, 2021May 30, 2021

The mother of meteorites

When something hit Vesta, an enormous hunk of rock in the asteroid belt, it created one of the largest impact craters known, the highest mountain in the Solar System, and many of Earth’s meteorites.

Categories: Astronomy

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