How About That?
For all intents and purposes gravity travels at the speed of light but it is very hard to measure, and so far we have no direct model-independent measurement of the speed of gravity. Physics has to main gravitational models: Newtonian dynamics and General Relativity The Newtonian gravitational mo...
Dark Energy
If the universe continues expanding forever, how long until it’s too diffused to allow star formation? How many generations of stars will that mean the universe has? How will the elemental make-up of these late stars be different and what effects will that have?
AstroNews
NASA has announced that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped some interesting photos that seem to indicate that water still flows on the surface of the red planet during the summer months. No water was directly detected but the presence of those long dark lines stretching from the slope sugges...
Big Bang
If the 1st Law of Thermodynamics is true how could the Universe begin from nothing? To answer this question we need to remember that nothing is a global term and not a local one.
Drake Equations
Assuming that there are other intelligent civilisations out there in the universe, what is the likelihood that we’ll ever be able to communicate? The key to answer this question is to look at the Drake Equation.
Astronomy
What are magnetic monopoles and why are they important? If you ever broke a magnet in two when you were little (I was a weird kid, leave me be) you might have noticed that you would have two perfectly working magnets in your hands.
Art
I firmly believe that the popularity of Astronomy is strongly related to our ability of producing awe-inducing photographs of the furthest corner of the cosmos. While looking up interesting pictures to talk about on the blog I stumbled upon the Astronomy Forensic Team from the University of Texas.
AstroNews
From the NASA website: Astronomers have used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and a suite of other telescopes to reveal one of the most powerful black holes known. The black hole has created enormous structures in the hot gas surrounding it and prevented trillions of stars from forming.
Antimatter
Dear Mr Science Guy, How many calories would get in a bottle of antimatter? How long would it take to burn off at the gym if you drank it? Thank you, Rob, age 30 Rob asks a very interesting question which allows me to explain several different concepts. First of all, what is anti-matter?
AstroNews
An amateur Russian astronomer has observed a Supernova in M82, a galaxy that is only 12 million light years away (a walk to the chemist on cosmic scales). The supernova has been confirmed as a Type Ia supernova. These supernovae occur when a white dwarf in a binary system accretes enough mass fro...
How About That?
Last night I had a nightmare that the centre of London was nuked. In my half-sleep state I tried working out if I could survive just by getting under my mattress or if I had to get out of bed to be more proactive for my survival. First, I had to check what kind of […]