コンデンセート超新星
Supernova Condensate is a blog about our place in the Universe. Of astronomy, chemistry and life in the big bad bubble of academia.
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Invader Xan is a molecular astrophysicist and part-time alien invader, who spends life looking at very small things on very large scales, and trying to better understand the chemistry of interstellar space.
DFTBA ♥
我々はすべての星の塵で作られています。
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Writing this blog is a labour of love, and I'm presently a poor unemployed scientist (and struggling writer). If you like what I write, the best way to show your gratitude would be to fuel my caffeine addiction and buy me a coffee to say thank you. All coffee donations are gratefully accepted!
Category Archives: astronomy
Acid drop
Anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while will know that Venus is my favourite planet in our solar system. Yes, I know it’s basically a big pressure cooker wrapped in lethally corrosive acid, but I love it all … Continue reading
Ablaze
The Sun is doing some quite exciting things at the moment. Just the other day, it spat out a X1.7 flare, the first X-class flare this year. Things are likely to stay interesting for a while now too. We’re very … Continue reading
Cooking with meteorites
What would you do if you found a meteorite? You might keep it as an ornament. Perhaps you could sell it to a collector or a scientist. Though I’d imagine you probably wouldn’t use it to make jamón serrano… Weirdly though, … Continue reading
Life under a blue sun?
So an article I wrote for Discovery last week revisited the idea of whether life could survive under a red sun, and what challenges it might face. Thing is, while red dwarfs may be exceptionally cantankerous little things, it seems … Continue reading
Stardust
Discovered courtesy of the quite marvellous Astropixie, is this rather soothing little video. Entitled “Stardust”, it’s four minutes of fantastically manipulated NASA imagery. Do yourself a favour and take a few minutes out of your day to enjoy it in … Continue reading
Posted in art, astronomy
3 Comments
Starry starry night
Living in the middle of a city is something which I frequently lament. As much as I do like city life, and would like to live in a much larger city one day soon, you can’t help but feel somewhat … Continue reading
Posted in art, astronomy
2 Comments
How “habitable” is our solar system anyway?
If you take a look around our solar system, it’s sometimes enough to make you feel slightly lonely. As far as we know, the only planet with any kind of life on it is ours. We certainly haven’t seen any … Continue reading
Fun with x-rays!
I really love the people who run the Chandra X-Ray observatory. They really do manage to make x-rays fun – and that’s a phrase which I’m sure most people would never have expected to hear. The latest thing I’ve discovered? … Continue reading
Posted in art, astronomy
3 Comments
An alien river…
As you may remember me saying before, Titan is not exactly like the Caribbean. But that isn’t to say that it’s not Earth-like. Indeed, the most fascinating thing about Titan is that in many ways, it’s very Earth-like indeed. To … Continue reading
Watching the rocks fly by
So, does anyone remember Apophis? You know, the asteroid named after an Ancient Egyptian mythological demon which is around half a kilometre in diameter and has an ever so small chance of raining fiery doom upon us all in the … Continue reading
