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Buy me a coffee?
Writing this blog is a labour of love, and one which I evidently need a little encouragement towards on occasion. 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!
Monthly Archives: September 2012
Shiny!
When constructed, the James Webb Space Telescope (or JWST for short) is scheduled for launch in 2018. When it does, it will be the largest and most complex orbital telescope ever constructed, with a 6.5 m primary mirror giving it … Continue reading
Posted in space, Tech
Tagged space exploration, telescopes
Planetary Centrifuge
I love classic sci fi movies, but if some advanced alien being could make the whole Earth (as opposed to just the man-made parts) literally stand still, the end results would be nothing short of catastrophic. You see, because most … Continue reading
Pardon me, I’ve got gas.
A galaxy is a huge collection of mass drifting in the otherwise bland and mostly featureless void of intergalactic space. Gravity is a force where like attracts like – mass likes to attract more mass – so, as you’d expect, … Continue reading
Second star to the right, and straight on till morning…
Dreamed up by the British Interplanetary Society in the 1970s, Daedalus was an idea for an unmanned interstellar space probe. It was to be powered by a nuclear fusion rocket, using a rocket engine bell larger than St Paul’s Cathedral. Continue reading
Warp drives! Nothing’s gonna stop us now?
Starships. The idea captures the imagination, doesn’t it? But special relativity is a harsh law to live by if we, as a species, ever plan to make it beyond the constraints of our own solar system. It imposes the ultimate … Continue reading
How far can you see?
I’ve always loved looking out towards the horizon. Especially by the shore on those beautifully clear days when you can see right to the edge of the sky. But just how far away is the horizon anyway? Actually, it’s pretty easy to calculate. Continue reading
The eternally starry skies of star cluster planets
Our sun sits in a rather lonely part of the Milky Way. Here in our quiet little home in a mundane part of the Orion Spur, a tiny offshoot from one of the galaxy’s spiral arms, we have few neighbours. … Continue reading
Texas Carbon?
This week I discovered one of the most faintly hilarious things I have for some time. It’s a fairly common mistake in chemistry to mis-draw a structure so that a carbon atom appears to have five bonds. It’s a fairly … Continue reading
Carnival of Space 267
Welcome, one and all, to another scintillating selection of spacey and scientific writings fresh from the blogosphere, for your enjoyment and perusal! This week’s flavour is very much centred around space travel – both manned and robotic. Let’s kick off … Continue reading
Posted in astronomy, physics, space, Tech
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