Archives for September 22, 2009

Gravitational lensing happens when a cluster of galaxies happens to be directly between us and an even more distant galaxy. The light from these distant galaxies gets warped into arcs and, oftentimes, multiple images. This shot from the new Hubble camera shows exactly what I’m talking about: Well, there are hundreds, if not thousands of…

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Messier Monday: A Hyper-Smooth Globular Cluster, M5

“The Milky Way is nothing else but a mass of innumerable stars planted together in clusters.”…
Weekend Diversion: Against Scientific Racism

“I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of…
“Einstein’s Greatest Blunder” was REALLY a blunder!

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” -Albert Einstein
Back when Einstein…
The Rise and Fall of Supersymmetry

“Supposedly she’d died, but here she was again–somewhat changed, but you couldn’t kill her. Not when…
Messier Monday: The Cigar Galaxy, M82

“How is it they live for eons in such harmony - the billions of stars - when most men can barely…
Weekend Diversion: The Top 10 Forests in the World

“But I’ll tell you what hermits realize. If you go off into a far, far forest…
Where does an earthquake’s energy come from?

“As seismologists gained more experience from earthquake records, it became obvious that the problem could not…
The Far Future of our Solar System

“No valid plans for the future can be made by those who have no capacity for…
Messier Monday: The Youngest Star-Forming Region, The Trifid Nebula, M20

“Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire…
Weekend Diversion: An 8-bit mashup, reimagined

“I don’t understand how super mario can smash blocks with his head but dies when he…