Messier Monday: The Youngest Star-Forming Region, The Trifid Nebula, M20
Posted by Ethan on May 6, 2013 
“Why I came here, I know not; where I shall go it is useless to inquire – in the midst of myriads of the living and the dead worlds, stars, systems, infinity, why should I be anxious about an atom?” -Lord Byron Welcome back to another Messier Monday here on Starts With a Bang! Messier’s…
Weekend Diversion: An 8-bit mashup, reimagined
Posted by Ethan on May 5, 2013 
“I don’t understand how super mario can smash blocks with his head but dies when he touches a turtle.” -Unknown The past few weekends have been far too serious around the internet, and it’s time to kick back and enjoy something nice and simple. I’d like to introduce you to the little-known indie band The…
Why Science Is Anything But A Crime
Posted by Ethan on May 3, 2013 
“Talent hits the target no one else can hit; genius hits the target no one else can see.” -Arthur Schopenhauer You’ve probably heard the story, by now, of Kiera Wilmot, the 16-year-old girl who performed a mildly dangerous chemistry experiment on school grounds, mixing together household cleaner and aluminum inside a sealed container. You can…
Putting Einstein to the Test
Posted by Ethan on May 1, 2013 
“The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics, and therein lies their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will…
Messier Monday: A Real-Life Pi-in-the-Sky Cluster, M38
Posted by Ethan on April 29, 2013 
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.” -W. Shakespeare Welcome to just another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we’re taking a detailed look at a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that compose the Messier Catalogue, each one a different semi-permanent wonder of…
Weekend Diversion: I’m Writing for NASA Now!
Posted by Ethan on April 28, 2013 
“For I dipped into the Future, far as human eye could see; saw the vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be.” -Alfred, Lord Tennyson This weekend, the Sun is shining here in Portland, as we’ve gotten our first annual spell of warm, sunny days recently. It’s got me thinking of the…
The Cosmic Speed Limit
Posted by Ethan on April 26, 2013 
“All our sweetest hours fly the fastest.” -Virgil If you’ve been around the block once or twice, you know that the speed of light in a vacuum — 299,792,458 meters-per-second — is the absolute maximum speed that any form of energy in the Universe can travel at. In shorthand, this speed is known as c to…
How far away is stuff?
Posted by Ethan on April 24, 2013 
“Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.” -Douglas Adams Well, maybe “peanuts” isn’t going to do. When you look out at the night sky, all sorts…
Messier Monday: The Second Greatest Globular in Hercules, M92
Posted by Ethan on April 22, 2013 
“[T]he entire globe will soon be wrapped in a glowing envelope through which none of the magic of the Universe can be seen by the naked eye.” -George Eslinger Welcome to still another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we highlight a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier…
Weekend Diversion: Fluoridated Water: Science, Scams and Society
Posted by Ethan on April 21, 2013 
“Fluoridation is the single most important commitment a community can make to the oral health of its children and to future generations.” -C. Everett Koop Most weekends, I take on a lighter topic, as a way of taking a break from the deep physics, astronomy, and science we share during the week. But every once…
