Solar System
Category archives for Solar System
It’s Getting Hot in Here, So Take Off… The Whole Planet?
Posted by Ethan on May 24, 2012 
“Be still when you have nothing to say; when genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.” -D.H. Lawrence Here in our Solar System, the planet closest to our Sun is Mercury, speeding around in a complete orbit once every 88 days, with daytime temperatures reaching a sweltering 400° C,…
Weekend Recap: My Annular Eclipse Expedition!
Posted by Ethan on May 21, 2012 “A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success.” -Elbert Hubbard I’ve had the great fortune in my life to see a great many wonderful things with my own eyes, including the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus, a couple of faint, distant galaxies, and…
Reverse Terraforming (for Supervillains only)
Posted by Ethan on May 17, 2012 “The Earth destroys its fools, but the intelligent destroy the Earth.” -Khalid ibn al-Walid Usually, when we talk about terraforming, we think about taking a presently uninhabitable planet and making it suitable for terrestrial life. This means taking a world without an oxygen-rich atmosphere, with watery oceans, and without the means to sustain them, and…
Exoplanet Bullies make Earth-like Planets Impossible
Posted by Ethan on May 8, 2012 “There’s nothing that cleanses your soul like getting the hell kicked out of you.” -Woody Hayes There’s no doubt that we lucked out when it came to the formation of our Solar System. Our inner Solar System, where temperatures are ideal for liquid water and life-as-we-know-it, is full of rocky planets and devoid of any…
A Feast for your Naked Eyes: Supermoon, Solar Eclipse and Venus Transit!
Posted by Ethan on May 5, 2012 “Without a wish, without a will, I stood upon that silent hill And stared into the sky until My eyes were blind with stars and still I stared into the sky.” -Ralph Hodgson The next month — from May 5th to June 5th — brings three of the most spectacular astronomy sights possible on Earth…
You’re not from around here, are you?
Posted by Ethan on May 1, 2012 “A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” -John Steinbeck Here on Earth, we all get to enjoy the delight of being located in an…
Weekend Diversion: Happy Earth Day, No Matter Where You Are
Posted by Ethan on April 22, 2012 “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.” -Carl Sagan Here on our planet, this is the one day that we take…
Welcome Earth Day with the Greatest April Shower of All: The Lyrids!
Posted by Ethan on April 20, 2012 “April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain.” -T. S. Eliot Of course you all know the refrain, “April showers bring May flowers,” but there’s one April shower that brings fireballs instead: the Lyrids! Like all meteor showers, the Lyrids come…
…But What If There Was More Time?
Posted by Ethan on April 7, 2012 “Well you run and you run to catch up with the Sun but it’s sinking, racing around to come up behind you again. The Sun is the same in a relative way but you’re older, shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” -Pink Floyd For the last four-and-a-half billion years, the Earth has…
Weekend Diversion: Preparing for May 20th’s Annular Eclipse!
Posted by Ethan on March 11, 2012 “They call it a great wonder That the Sun would not though the sky was cloudless Shine warm upon the men.” -Sighvald, Icelandic poet A couple of times a year, during the New Moon, the Sun, Moon, and Earth all line up in the same plane. As seen from Earth, the Sun’s disc appears blocked,…
