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Tag archives for star
Weekend Diversion: Jean-Luc Picard’s song!
Posted by Ethan on May 10, 2008 I’m not someone who gets as excited about science-fiction space shows as many other science bloggers, but I am a fan of the current Battlestar Galactica and, especially, of Star Trek: The Next Generation. But there’s one man who stands out as the hero of Star Trek: TNG, and it’s the seasoned, savvy, courageous and…
Why are Brown Dwarfs so Dim?
Posted by Ethan on April 17, 2008 Ahh, stars. Giant furnaces of nuclear fusion. Doing the stuff our Sun does, burning hydrogen fuel into helium (among other things) and emitting lots of visible light and energy in the process. But when we take a look at brown dwarfs, they aren’t like normal (i.e., main sequence) stars like our Sun. Instead of burning…
The youngest planet ever discovered?
Posted by Ethan on April 3, 2008 Starts with a bang reader Dumb Ass Dave points us to this BBC article about the discovery of a planet that’s only just forming around a new star. The planet is surely less than 100,000 years old, although the 1,600 year old figure quoted in the article is probably hogwash. How do you find it?…
How to make a Black Hole
Posted by Ethan on February 6, 2008 You and I have lived on planet Earth long enough to know that if you want to launch something into space, it needs to travel fast enough to escape the pull of Earth’s gravity. Launch it with too slow of a speed, and it crashes back into Earth. Launch it with a little more speed,…
