Neil Armstrong’s Insight
A month before Neil Armstrong’s infamous Apollo 11 flight, he, at the request of Life Magazine, reflected on the meaning of the soon-to-be moon landing.
Category: astronomy
What kind of galaxy is this???
This illustration compares the size of our own Milky Way galaxy to gargantuan galaxy LEDA 1313424, nicknamed the Bullseye. The Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years in diameter, and the Bullseye is almost two-and-a-half times larger, at 250,000 light-years across.
NASA, ESA, Ralf Crawford (STScI)
Many of us are familiar with several types of galaxies, but what the heck was this?
Weird Stuff on Mars
Given enough time, Earth (4.543 billion years) and Mars (4.603 billion years) have created some interesting topology thanks to the effects of wind, erosion and other meteorologic and geologic forces, and this is what you get. The sands of time can be quite creative.
A Warning from Trees: Miyake Events
14,300 years ago, a pine forest in France bore witness to an event that has never been experienced in modern times: a bombardment of solar particles so fierce that it would likely knock out all communications satellites and fry power grids across the globe if it were to happen today. While we often point to the Carrington Event of 1859, (that knocked out all telegraph communications around the world), as a worst-case scenario, for solar storms, the 774-75 AD storm was at least 10 times stronger.
Not an Aurora?
Taken by Paul Martin on January 1, 2025 @ Fermanagh, Northern Ireland
Many throughout the world were able to experience another great evening of auroras on New Year’s Day 2025. However, there’s a catch, some actually saw what are known as SAR arcs. These were first discovered in 1956. Researchers weren’t sure what they were and gave them the misleading name, Stable Auroral Red arcs.
Neil deGrasse Tyson Playlist
Today I am sharing my current Neil deGrasse Tyson “shorts” playlist from YouTube. Within it are his commentaries on everything from Newton to neutrinos and everything in between. While heavily science driven (well, of course), Neil often comments on everyday …