Sun-like stars aren’t exactly common in the galaxy, further reducing the chances of finding intelligent life elsewhere, but it may help narrow down the search.
A new study has found that the most probable place to find intelligent life in the galaxy is around stars with roughly the mass of the sun, and surface temperatures [...]
Stars like ours, the best places to find intelligent life off Earth
Posted by John Lampard on Tuesday, 10 November, 2009 to the comment subset
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Colliding galaxies, an insight into Milkomeda’s formation?
Posted by John Lampard on Monday, 13 July, 2009 to the photography subset
Eventually our galaxy will collide (or, if you prefer, merge) with the Andromeda galaxy forming a new body some are already calling Milkomeda, but this photo of four galaxies colliding – by the way – at speeds of up to two million miles (or 3.2 million kilometres) an hour, may be indication of what may [...]
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Not all supernovas behave like supernovas it seems
Posted by John Lampard on Thursday, 2 July, 2009 to the comment subset
A supernova, referred to as SN 2008HA, which didn’t explode in spectacular fashion – usually the case with supernovas – has astronomers puzzled.
Her discovery did indeed turn out to be a supernova, but it goes against all the rules we thought we knew. For example, it’s in a galaxy that’s in the process of “eating [...]
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Photos of the night sky, it’s all black and white out there
Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 26 June, 2009 to the photography subset
Space photographer David Malin has just published a book featuring many of his photos of distant stars, galaxies, and nebulae using only black and white images.
When I started doing photography in the late 1950s, it was essentially all black and white. You could create your own images in the darkroom fairly easily, and that creative [...]
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Robert Evans, a preacher with a knack for finding supernovae
Posted by John Lampard on Monday, 18 May, 2009 to the comment subset
Robert Evans is an Australian church minister who in his spare time has discovered 42 supernovae around the cosmos… is he possibly guided by a little divine intervention, or something, here?
Evans took up supernova hunting around 1955, but his first adequate instrument was a 10 inch (25 cm) Newtonian telescope he had assembled only about [...]
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If you can’t remember the 70’s parties you were probably there
Posted by John Lampard on Tuesday, 21 April, 2009 to the photography subset
The photography of Brad Elterman which includes images of Debra Harry of Blondie, John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Michael Jackson, Peter Frampton, Leif Garrett, and one or two pretty decadent 70s parties.
Needless to say some photos are mildly NSFW.
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Flickr’s stellar collection of planets, stars, and galaxies
Posted by John Lampard on Friday, 27 March, 2009 to the photography subset
Discover the solar system, galaxy, and the infinite beyond right here on Flickr.
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If you think the Sun is massive you ain’t seen nothing yet…
Posted by John Lampard on Monday, 16 March, 2009 to the comment subset
An awesome graphic which puts the scale of the cosmos into (some sort of) perspective.
Starting with the Earth and the Moon, it eventually works up to the largest known star, the hypergiant VY Canis Majoris, the surface of which – if estimates of its size are correct – would extend to the orbit of Saturn [...]
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This post has earned a five (out of five) star rating
Posted by John Lampard on Monday, 23 February, 2009 to the comment subset
Steven Frank thinks the star system doesn’t make for an effective rating mechanism.
As soon as an app has been rated more than once, it becomes mathematically very unlikely that it will ever see a 1 or 5 star overall rating again. So, it’s nearly pointless to have scales of 5 stars, 10 stars, or 100 [...]
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The chances of colliding with a star are a million to one
Posted by John Lampard on Thursday, 19 February, 2009 to the comment subset
My recent mentions of the eventual merger/collision of the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, giving rise to “Milkomeda”, has prompted some reader questions about the likelihood of a star from Andromeda colliding with the Sun, during the “merger”.
One thing to remember is the collision is billions of years away, should it even happen, but the [...]
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