Happy Tunguska Day to all! That's right, today is the 100th anniversary of the Tunguska Event. On June 30, 1908, something exploded over the boreal forests of central Siberia, flattening tens of millions of trees in an area of over 2000 square kilometers. The explosion is estimated to have been the size of 1000 Hiroshima …
Category: Astronomy
The heavens declare the glory of God
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: Click on the picture to go to the site. This little version does not do the picture justice. I think it is one of the best astronomy landscapes that has appeared on APOD in all its years. The APOD description: This sky is protected. Yesterday marked the 50 year …
Moon of fear
From yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day: Phobos: Doomed Moon of Mars This moon is doomed. Mars, the red planet named for the Roman god of war, has two tiny moons, Phobos and Deimos, whose names are derived from the Greek for Fear and Panic. These martian moons may well be captured asteroids originating in …
Geology of the Moon
From the Wikipedia Picture of the Day for April 4th: This false-color mosaic showing compositional variations in the geology of the Moon was constructed from a series of 53 images taken through three spectral filters by the imaging system of the Galileo spacecraft. Bright pinkish areas are highlands materials, such as those surrounding the oval …
The Cat’s Eye
From today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: Cat's Eye Hubble Remix Explanation: Staring across interstellar space, the alluring Cat's Eye Nebula lies three thousand light-years from Earth. One of the most famous planetary nebulae in the sky, the Cat's Eye (NGC 6543) is over half a light-year across and represents a final, brief yet glorious …
Shuttle launch
Night time launch of the space shuttle Endeavor, from today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: Photo by James N. Brown Grace and Peace
WWTelescope — the next big thing?
WorldWide Telescope could do for astronomy what Google Earth has done for the Earth sciences. I haven' seen it yet; it is coming out some time in the spring of 2008. With WWTelescope, one will be able to view any place in the sky with imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as from …
Mars and Valentine’s Day
This item was originally posted in February 2007. It is now part of my blog recycling program. Because I have new readers of The GeoChristian, I will occasionally go back and re-use some of my favorite blog entries. Today is Valentine's Day, so... Is Mars the planet of war? After all, Venus was the Roman …
Spider crater
From today's Astronomy Picture of the Day: A Spider Shaped Crater on Mercury Explanation: Why does this crater on Mercury look like a spider? When the robotic MESSENGER spacecraft glided by the planet Mercury last month, it was able to image portions of the Sun's closest planet that had never been seen before. When imaging …
First new images of Mercury
MESSENGER has completed its first fly-by of the planet Mercury, and is transmitting data back to Earth. NASA has released its first image from this encounter, and more are coming. This image includes areas that have never been seen in detail before. Image from messenger.jhuapl.edu. Astronomy Picture of the Day for 1/16/08. Wikipedia article: MESSENGER. …
Messenger to Mercury
The planet Mercury is the least-well known body in the inner solar system. The only fly-by mission until now was Mariner 10, which flew by Mercury three times in 1974-1975 (and each time it passed it took pictures of the same part of the planet). We will be learning much more about Mercury in the …
Today is the winter solstice, but it has been winter for a while already
Today is the winter solstice---the shortest day of the year---but by some definitions, it has been winter for a few weeks already. The meteorological definition of winter is that it is the coldest three months in temperate zones, that is, December, January, and February in the Northern Hemisphere. Alternately, it could be defined as starting …
Continue reading Today is the winter solstice, but it has been winter for a while already
Venus — Lightning, Solar Wind
The European Space Agency has animations of lightning on Venus and the interaction of Venus' atmosphere with the solar wind. Grace and Peace
Has the U.S. already lost the new space race?
The director of NASA predicts that China will place astronauts on the moon before the U.S. can put someone on the moon for the first time since 1973. From CNN.com: NASA chief: China will beat us back to the moon The Soviets beat the United States at getting a satellite, and a man, into space. …
Continue reading Has the U.S. already lost the new space race?
Iapetus
Todays Astronomy Picture of the Day is Iapetus, one of the moons of Saturn: Each of the major moons of the solar system is unique. Iapetus is interesting for the great contrast between its brilliant white surface, which is probably composed of water ice, and the dark black area on the right, which could be …
Hubble Art
New Hubble Space Telescope pictures were released today, in honor of the 17th anniversary of deployment of the orbiting observatory by the space shuttle Discovery. Absolutely astounding, as always. The image here fails to do justice to the detail that can be seen in these images. Check it out in more detail at: Astronomy Picture …
Life on Gliese 581c?
The headlines: Science Daily: New Planet Could Have Life Yahoo News: Potentially Habitable Planet Found Scientists have discovered more than 200 extrasolar planets (planets orbiting stars other than our sun) since the mid-1990s, and the numbers will certainly continue to increase as instruments improve. In regards to suitability for life, a vast majority of these …
Lost in space
Gene Edward Veith had the following post on his Cranach blog today: Jesus as space traveller Our guest pastor, Charles St.-Onge, must have left a strong impression, since he brought up so many things that are still on my mind. He told about astrophysicist Carl Sagen trying to shoot down the Ascension of Christ. He …
Moons of the outer solar system — Death Star in orbit around Saturn
Saturn's moon Mimas resembles the Death Star of the Star Wars movies. This is a coincidence, as the images of Mimas were taken after the first Star Wars movie came out. Grace and Peace
Moons of the outer solar system
My middle school students will be working on reports on the moons of the outer solar system this week. When I was in middle school, the gas giants had what we thought were a lot of moons, but that number has greatly increased as telescopes have improved and probes have been sent to the outer …
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