Tag Archives: space

Goodbye Space Shuttle

As people on Twitter might know, I have a thing about the Space Shuttle. I was my son’s age when the Shuttle first launched itself into space. I gasped with incomprehension when the Challenger exploded. Many times I rushed outside … Continue reading

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So you just saw a UFO? Think again.

  So, you are out one night and you see an object in the sky that you can’t quite explain. You have never seen anything quite like it in your life before. Could it be an alien spacecraft? Have you … Continue reading

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Five reasons why astronomy is cool

It’s beautiful If you go out on a dark moonless night, you will immediately know what I mean. The Milky Way, stretching its jagged course across the heavens, is quite a sight to behold. The constellations, particularly the winter constellations, … Continue reading

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The meteor craters of southern Germany

This blog entry was written to accompany my podcast for the September 5, 2010 broadcast of the 365 Days of Astronomy. The podcast can be listened to here. One of the high points of my stay in Germany recently was … Continue reading

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Announcement!

Next Sunday, September 5th, The 365 Days of Astronomy website will be broadcasting my second podcast. It’s all about two gigantic meteor craters in the heart of Europe. I talk about how they were created, what they look like today … Continue reading

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Is there anybody out there?

Does anyone recall the scene in the movie “Independence Day”, when Will Smith discovered an alien spacecraft that worked and behaved exactly like a modern fighter jet? Perhaps you remember the scene in Star Wars where aircraft marshallers, used internationally … Continue reading

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Some predictions for the next decade

Friday 10, 2020. Many people will wake up to the alarm clock, listen to the latest news as they get their breakfast ready, drive to work and put in a good 8 to 10 hours in either front of their … Continue reading

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How will it turn out? Space

This is the second posting in my 2019 time capsule series, where I consider how the questions of the present will be viewed in 10 years time or afterwards. Today, I’m going to focus on space, and some of the … Continue reading

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Approaching the Singularity

Evidence has come to light over the past few decades that the ancestors of modern man spent, not a few years, but hundreds of millennia fashioning very primitive tools out of stone in the Olduvai Gorge in Kenya. Throughout that … Continue reading

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There goes the neighbourhood..

Over the weekend, SpaceX managed to make history by being the first commercial company to put a payload into orbit around Earth.  The Falcon 1 lifted off the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific on Sunday, lifting a 165 km dummy … Continue reading

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