Space

The recent crash of the ExoMars Schiaperelli lander on Mars highlights how difficult it is to land there. So why is that? Why are landings on Mars so complex? And why do they fail so often? ESA is getting somewhat bad press for this. In my view it validat ...

Article - Robert Walker - Oct 30 2016 - 5:14pm

Where's the Fuzz? The 0.88-Day Periodicity of Boyajian's Star Goes Away at Key Times

[Update 11/12/2016: Is it all an optical illusion? Read the follow-up.] [Update 11/7/2016: Visually, fast drops in a time series, like those of D140 and D260, will tend to appear to squash any noise and periodicity. For that reason, analysis of presence of ...

Blog Post - Jose S - Nov 12 2016 - 11:14am

Mars Is Nothing Like The New World- Easier To Grow Your Tomatoes On Mount Everest

If Elon Musk and Robert Zubrin have their way, we may get migrations of hopefuls setting off from Earth to Mars to colonize what they believe to be a "New World". If so, what they find there will be far more like the nineteenth century Antarctic ...

Article - Robert Walker - Nov 14 2016 - 8:42am

The Mystery Of Saturn’s Rings

The giant planets in our solar system have very diverse rings. Observations show that Saturn’s rings are made of more than 95% icy particles, while the rings of Uranus and Neptune are darker and may have higher rock content. Since the rings of Saturn were ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 31 2016 - 5:58am

There Is Attenuation of the 0.88-Day Signal of Boyajian's Star Around Dips, But...

Data visualization is a key tool in Data Science. You should always look at your data. Invariably, you will discover aspects of the data you might not notice if you just blindly run algorithms on it. That said, another important rule of thumb in Data Scien ...

Blog Post - Jose S - Nov 12 2016 - 9:28am

Step Changes in Period and Phase of the ~0.88-Day Signal of KIC 8462852

I had previously discussed the amplitude of the ~0.88-day signal of Boyajian's star (or KIC 8462852.) If you look at the amplitude series alongside gradual dimming of the star throughout the Kepler mission (Montet and Simon, 2016), it appears there&# ...

Blog Post - Jose S - Aug 15 2017 - 8:04pm

Vera Rubin, her life and leagacy in brief.

Vera Rubin who helped to discover one of the greatest mysteries of nature has died. She was the mother of astronomical dark matter investigation. I won't write about her accomplishments at length... ...

Blog Post - Hontas Farmer - Dec 27 2016 - 3:54pm

How A "Dwarf Planet" Gas Giant Could Challenge IAU Definition- Pluto, Ceres, Haumea Etc Can All Be Planets

Ethan Siegel has just written an article, "The Science Has Spoken: Pluto Will Never Be A Planet Again", so this is a response to it. I'll argue that far from "story over", actually we could make a discovery tomorrow that would tur ...

Article - Robert Walker - Apr 5 2017 - 6:47pm

Why I Wouldn't Fly With SpaceX To The Moon As Soon As 2018- If They Paid Me A Billion Dollars

I think the chances of the SpaceX mission around the Moon going ahead on schedule in 2018 is tiny. But on the remote chance it does, I would not fly on that mission, if you paid me a billion dollars. The problem is that they have to rely on many innovatio ...

Article - Robert Walker - Apr 23 2017 - 6:36pm

Is Fomahault-b A Dwarf Exoplanet- If IAU Definition Is Used?

This is an update to my article: How A "Dwarf Planet" Gas Giant Could Challenge IAU Definition- Pluto, Ceres, Haumea Etc Can All Be Planets. That article pointed out that we could discover a gas giant in our own solar system that satisfies the I ...

Article - Robert Walker - Mar 17 2017 - 10:53am