Astro Update – July

with No Comments
All solar panels sent to the surface of Mars eventually collect enough dust to seriously degrade the power generated. Sometimes a passing windstorm or dust devil will clean some of the dust off, restoring power. Unfortunately, nature has not cleaned the solar panels on the InSight lander... Continue reading.

Skyward – July

with No Comments
“Nature had spoken to him.” By David H. Levy with Roy L. Bishop

Gravity is one of the most fundamental things in physics. Everything and everyone has gravity. The more massive something is, the more gravity it has. When you jump into the air, Earth’s gravity brings you back down.… Continue reading.

Astro Update – June

with No Comments

Astronomy and space news summarized by Don Lynn from NASA and other sources

Ingenuity – The Mars helicopter Ingenuity completed its planned five test flights. The final one of these included landing at a new site that it had not touched before (though it took images of the site during its previous flight), and climbing to a record altitude of 33 feet.… Continue reading.

Skyward – June

with No Comments
Faint Fuzzies By David H. Levy

The night before last, a comet named Palomar (actually known as C (for comet)/ 2020 T2 Palomar) was gliding near one of the most beautiful clusters of stars in the entire sky. It was parading about at about magnitude 11, which means that for my oldish eyes, it would be too faint to see.… Continue reading.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7