Clik here to view.
January 5 – First Quarter, First Heretic
Factismal: The Sun is 389 times farther away than the Moon. One of the first astronomers was also one of the first heretics. Back around 260 BCE, a Greek astronomer by the name of Aristarchus...
View ArticleClik here to view.
January 9 – Far, Far Away
Factismal: Alpha Centauri is 25,800,000,000,000 miles away. Have you ever wondered how we know how far away the stars are? You aren’t alone. Indeed, until 1839, everyone more or less assumed that the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
January 16 – Messier Than You Thought
Factismal: Astronomer Messier published his list of 45 objects that weren’t comets in 1777. Let’s suppose that you have a huge room and that some busybody has scattered stuffed animals across the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
January 25 – Cool Customer
Factismal: IRAS was launched in 1983. Astronomy entered a new age in 1983, with the launch of the Infrared Astronomy Satellite, or IRAS for short. IRAS wasn’t the first telescope into space, nor was it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
March 7 – Star Light, Star Bright
Today’s Factismal: A single solar flare can release as much energy as 10,000,000 50 megaton bombs; that’s 500 times the total number of nuclear weapons on Earth. If you’ve ever seen Star Wars, then you...
View ArticleClik here to view.
March 30 – Here It Comes Again!
Today’s Factismal: Halley’s comet was first observed by Chinese astronomers 2,252 years ago today. Most of the time, when people think about the vastness of space, they think about how “hugely...
View ArticleClik here to view.
April 24 – I Spy
Today’s Factismal: The Hubble Space Telescope has made over 1,000,000 observations in the 23 years it has been in orbit. It is rare to have a failure turn into a success. And it is even rarer to have...
View ArticleClik here to view.
May 15 – The Ides of Kepler
Today’s Factismal: The Kepler Satellite has discovered more than 140 planets circling stars as far away as 8,800 light years! There is sad news out of NASA today; Kepler is dying. A reaction wheel that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
May 19 – Owed To A Star
Today’s Factismal: Edgar Allen Poe wrote Al Aaraaf in honor of Tycho’s discovery of a new star. In the 1500s, we thought that the heavens were fixed and unchangeable. And then Galileo happened. That...
View ArticleClik here to view.
July 4 – A Blinding Flash
Today’s factismal: There are 30 supernovae every second in the Universe but only eight of them have ever been close enough to see with the naked eye. Almost a thousand years ago, astronomers across the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
July 15 – London Calling
Today’s factismal: The Nobel prize for pulsars didn’t go to their discoverer; instead, it went to her adviser. Jocelyn Burnell (née Bell) was born 70 years ago. She showed an early interest in...
View ArticleClik here to view.
August 16 – Kepler in the sky with diamonds
Today’s factismal: NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope was declared officially unfixable today, after discovering more than 135 planets orbiting stars other than the Sun. It is a sad day in planetology...
View ArticleClik here to view.
August 22 – Stardust
Today’s factismal: Every atom in your body was created either in the Big Bang or in the inside of a star. Joni Mitchell didn’t say it first, but she certainly said it best: “We are stardust, we are...
View ArticleClik here to view.
October 12 – Moon Dust
Today’s factismal: The Moon is about 1/7th as large as Mars. Imagine that you are watching the Solar System form, 4,600 million years ago; while you are at it, imagine that you’ve got a fast-forward...
View ArticleClik here to view.
November 13 – Great Comet, Batman!
Today’s factismal: On November 13, 1577, Tycho Brahe (and millions of others) saw the “Great Comet” that sparked the heliocentric revolution. History is a funny thing. The littlest incidents can cause...
View ArticleClik here to view.
December 1 – ISON’s first
Today’s factismal: Most comets are at their brightest just before dawn or just after dark. As you have probably heard, the comet ISON (named for the International Scientific Optical Network that found...
View ArticleClik here to view.
December 21 – Still Standing
Today’s factismal: The winter solstice has been celebrated for at least 10,000 years. Today is one of the more interesting days in the year. It is the day in which the Sun stops its apparent southward...
View ArticleClik here to view.
January 8 – First Quarter, First Heretic
Today’s Factismal: The Sun is 389 times farther away than the Moon. One of the first astronomers was also one of the first heretics. Back around 260 BCE, a Greek astronomer by the name of Aristarchus...
View ArticleClik here to view.
January 9 – Far, Far Away
Today’s Factismal: Alpha Centauri is 25,800,000,000,000 miles away. Have you ever wondered how we know how far away the stars are? You aren’t alone. Indeed, until 1839, everyone more or less assumed...
View ArticleClik here to view.
January 16 – Messier Than You Thought
Today’s Factismal: Astronomer Messier published his list of 45 objects that weren’t comets in 1777. Let’s suppose that you have a huge room and that some busybody has scattered stuffed animals across...
View Article