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April 24 – Look! Up In The Sky!
Today’s Factismal: The Hubble Space Telescope has made over 1,000,000 observations in the 25 years it has been in orbit. It is rare to have a failure turn into a success. And it is even rarer to have...
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May 9 – In The Dark
There are two rules in science that every researcher soon learns: what you don’t see is as important as what you do see and a paradox means that you are on the edge of learning something amazing. In...
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July 1 – Conjunction Junction
Today’s factismal: Markduk will meet Ishtar in their heavenly boudoir tonight. If you ask an astronomer what the three brightest stars in the sky are, odds are she’ll tell you “Canopus in Carinae (the...
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July 24 – Twin Paradox
Today’s Factismal: The Kepler Satellite has discovered a near-twin of planet Earth, a mere 1,400 light years away! There is good news out of NASA. Kepler has found a planet that is a near-twin of...
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September 25 – Look! Up In The Sky!
Today’s factismal: The technical term for a supermoon eclipse is a perigee-syzygy. Mankind has been watching the skies for millenia. And we’ve seen our share of eclipses in that time, starting with the...
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October 2 – Raise Your Hand
Today’s factismal: Contrary to armchair astronomers, Betelgeuse doesn’t mean “armpit of the giant”. If you look into the sky early tomorrow morning, you’ll see one of the world’s most easily recognized...
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October 23 – Al Aaraaf
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...
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October 30 – The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
Today’s factismal: Earth had at least 27 close encounters with an asteroid in this month alone! It is, no fooling, a dangerous universe out there. There are gamma ray bursts and black holes and even...
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December 18 – Search The GLOBE
Today’s factismal: The “Big Dippper” is not a constellation. If you ask anyone other than a Trekkie what a constellation is, they’ll tell you that it is a grouping of stars in the sky. And if you ask...
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February 19 – Birth Of A Notion
Today’s Factismal: Nicolas Copernicus, the father of modern astronomy, was born 543 years ago. If you look at the sky, it is very easy to see why some people thought that the universe revolves around...
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March 28 – Not With A Wimper
Today’s factismal: The term “Big Bang” for the start of the Universe was used for the first time 67 years ago today. It is no secret that scientists like to argue with each other. Just look at Newton’s...
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April 5 – By Jove
Today’s factismal: The radio emissions of Jupiter were reported to the public 61 years ago today. One of the most amazing accidents in science was the discovery of radio waves from Jupiter by Franklin...
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April 12 – He’s Not Dead Yet
Today’s factismal: When a French newspaper mistakenly ran Alfred Nobel’s obituary, he was so mortified that he established the Nobel Prize to clear his name. Mining in the 1800s was a nerve-wracking...
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April 19 – Up, Up, And A Milky Way!
Today’s factismal: There are about 5,000 galaxies (including the Milky Way) in the Virgo Supercluster, and over 100,000,000,000 galaxies in the Universe! There is a poem by Jonathan Swift that goes...
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July 15 – LGM1
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 73 years ago. She showed an early interest in...
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August 11 – Pretty But Deadly
Today’s factismal: Meteor showers are named after the constellation that they appear to come from. If you go outside tonight or tomorrow night, you’ll be treated to not one but two astronomical...
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August 23 – Far Sighted
Today’s factismal: Galileo demonstrated the telescope to the public for the first time 407 years ago today. It isn’t often that someone invents one device that literally changes the way we see the...
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October 5 – Sweet Nothings
Today’s factismal: In 1988, Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald discovered that the Sun wasn’t going to explode. If you look at the Sun (which you shouldn’t do because it can cause serious damage to...
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November 16 – Home Phone E.T.
Today’s factismal: The first interstellar message was sent on November 16, 1974. It will arrive in 25,000 years. Quick! What’s big enough to hold 10,000 gallons of guacamole, deep enough to put a...
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December 21 – Running, Jumping, Standing Still
Today’s factismal: Today is the first day of winter – but only if you are an astronomer. Today is one of the more interesting days in the year. It is the day in which the Sun stops its apparent...
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