Astronomy
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How Massive is the Milky Way?
Over centuries of philosophy and research, through the times of the classical astronomers to Galileo’s observations of the Milky Way, humanity’s understanding of our universe has evolved from a simple model of the sun and planets to a vast wheel…
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Structure of the Milky Way
In the vast expanse of the cosmos, the Milky Way Galaxy is our home. You’ve no doubt seen images of the Milky Way and similar galaxies elsewhere online. It’s a large, spiral galaxy, one of the most spectacular galactic shapes.…
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How Big is the Milky Way?
How big is our galaxy, anyway? And more than that — how do we know? Consider that we can’t really take a photo like this of our galaxy. We’re inside it, and space travel has not advanced to the point…
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Discovery of the Milky Way
Ever seen this before? It’s not a sight that most of the developed world gets to see — at least not all the time. Light pollution from major cities completely obscures this view. Even in the suburbs where I live,…
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How Deep-Sky Catalogs Work
Meet the Veil Nebula, one of my favorite deep-sky objects. The Veil is one of the more common star party requests I get from more experienced participants. Unfortunately, it requires a very powerful telescope. My 11-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain — pretty advanced,…
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Stellar Evolution Demystified
Whaddya know…after what seems like a geological age, we’re finally done with stellar evolution! And we’ve covered a truly ridiculous amount of information. We’ve covered a star’s relatively gentle, humble beginnings within the collapsing cores of giant molecular clouds (or…
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How to Find a Black Hole
Okay, good question. How the heck do you find an object that emits no radiation? Astronomers find — and study — just about everything in the universe using the radiation it emits or reflects. So…what happens when the object we’re…
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Black Holes: What the Movies Get Wrong
Any of you recognize this? To those who don’t, it probably looks like a pretty unimpressive, blurry ring. In fact, this is the first ever image of a black hole, taken with an interferometer the size of the Earth. If…
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What is a Black Hole, Really?
If you’re a sci-fi fan, you’ve probably seen these in movies. And I’m guessing you’ve heard a lot about them in pop culture. The problem is, pop culture and movies don’t do a very good job of describing black holes.…
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Unique Neutron Stars
Neutron stars — the compact remains of massive stars that have gone supernova — are some of the most extreme objects in the universe, narrowly beaten by black holes (and, as we’ll talk about in future posts, active galaxies and…
