Jupiter
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A Solar System Tour
In the grand scheme of the universe, planets are small. But that doesn’t make them unimportant. We live on a planet. Understanding how planets form and how the evolution of their solar system affects them is critical to answering one…
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Tonight’s Saturn
You guys are probably wondering where I’ve been, huh? For the better part of this year, I’ve been hard at work at my novel, at the expense of pretty much everything else — and I’m pleased to report it’s almost…
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Types of Stars
Meet the sun: a G2 class star towards the middle of its lifespan. Wait a second…G2? What does that even mean? It’s all part of a way astronomers break down the billions of stars in the sky and organize them…
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The Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope is one of the most famous telescopes in the world. Oops, excuse me — one of the most famous telescopes built. Hubble, after all, is certainly not in this world. Unless you call the universe the “world,”…
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Telescope Powers
Have you seen one of these guys before? You probably have, even if you don’t recognize this brand-new innovation. This is the European Extremely Large Telescope, or the E-ELT. I know, imaginative name, huh? Anyway, it’s not all that different…
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Galileo and the Telescope
When you hear the name “Galileo Galilei,” what immediately comes to mind? If you thought, “inventor of the telescope,” you’re not alone. I also wouldn’t be surprised if you thought “condemned by the Inquisition for believing the Earth orbited the…
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The Ecliptic
The ecliptic, as astronomers call it, is the apparent path of the sun against the background of the stars in the sky. It’s useful because it tells us how to find the planets in the sky. They can be hard to…
