Category Archives: Astronomy

This is the point.

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Pete Rowley

Yesterday the European Space Agency successfully landed the Philae lander on comet 67P. Anyone can appreciate that it’s an astonishing technical achievement, but a recurring theme I have noticed on various news article comments and discussion boards is that there’s … Continue reading →

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Spaced

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Pete Rowley

Today is the day that Expedition 35 return from the International Space Station. Later tonight they will climb into the docked Soyuz capsule, and perform a re-entry back to Earth, bringing to an end a truly phenomenal period of public … Continue reading →

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Meteor madness 2 – look at the size of that thing

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Pete Rowley

So yesterday was all abuzz with cool videos of the Chelyabinsk meteor, and a whole bunch of questions.  How big was it? Did any of it hit the ground? Did it explode or not? How fast was it going? Today … Continue reading →

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Meteorite madness

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Pete Rowley

[Updated 11.00 am CET] [Update 2 13:40 CET – impact crater located and reported at 6m diameter] [Update 3 20.00 CET – massive revision on the meteorite size. Early estimates of 2 cubic meters and 10 tons, increased by 3 … Continue reading →

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What an opportunity

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Pete Rowley

Today marks the start of the 9th year that NASA’s Opportunity rover has been active on Mars. Launched back in 2003, and landing on January 25th 2004, Opportunity had an operational expectation of 90 sols (a sol being a Martial … Continue reading →

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“I can’t think, therefore I probably am not”

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Pete Rowley

This morning while doing my daily trawl of Twitter and Google Reader to see what’s been going on I came across a couple of interesting posts from everyones favourite particle physicist and pop keyboardist – Prof. Brian Cox. These started … Continue reading →

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The original bacterial infection

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Pete Rowley

A couple of days ago it was announced that fossils have pushed back the date of earliest known life on Earth to 3,430,000,000 years ago.  The New Scientist article does an excellent job of summarising the science and the relevance … Continue reading →

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No need for cheese on the moon – we have enough in orbit.

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Pete Rowley

So the hatches have finally closed, separating the shuttle from the International Space Station for the very last time.  As I posted earlier last week, the shuttle has achieved a lot, and expensive as it may be it’s a shame … Continue reading →

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Interference is awesome

Posted on July 18, 2011 by Pete Rowley

Obviously the title depends somewhat on context, as Micahel Jackson would no doubt attest (I am of course referring to the inevitable regret he must have felt about trying to sort his nose out… honest).  However, in the particular case … Continue reading →

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STS-135

Posted on July 12, 2011 by Pete Rowley

My first memory of the space shuttle missions was being at primary school, and us all sitting around in the 3rd year classroom to watch Challenger take off.  I was a bit young to really gather what was going on, … Continue reading →

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