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Hubble Variable 1: The Star That Changed the Universe
A small collection of galaxies (Credit: NASA/JPL) Today, we know that the Universe is filled with billions upon billions of galaxies; however, in the early 1900s, it was widely accepted that the...
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Pulsars: What are they? Why do they spin so fast?
Image credit: NASA Today, the nature of certain cosmic phenomena (like stars are supernova blasts) is well understood by those who don't specialize in physics. That's because these phenomena are...
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The Anglerfish
The Anglerfish A lot of you may be quite familiar with this little guy, some through nature shows and some through Finding Nemo. Either way, the anglerfish has got a face that I'm not even sure a...
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Cosmic Structures: Brown Dwarfs, Gas Giants, and Stars
There are a number of different classifications for celestial objects. There are planets, dwarf planets, and planetoids. There are hypergiant stars, stars, and white dwarfs. The list goes on and on....
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Supervolcanoes: What Would Happen if One Erupted?
There are a number of things that could trigger an extinction event and effectively bring an end to human civilization. We often talk about asteroids and comets and how they could spell our doom. But...
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Volcanoes: Understanding an Awesome Force
When individuals picture a volcanic eruption, they generally think of a mega-explosion involving torrents of burning lava and gargantuan ash columns towering miles into the sky. There are around...
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Plasma: The Fourth State of Matter
Everyone is familiar with three of the traditional states of matter (liquid, gas and solid) but the fourth fundamental state is one that is less well known, which seems ridiculous as it is the most...
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Dark Lightning: Fact or Fiction?
Artist rendering of 'dark lightning' (Credit: Jaime Trosper via From Quarks to Quasars) We all know the terrifying signs of a thunderstorm—the blinding lightning, thunderous rumbling, and the torrent...
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What are Magnetars?
Most of us have an idea how strange the universe can be. We have heard of the unusual things that are out in the cosmos such as pulsars and quasars. We’ve also heard of how the fundamental laws of...
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Magnetars: Meet Some of the Most Powerful Stars in the Known Universe
Neutron Stars It all starts with a bang. Neutron stars are, as the name implies, composed almost exclusively out of neutrons. And the facts only get cooler (and stranger) from here. These are a type of...
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How and Why did Newton Develop Such Complicated Mathematics?
A Feared Subject There's a certain four letter word that strikes great fear into the hearts of many people: math. It has a reputation for being a subject of the elite — a terrible, confusing, jumbled...
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VASIMR: Here's How We Might Reach Mars in 39 Days
A Different Kind of Rocket In 1983, MIT researchers used their magnetic mirror plasma device to conduct the first Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) propulsion experiment. A decade...
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Imagining a World with 4 Spatial Dimensions
A New Dimension Regardless of your existing knowledge of science, a fourth dimension of space is a very difficult concept to grasp. This isn't the fourth dimension of time we're talking about, but...
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Know Your 3.14 - This is What Pi Sounds Like
Have you ever wondered what Pi sounds like? Yes, we mean the mathematical constant Pi, 3.14159...so on and so forth forever. Michael Blake has assigned each of the 10 numbers (0 to 9) a note on a...
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Science Explained: Where's the Center of the Universe?
The Big Bang happened some 13 billion years ago. Before this time, as best we can tell, there was no time (or space, for that matter). If there was anything before the Big Bang, we can't study it or...
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Devil's Kettle Falls: The Falls to Nowhere
Image source: Rufus Sarsaparilla via Wikimedia Commons As the Brule River enters the Northern Light Lake and continues its way into Lake Superior one of the most mysterious phenomena on Earth is...
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The Life Cycle Of A Star:
The starting phase for all stars, including our Sun, begins when a dense region in a nebula begins to shrink and warm up. This is usually the result of one of several events that may occur to initiate...
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How Do GMO Crops Work?
It’s no secret that talking to anyone about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) these days is a big “no, no,” and this is true pretty much anywhere in the world. In North America, especially, it is...
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Intelligence: Moving Beyond IQ (Part 2)
Previously, I discussed a few ways that humans define intelligence, as well as the most widely used measure of intelligence (IQ). Now, we’re breaking away to look at the bigger picture of intelligence:...
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Neutron Stars: Big Things in Small Packages
Artist depiction of a Neutron Star. Photo Courtesy of NASA. In astronomy, most celestial objects are fairly large in size, and if they are small, they don’t usually present much interest (generally,...
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