Earth Factories, Not Exploding Stars, May Form Elements
October 21, 2021
What textbooks have taught for decades may not be completely true.
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Energized Dust Bunnies Make Planets?
December 12, 2019
Get a charge out of this new theory: planets were built by statically-charged dust bunnies. Is that all it takes?
Privileged Planet Confirmed!
July 10, 2017
All of the evidence we have now is that we live on a rare planet that is specially designed for intelligent life.
Solar Eclipses: Design or Coincidence?
July 6, 2017
This is a rebuttal to Live Science's article, "Why Total Solar Eclipses Are Total Coincidences," so that readers can make up their own minds.
Moon's Stabilizing Influence Depends on Star Size
October 15, 2014
A connection between multiple factors was noted in a recent model of how a moon helps a planet remain habitable.
Cosmic Lottery: How Many Habitable Planets?
November 23, 2013
News media ran with a suggestion that one in five stars has a habitable planet, but they didn't read the fine print.
A Brain Wouldn't Survive Star Travel
January 6, 2013
Don't take a star trek unless you want to arrive demented.
Venus Transit Recalls Adventures of Yore
June 5, 2012
Today's transit of Venus, in which our sister planet appears to cross the disk of the sun, will be the last till 2117. As observatories and millions of people watch the rare planetary alignment, few may know the stories of astronomers who predicted them and explorers who risked life and limb to observe them.
Observations Upset Models of Stellar Evolution
December 22, 2011
Stellar evolution models go back decades. Ever since the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram came out in 1910 (graphing temperature against luminosity), showing most stars fell on a line called the “main sequence”, astrophysicists have sought to understand the life cycle of stars from birth to death. In general, the story goes, collapsing clouds of gas and dust produce main-sequence stars that burn nuclear fuel till they run out. Depending on their masses, they end up as supernovae, red giants or slowly-cooling cinders. While red dwarfs cool down slowly into the darkness, supernovae and red giants eject mass outward into space . Two new planets found close to a red giant are among new headaches for theorists.
It’s Still a Rare Earth
September 25, 2011
Now that hundreds of extrasolar planets are known, how do they compare to ours? The Kepler spacecraft has found a varied assortment of all sizes and distances away from their parent stars. Only a few reside in their star’s habitable zones. But that’s only the first of many requirements for life. Two recent studies indicate that Earth remains a rare bird in the celestial aviary.