Comet of the Week: Hale-Bopp C/1995 O1
Perihelion: 1997 April 1.14, q = 0.914 AU This week’s “Special Topics” presentation discusses, among other things, how the practice of discovering comets has changed over the years. Up until a couple of decades ago a rather large percentage of the known comets were discovered by amateur astronomers regularly scanning the skies with relatively small …
Special Topic: Discoveries and Surveys
Up until a few centuries ago, all the comets that were seen by human beings were “discovered” via the unaided eye. It is unlikely that there were ever any search efforts for these objects, rather, when they appeared they essentially revealed themselves to the people who were alive at that time. Probably the closest thing …
Scientists on their favorite science fiction
Tales of strange alien worlds, fantastic future technologies and bowls of sentient petunias have long captivated audiences worldwide. But science fiction is more than just fantasy in space; it can educate, inspire and expand our imaginations to conceive of the universe as it might be. We invited scientists to highlight their favourite science fiction novel …
QuizMe: The Red Planet
For more than 4,000 years, humans have been gazing upward at Mars. It was only in the past 60 years though that we’ve been able to study the Red Planet in much greater detail with the steady launch of missions to orbit and land upon the planet. Now it is your turn to test your …
Meteorites contain clues about geology of Mars
Despite the pandemic, NASA is on track to launch its Mars rover, Perseverance, this July from Cape Canaveral, Florida. Its central mission will be to search for evidence of previous life on Mars. An exciting component of the rover will be a specialized drill that will collect rock and soil samples to be cached on …
This Week in History: July 12-18
JULY 12, 2001: American astronomer Gary Melnick and his colleagues publish their discovery of water vapor around the old, evolved star CW Leonis, suggesting the presence of exocomets around that star. The subject of exocomets, including the importance of this discovery, is discussed in a previous “Special Topics” presentation. JULY 12, 2126: Comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, the …