Tag Space & astronomy
Curiosities: Why is Pluto not considered a planet?
Until 2006, astronomers had not carefully defined “planet,” says James Lattis, director of the UW Space Place. Asteroids were not considered planets because…
Curiosities: Why do stars appear to twinkle in the night sky?
Courtesy European Space Agency (ESA/Hubble). Stars twinkle because we view them through our atmosphere, says James Lattis, director of University of Wisconsin–Madison…
Curiosities: Why do some planets have rings?
Saturn imaged by the Cassini Orbiter. Image: courtesy Jet Propulsion Lab Planetary ring systems are complicated, notes UW Space Place…
Recent sightings: Nighttime fireball
Moments before bursting in a dazzling fireball over southwestern Wisconsin, a likely meteor appears as a bright dot in the Wednesday night sky. This…
Stellar mosh pit, complete with crashing stars, resolves a mystery
For almost 50 years, astronomers have puzzled over the youthful appearance of stars known as blue stragglers.
Satellite anniversary marks 50 years of studying climate from space
On Oct. 13, 1959, University of Wisconsin–Madison professors Verner Suomi and Robert Parent crouched in a bunker at Cape Canaveral, sweating through the countdown for the Juno II rocket perched on its launching pad 150 yards away.
Scientists hope to mimic nature’s dynamos
In the cosmos, all celestial objects - planets, stars, galaxies and clusters of galaxies - have magnetic fields. On Earth, the magnetic field of our home planet is most easily observed in a compass where the needle points north.
Curiosities: How big is space?
Space is probably infinite, but we can see only the part that contains stars or galaxies whose light has been able to reach us, says…
Curiosities: How many galaxies have humans discovered?
“We don’t know,” says Ed Churchwell, professor of astronomy. “We know it’s a very large number.” It’s in the hundreds of billions, Churchwell…
Planet Trek offers chance to bike or walk through scaled-down solar system
Dane County residents have a new way to appreciate the solar system, thanks to Planet Trek Dane County, which offers pedestrians and bikers a chance to discover the 11 biggest objects in the solar system at the correct scale of size and distance.