20 years ago today, a tiny neutron star reached halfway across the galaxy and slammed our planet with a gamma-ray hammer.
Scientific American
An Earth-Rocking Cosmic Explosion Turns 20
Twenty years ago today a magnetar’s epic tantrum made our planet ring like a bell from tens of thousands of light-years away
Wanna get away from the news, or maybe family? Then how about taking a deep dive into a quasar with me?
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Take a deep dive into a quasar. Though not literally. That would be bad.
Using STIS, my old camera on Hubble, astronomers have taken the best look yet at a nearby quasar
My book Under Alien Skies was just translated into Estonian! That's a 1st for me. You can get it at fine Estonian booksellers. Also? I really like this cover! image
Portrait of a neglected Buddy who I've only been scritching for 15 minutes straight but stopped for two seconds to scratch my own nose. image
So let's say you spot a rogue black hole bearing down on Earth and bent on destroying us all. How do you tell other astronomers where to find it? Let's talk celestial coordinates!
Scientific American
How Do Astronomers Navigate the Sky?
The celestial equivalent to latitude and longitude lets astronomers find their way across the heavens
Aw, Universe, why do you have to be this way? We've been suspicious for a while that the expansion of the cosmos is doing weird stuff, and new results from JWST seem to confirm it.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
JWST: Yup, the Universe is expanding weirdly
The Hubble tension is alive and well: JWST appears to confirm the cosmic expansion is different closer to us than farther away
I got to write in Scientific American about one of my all-time favorite cosmic objects: Barnard 68! It's like a hole in space, except… it isn't.
Scientific American
What’s Inside Our Galaxy’s Darkest Place?
Barnard 68 is often mistaken for a hole in space, but it’s actually a dense, opaque cloud of dust—for now
So here's a new way black holes can literally shake the fabric of the universe.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
A new way black holes shake the fabric of the Universe
Colliding black holes create ripples in spacetime, but maybe their formation does as well
Sometimes, the simplest questions lead to the most profound of results. For example, a child might ask, "Why is the sky dark at night?" Astronomers asked that for centuries, but it took a poet to answer it. And you'll never guess which one…
Scientific American
Why Is the Night Sky Dark? You Can Thank the Big Bang
Called Olbers’ paradox, the seemingly simple mystery of the sky’s darkness is something that stumped astronomers for centuries
What's the roundest human-made object ever made? One of Einstein's most bizarre predictions led to a pretty dang spherical ball bearing because of course it did. [also, more on kicking Elon's Nazi bar to the curb]
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
What is the roundest human-made object? Also, I nuked my Twitter account.
Sphericity — and social media — can be hard to do