There may be tens of BILLIONS of small (10 - 100 meter) asteroids out in the main belt past Mars, but they're too small to be seen from with our telescopes… until now. Astronomers used JWST data in a unique way to find over 130 of them!
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Hundreds of small asteroids found in the main belt using JWST
Astronomers used a new technique to find the building-sized rocks, the smallest ever seen at that distance
IMPORTANT: Are you ready to Stand Up For Science? I am, and here's what I have to say about it:
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Stand up for Science
A rally across the nation to protest the attacks on science and scientists
The odds of an impact from the asteroid 2024 YR4 just went up a teeny bit. That's expected, but the good news is we're getting JWST observations of it in a few weeks! That'll help nail down its size and maybe help with an impact prediction.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
JWST to observe the potentially scary asteroid 2024 YR4
The odds of an impact recently topped 2%, but we may learn more soon
Time for, well, not a distraction so much as a palate cleanser: a truly phenomenal shot from Hubble of a galaxy that is rippling like a pond that had a rock tossed in it… because that's what happened! Kinda. And YES you want to grab the hi-res version.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
INCREDIBLE and spectacular Hubble image of a galaxy that got whacked by another galaxy
The collision caused easily visible multiple rings of stars to ripple outward
Trump and the GOP are in a full-out war against science. I have a lot to say about that.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
The Attacks on Science
Science is under siege like never before in the US. What can we do?
With the small asteroid 2024 YR4 still on the risk list for Earth impact, I wrote an explainer on how we know what the orbits of these objects are in the first place, and why the chance of one hitting us changes over time.
Scientific American
How Can We Know If an Asteroid Will Hit Earth?
“Keep your eye on the ball” is a motto for many athletes—and for astronomers trying to find Earth-threatening space rocks
Is Pluto a planet? How many planets do we have in our solar system then? Turns out, *these are the wrong questions to ask*.
Scientific American
How Many Planets Are in the Solar System?
The number of planets that orbit the sun depends on what you mean by “planet,” and that’s not so easy to define
D O N ' T P A N I C A decently big (50-meter) asteroid called 2024 YR4 has a 1.2% chance of hitting Earth in 2032. Here's what we know, and why I'm not terribly worried about it.
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
Will the asteroid 2024 YR4 hit Earth in 2032? Probably not.
DON’T PANIC! At the moment there’s a 99% chance it’ll miss.
YES, YOU *DO* WANT TO SEE THE MIGHTY 11,000 X 8,000 PIXEL IMAGE OF THIS NEARBY CLUSTER FULL OF GALAXIES UNLESS HAVING YOUR BRAIN LEAP OUT OF YOUR SKULL IN WONDER IS SOMETHING YOU *DON'T* WANT
Bad Astronomy Newsletter
The Antlia galaxy cluster is spectacular! But which galaxies are actually in it?
The full 11,000 x 8,000 pixel image will destroy you.
Hi! I'm a Libra! Except not really. But the zodiac is a real thing, even if it's not at all what astrologers claim it is.
Scientific American
What Is the Zodiac—And What Does It Mean for You?
The familiar zodiac constellations are defined by Earth’s motion around the sun, but they don’t define your fate