Casual Astronomy for Passionate People

Image Source:  NASA I am often baffled by peoples' reluctance towards science and space exploration. Scrolling through instagram comments on space related posts, the question frequently comes up, "Why are we wasting so much money on space? We should be spending that money to solve problems here on Earth." This is complex question, but one that should not be up for debate. I think everyone can agree that there are many humanitarian issues that we should be focusing on, but why take that funding away from science? How about scraping a bit from the 1.6 trillion dollar military budget ?  The reality is, through scientific research, particularly in the field of space exploration, humans have found answers to problems that affect our every day life. There are many things we take for granted that might not have been invented without setting our sights at the unknown: GPS, selfie cameras, memory foam, even cordless vacuums . Not to mention the inevitable threat of a meteor, which...

  Last year, a friend of mine shared this video with me over  text, in hopes of getting a reciprocal laugh. To be honest, at first I found it amusing. It's easy to laugh at the vegan, and over the years, I've gotten pretty good at laughing along with the joke. One of the worst things I could have done in that situation would have been to send my friend a rant about how the  dairy industry is desperately trying to market themselves in a positive light, using relevant celebrities to distract us from the dark and corrupt practices going on behind closed factory doors. So I didn't. I don't recall exactly what my response was, but it was probably along the lines of, "Lol thats pretty funny." Now, I'm not going to get into the dark and disturbing nature of the dairy industry, especially since nobody asked. But I would like to share some interesting facts about the way the major players in the milk game have managed to stay at the top for so long. The reality is ...

Image Source:  National Geographic Approximately 800 years ago, a European monk documented the arrival of a new star in the night sky, about as bright as Polaris, the "North Star." This came as a shock to early observers as this phenomenon had never been documented before. Without the knowledge of astrophysics, this premodern scientist jotted down his observation in his notes, that this was a mystery to be unravelled by future astronomers. He wasn't the last to observe this anomaly. This same star emerges and then vanishes approximately every 80 years. And that is because this isn't a star in the traditional sense. What that monk observed, centuries ago, was a thermonuclear explosion which detonated over 3,000 lightyears away: T Coronae Borealis . Within the next few months, you can expect to see this same flare in the night sky with the naked eye. Like an enormous clock, this ticking time bomb is set to explode this year, between now and September. So keep your eyes ...