Promoting Science and Critical Thinking
Within the UK there is a political party known as UKIP (or UK Independence Party). It has developed a bit of a reputation over the years as a bastion of some rather odd ideas and so this is all about the latest example of such weirdness. A previous and rather famous example was David Silvester, a Ukip councillor for … Read more
You might have become rather excited if you spotted the news about the detection of an apparently artificial signal coming from a distant star, for example The Observer published this on 29th Aug … Not a Drill: SETI Is Investigating a Possible Extraterrestrial Signal From Deep Space If the signal is truly from an alien world, … Read more
OK, let’s start with a quick reality check … many of the currently circulating press stories contain some Grade1 gold plated BS. Now, let’s look into why that is the case. The UKs Independent, along with many other sources, are running a story about the supposed discovery, the title of their article reads “Astronomers may have found giant … Read more
You now have an opportunity to assist in the naming of a series of planets, and this is quite real. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) is inviting anybody interested to help them in the name selection process for newly discovered ExoWorlds and so here is the timeline of it all (as explained on their website) … … Read more
Hopefully you have picked up on what is about to happen and are aware that an eclipse is about to take place on Friday here in the UK. It is exciting (for those of us into such events) because we have not seen an eclipse like this since 1999, and while not total, it will be impressive (cloud … Read more
Hey now this is cool, the discovery of eight very earth-like planets has been announced So what are the details? Astronomers announced today that they have found eight new planets in the “Goldilocks” zone of their stars, orbiting at a distance where liquid water can exist on the planet’s surface. This doubles the number of … Read more