October 3, 2017 - The 2017 Nobel Prize in physics was announced today, and as expected it was awarded to Rainer Weiss, Barry Barish, and Kip Thorne their work in developing the LIGO experiment that recently made the first detection of a gravitational wave. The experiment itself was an amazing piece of engineering, and its ability to detect and study gravitational waves is going to make it a very important tool in the future for understanding the Universe.
September 15, 2017 - The end has come for the Cassini space probe. After twenty years of work studying the planet Saturn, Cassini has reached the end of its lifespan, and will be crashed into the planet this evening. Hopefully it will send some interesting data back during its descent, but whatever happens it has been a very successful mission.
September 5, 2017 - Forty years ago today NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe, which is currently the only man-made object to ever leave our own solar system and enter interstellar space. In just another forty millenia it will encounter another star system, but by then its batteries will be long dead and will not be able to share with us anything it might find. So forty years done, forty thousand left to go!
August 31, 2017 - Today this website has officially surpassed 40,000 views! I cannot believe how many visitors I have had and all of the support that I have received for my various projects. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by over these last eight years, and especially to those who have become good friends as a result!
August 24, 2017 - The good news tonight is that after five months I finally have a driveway again. The bad news is that I have so much backed up work to complete after being delayed all through the summer that I am not going to be able to meet with anyone or respond to my emails for the rest of the month. Hopefully September will be a little less frantic.
August 21, 2017 - A reminder that today will be a rare solar eclipse, and while it may be enjoyable to watch it is also dangerous. Never look directly into
the sun, and especially do not use a telescope on the eclipse unless you have the proper filters and skills for solar observing. If after all those warnings you still want to view the eclipse, most universities, colleges, and amateur astronomy clubs will have observing stations setup for the public.
August 20, 2017 - Forty years ago today the Voyager 2 probe was launched, and in the four decades since it has flown by the four outer planets of the solar system sending back a trove of data on planetary science. Now it is traveling into interstellar space and is not expected to encounter another star system for 40,000 years. Still, it has managed a lot in its long journey!