Black Holes and their Spin

There are two basic characteristics that describe black holes: Mass and Spin. Mass determines the size of the event horizon, the gravitational mass, and many of the ways the black hole can gravitationally shred people, planets and just about anything else. Spin is related to the magnetic field (which can...

All that’s sorta new in Exoplanets

Yesterday’s big afternoon press conference was all about exoplanets. The scientists took us on a tour de force of planet related press releases that went from little M stars and their tiny habitable zone, to a new press release on 28 planets, to planets found around sub-giant stars that were A-stars...

Galactic Morning: Andromeda XII, M81, and a Pushy Void

This mornings first press conference spanned the scales of the Universe. From a high speed dwarf galaxy only 1/20,000 times the size of our galaxy, to a new picture of M81 (a nearby spiral galaxy – image shown), to information on how a lack of gravitational pull is causing the local group to wander...

An Apple World

Short message while I write longer content on this mornings first, galaxy rich, press conference. This I walked into the press conference room and their was a giant, fresh from the press, printed Hubble Heritage image off to the side. Okay that’s cool. What really caught my eye was the three scientists...

The search for Chotchkies and Bling-Bling

One of the odd side activities at AAS meetings is the search for neat give aways from the different space missions, companies, and publishers. These items generally take the form of lanyards, pens, and posters. I picked up something kind of new and neat and just in time for pool parties last night : A WMAP...