Dr Pamela L. Gay is an astronomer, writer, and podcaster focused on using new media to engage people in science and technology. Explore online, learn, and discover!Browsing all posts in "Cosmology".
AAS Day 0: Non-Model Behavior in Dark Matter
I know I’ve been silent for a long time, but this week I hope to make up for my wayward ways and blog my brain out.
This week is the 213th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Long Beach, California. I’m here along with many of my friends and colleagues from across Astronomy Cast, 365 [...]
Black Holes Only Grow So Big
A few weeks ago there was a fairly cool paper on arXiv that suggested that supermassive black holes may only be able to grow so big.
This triggered several Astronomy Cast listeners to write and basically say “Huh?” We addressed this a little bit in today’s questions show (real show to follow tomorrow or Wednesday – [...]
Ghosts are NOT Dark Matter
Just a quick one tonight.
At Dragon*Con (which I won’t mention again until next summer) some fascinatingly misguided person suggested that ghosts are made of Dark Matter. Dark matter is the missing 22% of the stuff the universe is made of. This is stuff – it is just stuff that doesn’t interact with the electromagnetic force [...]
AAS – The Many Ring Circus
This is a crazy wonderful place. Over and over, I’ve heard people say this is the super bowl of astronomy. I’m not so sure that is the truth. I feel more like this is the 3 (or 5 or 10) ring circus of astronomy. In every ring there is a new group doing their thing and playing to crowds. I sometimes feel that my attention is getting pulled in every direction as the biggest, the brightest, the shiniest, and the newest all juggle and flip to the music of the stars.
