Category: Science

Alpha Centauri: Two bright princesses and a red dwarf

I remember as a teenager, blinking though binoculars, excited that I could just make out Alpha Centauri as a double star. Then I borrowed a low-end refractor telescope and could more easily make out the binary nature of the pair. It was the Jesuit, Father Jean Richaud (1633-1693), who first determined the binary using his …

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Epsilon Eridani: Already in the sights of asteroid miners

Although known to early star gazers, Epsilon Eridani does not figure heavily in myth. Claudius Ptolemy was the first astronomer to pay this star any sustained attention, cataloguing it in his famous 2nd-century Almagest. Indeed, it was Ptolemy that named the constellation Eridanus, after the ancient Greek word for ‘river’ (Ποταμού). Epsilon Eridani famously entered …

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Teegarden’s Star: A nearby red dwarf with two rocky planets

While Teegarden’s Star is rarely talked about at dinner parties, it’s only a matter of time. Why? Two words. Habitable planets. At only 0.09 solar masses, Teegarden is a very small star. With less than 1/10th the mass of the sun, Teegarden is lucky to be a star at all – any less mass and …

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The Luhman 16 twins: Why brown dwarfs are cool

If you’ve heard of Luhman 16AB then I salute you. And if you haven’t, then I despair at the state of astronomy education in schools today. What? They don’t teach astronomy at school? Well, if they did, how would your teacher explain Luhman 16AB? “Today we’re going to talk about brown dwarfs, stellar objects that …

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You can’t be Sirius? Actually, I’m Sirius B

Sirius is really two stars. A faint white dwarf, Sirius B, is locked in a dance with Sirius A, and it takes 50 years for them to orbit each other. Sirius B used to be a big guy: it was once a red giant. Except it doesn’t have quite the same mass as Betelgeuse, a …

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Betelgeuse: Life as a Red Supergiant

You’ve heard of Betelgeuse if you’re an amateur astronomer. It’s that flickering red star at the bottom right corner of the constellation of Orion, as viewed in the southern hemisphere, and top left viewed from the northern hemisphere. Those born in the 1980s would have heard of it via the surreal Tim Burton film, Beetlejuice. …

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Five great YouTube math channels

I watch maths channels on the internet. Why? I’m not sure. If I knew myself better I’d be able to answer that. I didn’t do well at school maths. Halfway through high school I dropped to intermediate level and humanities began to fill the void that science and maths used to occupy. Literature, philosophy and …

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Rocket Science: Chapter 7 – No sleeping in the library

Previous Chapter He climbed the stairs, two at a time and hovered within the lobby. From here he could see the backs of people on the endless steps. Others stood with hand above head, blocking out the artificial sunlight. The Great Library claimed to house the biggest collection of databases in the Orion Arm. Marley …

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The Multiverse – All you need to know

The multiverse is the universe of universes. Its existence is postulated but not proven. Quantum physicists and philosophers are its most passionate advocates as well as its detractors. I’m a very passionate advocate: it would be nice to know there’s a universe where my neighbours don’t dump rubbish in the recycle bin, leave the lid …

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Five great YouTube science channels

In a quest to buff my sci-fi novels with more (ahem) science, I’ve been watching science-related channels on YouTube. The quality has been exceptional. I’ve given ample space on this site to Netflix, so hopefully they’ll forgive me when I say, in the documentary space, YouTube is light seconds ahead. Documentaries on Netflix have high …

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