Category Archives: Series

Listing posts by topic, an alternative to using the Tag Cloud

Back to Betelgeuse, Methenium in Orion, TRAPPIST-1 Update

Scientists found methenium, a simple organic compound, in a protoplanetary disk. I’ll talk about that this week, and why it’s a big deal. The planet TRAPPIST-1c is about the same size as Venus, but it’s very likely airless. Betelgeuse may … Continue reading

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NASA, UAPs, UFOs and a Bart Simpson Balloon

It’s been two and a half weeks since NASA’s “Public Meeting on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena” aired on YouTube. Or is that streamed on YouTube? Never mind. The NASA panelists did not announce contact with an extraterrestrial diplomat, or admit that … Continue reading

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WASP-18 b and Other Wonderfully Weird WASP Worlds

When I started writing this, I’d planned on talking about WASP-18 b, a hot Jupiter: how we’ve found water in its atmosphere, and something odd about the planet’s temperature on the edge of its sunlit side. Down the Rabbit Hole: … Continue reading

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Super-Duper Super Earths and the Search for Life

This week, I’ll talk about Professor Ethan Siegel’s view that “the myth of the super-habitable super-Earth planet” is “a scientific catastrophe”, other non-catastrophes; and a problem with “super-Earths” as a label. Along the way I’ll look at science, news, headlines … Continue reading

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Pax Romana: Good Times, Remembered

“…the glory that was Greece,And the grandeur that was Rome….”(“To Helen,” Edgar Allen Poe (1845) via Wikipedia) I don’t yearn for ‘the good old days’ of my youth, or for more remote golden ages. My memory’s too good, and I’ve … Continue reading

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