Tag Archives: planets

Fusion Rocket Engines, SETI and Science: Seriously 0 (0)

Nerd alert! This week I used words like deuterium and magnetohydrodynamics. And I may have gone into more detail that necessary about why we didn’t have fusion power generators in the 1960s. A British company’s plans for test-firing a fusion … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Exoplanets and Aliens, Science News, Series | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Back to Betelgeuse, Methenium in Orion, TRAPPIST-1 Update 0 (0)

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

Posted in Exoplanets and Aliens, Science News, Series | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

WASP-18 b and Other Wonderfully Weird WASP Worlds 0 (0)

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

Posted in Discursive Detours, Exoplanets and Aliens, Journal, Science News, Series | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Super-Duper Super Earths and the Search for Life 0 (0)

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

Posted in Exoplanets and Aliens, Series | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

TRAPPIST-1 and the Mysterious Pea Pod Planets 0 (0)

There may have been times when one generation’s world was much like another’s. This is not one of those times. Science textbooks of my youth included speculation that Earth’s mountains exist because our planet has been cooling and shrinking. One … Continue reading

Posted in Discursive Detours, Science News | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment