If you’ve ever been to an observatory, you may have noticed that astronomers are pretty picky about the presence of lights. The reason is that bright lights can dramatically reduce your night vision.
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For centuries, astronomical research was conducted by peering into the eyepiece of a telescope and recording, often by hand, what was seen. And while this has not been the dominant method of research for decades, it is still the image that comes to mind when asked to describe the work of professional astronomers.
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When folks outside of the field hear the word astronomy, they often imagine peering through a telescope at the rings of Saturn or the belts of Jupiter.
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Fires in outer space are bad news. For starters containing the fire can be difficult, not to mention that you can’t exactly run away and “leave the building.” More worrying, though, is that the atmospheres on spacecraft, like the International Space Station (ISS), maintain a pure oxygen environment.
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In the 1960s, the space race was on. The United States and Russia were locked in a battle for technological supremacy that would ultimately decide, or so it was thought, who would claim outer space for themselves.
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With the sheer number of satellites and other space junk floating around in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) it would seem inevitable that objects would occasionally bump into each other.
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Recently, the Mars One project began accepting applications from Earthlings that are interested in being the first humans to set foot on Mars. The proposed trip would send four individuals to Mars in 2023. The catch? They never get to come back to Earth.
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Virtually all contact with aliens seems to arrive as a radio signal from outer space, at least according to Hollywood. But, is this necessarily what we should expect?
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In 1973, Doug Berger, president of the Astronomical Association of Northern California created a day to celebrate astronomy for all. Berger’s rationale for creating International Astronomy Day was “to promote a greater education and understanding of the wonders of the universe.”
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The search for dark matter continues to be one of astronomy’s great puzzles. In the last year, several experiments have reported hints of dark matter collisions emanating from our galactic center.
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