In The film The Right Stuff there is a scene that really caught my imagination. Following a spectacular crash there is an inferno of flames. The ambulance crew stares in disbelief as a figure walks stoically out of the swirling smoke. One of the crew says to the other “is that a man?” And after…

I didn’t plan to write a sequel to the previous post about Beagle 2. But recently, while visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, we came across a small, but very interesting exhibit. It was all about Damien Hirst’s Beagle 2 spot painting. In fact, it wasn’t really an artwork as such, but a calibration target…

Last Monday, the Open University astronomers set up their telescopes on the Mulberry Lawn to observe the transit of Mercury. The forecasters had predicted a nice sunny spell in the afternoon and, as usual, they were absolutely spot on. Of course, you can watch this sort of event live on the web, or look at…

On Thursday 15th January I visited Bushfield School in Milton Keynes to give three 50 minute talks to Year 5 students. I started each session off with a quick “fun” quiz about meteorites. Then gave a PowerPoint talk about space rocks that, of course, included videos of the Chelyabinsk fireball. The big event was showing small groups our outreach collection. The…