So, now we have this lovely meteorite called Winchcombe (unofficial name for the moment). And everyone has been asking what sort of new and amazing stuff will we learn from it? The answer of course is loads – it’s packed full of exciting information about the earliest days of our Solar System. All we have…
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…
