The FAS Astronomers Blog

  • Astrology to Astronomy

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 4. I don’t know how many times I talk to someone who knows that I have an interest in Astronomy, but they refer to it as Astrology. Well Astrology does have something to do with the night sky and, from an historical standpoint, it is related to astronomy. Both…

  • Cosmic Distances, Stellar Brightness, and The Hubble Constant

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 3. The Hubble Constant The Universe is expanding. The farther a galaxy is from us, the faster it is moving away from us. We measure this expansion using something called the Hubble constant, which is the rate with which galaxies are receding from us as a function of their…

  • Project Mercury

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 2. Sixty years ago this month (February 20, 1962), Astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. He did so as part of NASA’s Project Mercury. This is the story. On October 4, 1957, a small round ball called Sputnik was launched into orbit by the…

  • Dark Energy

    FAS Astronomers Blog, Volume 30, Number 1. In a previous article, I explored the Standard Model of Particle Physics and discussed what ordinary matter is made of. It can be a bit confusing because of the different ways to look at it. Matter is made up of atoms, which are composed of protons, neutrons, and…

  • Year End Summary 2021

    Young Astronomers Blog, Volume 29, Year End. I hope you enjoyed the Young Astronomers Blogs for 2021. Just in case you missed a few, below is a summary of the articles for the past two years. This year (2022) marks the 30th year for the Young Astronomers Newsletter. Although, over the past two years, the…