drew@drewexmachina.com
The planets Earth and Venus would seem alike to a distant observer looking at our solar system. They have similar radii, masses, bulk compositions and distances […]
According to an old adage, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. For some time now, it has been claimed that a […]
The Voyager mission to the outer planets was arguably one of the greatest voyages of discovery in the history of human exploration. Over the course of […]
The landing of Chang’e 3 on the Moon on December 14, 2013 rightfully received a lot of attention not only because it was China’s first landing […]
One of the earliest television shows I clearly recall watching as a young child was the original run of the scifi classic, Lost in Space. As […]
Among the lay public, probably one of the most misunderstood astronomical terms that has recently come into common use has to be “super-Earth”. All too often, […]
On July 14, 2015 NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will make its closest approach to the dwarf planet Pluto after a long voyage of 9½ years. Even […]
During the past few days, word has started to spread about the latest study that has resulted in the “disappearance” of a pair of planets that […]
I readily admit that one of my pet peeves going back almost 20 years to the discovery of the first extrasolar planets has been overblown claims […]
The original motivation behind NASA’s Kepler mission (and, indeed, the primary driver of the design of its hardware) was to detect Earth-size planets orbiting Sun-like stars […]
Whenever I think “gamma ray observatory”, impressive orbiting platforms come to mind like NASA’s massive 17 metric ton Compton Gamma Ray Observatory launched in 1991 or […]
Earlier this week, the discovery of a pair of planets orbiting the nearby Kapteyn’s Star was announced [1, 2]. While such announcements go largely unnoticed nowadays […]
