The Night Sky: Won’t you be my neighbor?
This weekend, the three nearest celestial bodies bunch up for our observing pleasure. They’re easy to find and require no telescope or charts.
Columns
The two universes
The Andromeda galaxy, just 2 1/2 million light-years away, is so nearby that the expansion of space isn’t powerful enough to make it recede from us. We’ll keep each other company forever.
Hot issues in a Tucson hot tub
Because mingling our sweat, half naked, in a small space reeking of warm bleach is societally acceptable, sharing intimacies with a stranger seemed alright. My curiosity, which I often blame on this column, led me to interview the gentleman who was sheltering his child from the sun with his hand as she leaned tenderly on his shoulder.
Seven astonishing astronomical spectacles
Mark your calendars- here’s a list of upcoming celestial phenomena you won’t want to miss.
The universe abounds in counterintuitive coincidences
For scientists, coincidences can suggest a pattern that warrants further investigation. But there are many instances in our everyday lives of coincidences that feel significant and improbable but are nothing of the sort.
Why it’s so hard to understand the cosmos
Our human logical-mind system, which operates through symbolic language, seems inadequate to meaningfully probe the universe’s true nature. We all know that the word ‘ice’ is not actual ice. But most seem unaware of the profound degree to which the universe is unrelated to our thoughts about it. We need a different tool for the job.
Coming up: Big Hudson River tides
Extremely high Hudson River tides start this Sunday and peak Tuesday, April 27. That’s because Monday’s Full Moon happens just before it reaches its closest approach of the month. And its third nearest meeting with Earth of the entire year, missing second place by just 42 miles.
Forget the Moon and Mars too
It’s not even fun anymore. Since we last landed humans on the Moon in December, 1972, nine US presidents have announced plans to return. Only Barack Obama didn’t make that declaration. During the most recent such speech on the Fourth of July in 2019, with TV cameras rolling, Donald Trump grandly told the celebrated Apollo flight director Gene Kranz, “I want you to know that we’re going back to the Moon very soon – and someday soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars.”
Taxes and the Universe
Coming up soon is April 15, the traditional date taxpayers join astronomers in being obsessed with numbers.
Global warming update and maybe check your home’s CO2 too
The Earth’s carbon dioxide level was 326 parts per million when I moved to Woodstock in 1972. By 1989, when my daughter was born, it had reached 352 ppm. Now this week in March 2021, it stands at 416 ppm. What’s worse, it used to rise by one ppm per year. It currently increases by three ppm annually.
