Astronomy – The Burning Platform

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

In 1978, a 22-year-old man began teaching earth science at a school in Rochester, New York. At that time, he told his ninth-grade students about a solar eclipse that would occur on April 8, 2024 and he invited his students to attend an “eclipse party” that he would be hosting 46 years in the future.

On the Monday of the eclipse, or four days ago as of this writing, approximately 100 former students gathered at the home of their now 68-year-old former teacher. Here is a link to the news article.

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Four days prior to the eclipse (on 4/4/2024), four planets in our solar system aligned on the same side of the sun as Earth: Venus, Mars, Saturn and Neptune. The next day a 4.8-magnitude earthquake was felt in New Jersey, New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia.

Continue reading “On Perspective and Prerogatives…”

From APOD

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2016 February 11

Explanation: Gravitational radiation has been directly detected. The first-ever detection was made by both facilities of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) in Washington and Louisiana simultaneously last September. After numerous consistency checks, the resulting 5-sigma discovery was published today. The measured gravitational waves match those expected from two large black holes merging after a death spiral in a distant galaxy, with the resulting new black hole momentarily vibrating in a rapid ringdown. A phenomenon predicted by Einstein, the historic discovery confirms a cornerstone of humanity’s understanding of gravity and basic physics. It is also the most direct detection of black holes ever. The featured illustration depicts the two merging black holes with the signal strength of the two detectors over 0.3 seconds superimposed across the bottom. Expected future detections by Advanced LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors may not only confirm the spectacular nature of this measurement but hold tremendous promise of giving humanity a new way to see and explore our universe.