Recent Updates

Ok. Let's get back in business tonight. Well, to begin with, I must once again apologise for not blogging this last week ladies and Gentlemen, but sue to the rioting that has occurred in Manchester and the nearby towns, as well as London, it has just been too manic to be able to sit down and write a blog about anything other than the sheer panic that these sporadic outbursts of violence has caused.

So, anyway, let's get up to date with recent developments, all of which shall be further explained in their own individual blog posts as soon as I am able to write them up. So, first order of business is one that occurred last weekend. Due to solar flares and geomagnetic storms, the Northern Lights were visible as far south in the UK as Birmingham (for those of you unfamiliar with the geography of the UK, Birmingham is in the Midlands of England). But, defeated by cloud cover once again (as with the lunar eclipse) your friendly StudentAstro was unable to see the Lights. Which is very sad as it is a lifes ambition of mine to see them. Now, theoretically you should get this oppotunity to see them over the more southern regions of the Northern hemisphere every ten years, as I will explain in further blogs, but the truth is that solar storms of sufficient size rarely occur in the direction of the Earth. Why the Northern lights occur, and why we should see them more every ten years will be explained in a future post.

Right, more news. Big news. NASAs is believed to have discovered liquid salt water on the surface of Mars. Now, this is a truly massive piece of news in the world of astrophysics, cosmology, astronomy and the whole scientific world in general, because it greatly effects the Fermi Paradox, and therefore the odds of finding extra-terrestrial life forms elsewhere in the Universe, and even within our own solar system!! But, again, more about this in an upcoming post.

Ok, so, other news, which is more in line with upcoming events more than current news. We are due a fly-past from 2 comets, and an asteroid over the next few months and years. An asteroid is due to fly past the Earth at its closest proximity to the Earth in the entire of its orbit. But it is nowhere near close enough for mass death and destrustion, so please don't panic!!! And the two comets are Elenin and Gerradd. Gerradd will be visible in the sky until 2013. But once again, more will be coming on this is future blogs, along with where the comets will be visible, how to spot them and even a few pictures.

Hope everyone is safe, well and continuing to enjoy reading this blog. Please comment with any questions that you may have.

Happy Stargazing folks!!!