19 października 2008

 

Another Astronomy Related Post

I was listening to the Astronomy.com Podcast and they brought up a rather unfortunately named star: Beta Pegasi, an irregular red variable star that is currently overhead. The narrator on the podcast gave the traditional name, which I thought I heard wrong. When I got home, I consulted Burnham's Celestial Handbook.

Yep, I heard right. The name of the star is Scheat. That's pronounced with two sylables, but that really isn't that much better, is it?

Apparently, according to Burnham's, the name comes from an Arabic word Al-S'ad, so named because the star is in the foreleg of Pegasus.



Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

10 października 2008

 

Asteroids!

I don't check the Planetary Society website for a few days, and this is the sort of thing I miss.

Apparently, the folks up on Mt. Lemmon observatory were among those who tracked 2008 TC3, a newly discovered asteroid that, well, isn't there anymore. Shortly after it was discovered and named, they realized that its orbit would bring it into collision with Earth. This makes the first time that an object was discovered before it collided with the Earth's atmosphere. This particular asteroid burned up over northern Sudan.

The full known history of the asteroid (about 20 hours!) is over at the Planetary Society's blog.


Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

02 października 2008

 

Step and Fetch This...

An ex-student showed up at work yesterday. She was given the assignment of doing an analysis of song lyrics. She wanted my help finding a song for her. I gave her several and she didn't like any of them, until I found "Burn, Hollywood, Burn" by Public Enemy.

I forgot how much I liked this song, PE at their best. Ironic, though, given what Ice Cube and Flavor Flav are up to these days.




Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.

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