Six Real Astronomy Projects You Can Join Right Now
Astronomy often looks like an elite pursuit, reserved for a fortunate few. Opportunities for a career in the field are rare, and even entry-level positions require years of education and training. Not even a PhD in the field is a guarantee of success — only a fraction of astronomy graduates end up as professors.
But astronomy also has a tradition of amateur success stretching back decades. Every year a handful of comets and asteroids are discovered by amateur astronomers — the first interstellar comet found, 2I/Borisov, is a recent example. Other amateurs have been the first to spot supernova, such as Víctor Buso, who spotted an erupting supernova in 2019 as he tested a new camera and telescope.
In recent years astronomy has become a game of big data more than anything else. Observatories generate vast troves of data every day, recording the night sky in unprecedented detail. Such data is hard to analyse, especially when hunting for rare and unknown phenomena.
Feeling SAD? How to Beat the Winter Blues
Think of winter and you might imagine fields glistening with snow, crisp air on a frozen morning, lakes and rivers full of ice skaters, or picture the quaint Christmas markets of Europe. This is, indeed, one side of the season. But there is another, more dismal face to midwinter.
As the natural world hunkers down and prepares to hibernate through the long chill, many humans encounter a similar slowdown in their lives. The winter darkness can bring tiredness, a lack of energy, a sense of depression.
Although the exact reasons why people feel this way remain unknown, science has established that seasonal changes in mood are a real phenomena. Up to one in five people are affected in some way or another. Any season can provoke low moods — some suffer from a summer sadness — but the condition is most prevalent in winter.
Joe Biden Turns America First Into Science First
Science and politics have long regarded each other with suspicion. Modern scientists seek to stay out of the limelight, imagining themselves as neutral arbitrators of the truth. Science, they say, is an objective subject; one free of bias. History tells us another story. From Galileo’s struggles against the Pope, to Einstein urging Roosevelt to build the bomb, science has found itself intimately intertwined with the most pressing moments of politics.
Recent years have seen a renewal of the conflict between science and politics. As populism swelled around the world, it promoted anti-scientific rhetoric, misinformation and outright denial of the truth. Nowhere was this more obvious than America. Trump’s administration spent years attacking and undermining science, actively seeking short-term gains at the expense of long-term stability.
Sadly, the conflict has not been limited to America. Populists across the planet have assaulted science and spread lies to an uncertain public. Brexit was one of the first signs of the populist wave, and the referendum of 2016 was blighted by anti-scientific arguments. At the time, Michael Gove, a leading member of the Leave campaign, made headlines claiming people had had “enough of experts.”
Best of the Rest…
In The Atlantic Marina Koren covers efforts by scientists to obtain a chunk of Mars. The new NASA rover now on Mars, Perseverance, will hopefully move us a step closer to getting the first pristine rocks from the Red Planet. Though the rover won’t bring anything back to Earth, it will fill several canisters with rocks drilled from the surface. A future mission will pick them up, and then sling them back towards our world.
The Economist ran a briefing on the search for extra-terrestrial life. Our eyes on the universe are growing ever stronger, and we may soon have the technology to spot signs of life on distant planets. Detection of such a sign would be world-changing, a lasting absence could be equally so. Beware you may need a subscription to read.
Solar flares are a threat to our modern electrical grids. The recent chaos in Texas shows the unfortunate effects of a few days without electricity, a big flare could knock out grids for months on end. Vicky Woodburn published an excellent piece on the science of solar flares, and on the potential risks to civilization.
So much reporting around health, science and space exploration is unrealistic, hyperbolic and misleading. These are complicated topics, and there are often no easy or straight forward answers. Instead what is needed is analysis, discussion and an exploration of the possible ways forward.
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