In my previous post, I talked about the strong evidence for the presence of water ice in permanently shaded crater floors around the north pole of Mercury. Part of the evidence for this was the thermal modeling of surface and near-surface temperatures to predict polar temperatures. We’re all familiar with the fact that polar regions [...]
The universe is full of surprises. More than once I have read an article about a new discovery and told myself something like this: “That can’t be right! They must have messed up somewhere, and we’ll read about how in a few weeks.” Sometimes I’ve been right. Far more often, I’ve been wrong. Such was [...]
Many of the patterns of astronomy are so regular that we quite literally set our clocks by them. Our notions of time are tied to the regular cycles of day and night and of the yearly seasons, all of which have their origins in the rotation of the earth on its axis and in the [...]
If someone were to ask people who have one way or another made a career out of science or technology what they read in their childhood, the chances are very good that the common thread would be science fiction. I read a lot of things when I was a kid, but my most beloved book [...]
