What is a Galaxy (& what is the Milky Way)?

Most people are familiar with the words solar system, galaxy, Milky Way and Universe, and most people probably have a vague idea of what they mean. I’ve been throwing these words around quite a bit on the blog but I realized I’ve never actually explained what they are.

I thought I had a pretty good understanding of what they actually mean, but in an earlier post I defined what a solar system is, and I learnt a fair bit myself about where a solar system actually ends. The same goes with this post, I knew roughly what a galaxy is, turns out I didn’t really know about galaxy superclusters.

So in this post I’ll be talking about galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and I’ll explain what the Milky Way has to do with all of this.

Review – My favourite collections of sci-fi short stories

I’ve not written a post for aaggeeessss! So I thought I’d write a quick one reviewing some of the best collections of science fiction short stories I’ve read.

If you’ve never read any science fiction, or even if you’re a long-time reader, short stories are a great place to start, as they can help you find new interesting authors and sub-genres, and can open whole new worlds of sci-fi for you to explore.

The Invention of Sex

This is an article I’ve written and just submitted for a science writing prize in the UK, the Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. If you’re interested in entering, unfortunately the deadline was today, but there’s always next year, details are found through the link just above. The article is about why, and roughly when, sex was invented. At least on Earth…

Life in our Solar System – Titan and Enceladus

In a couple of previous posts I looked at the possibility of life existing on some of Jupiter’s moons, including Europa, and then the possibility of life existing on Jupiter itself.

In this post we’ll head further out into the solar system and look at two of Saturn’s moons, Enceladus and Titan.

Review – Colossus: The Forbin Project

One of my favourite tropes in science fiction is the one where mankind creates artificial intelligence only to see it rebel against its maker, and usually either enslave or destroys us. Probably because its both a fantastic but also quite realistic idea, at least in my humble opinion.

It’s been done a hundred times or more, in a huge variety of settings, but one of my favourite is the film Colossus: The Forbin Project.

What is a Solar System?

I’ve previously mentioned concepts like the Solar System, galaxies and the Universe, but I’ve never properly explained what each of them actually is. I’m sure most people have a vague idea, but probably aren’t 100% sure.

Read on and I’ll explain what a solar system is. Pretty sure you already know? You may be surprised.

Then in future posts I’ll tackle what a galaxy and the Milky Way actually is, and then what the Universe is.

Actually, for the Universe I’ll try my best, but it turns out the Universe is probably a much weirder place than people previously thought.

Life in our Solar System – Jupiter

In a previous post I talked about the possibility of life existing on, or in, some of the moons of Jupiter, with Europa being the best candidate.

But how about life existing within Jupiter itself?

Genetics Made Simple – a quick video

This is great a three and a half minute video that covers the basic ideas in genetics:

It’s made by a guy called David Murawsky, see his Vimeo channel here

Life in our Solar System – Europa, Ganymede & Callisto

Astrobiology is all about finding alien life, and many astrobiologists believe life could be found in our Solar System, on Mars, on moons like Titan, Europa or Enceladus, and potentially on other bodies, like Kuiper Belt Objects.

In this post I’ll look at why some scientists think life may exist on Europa, and maybe even Ganymede and Callisto too, three of Jupiter’s largest moons.

So what’s so special about theses ice worlds?

A NASA scientist lays down the truth about 2012

I’ve written quite a few posts about 2012, as I’m a fan of science and the truth, and I hate bullshit, particularly anti-science bullshit.

Lots of people are spreading rumours and non-science rubbish about 2012, some of them to make money. One of the worst lies is that NASA knows that something will happen in 2012 and they’re keeping quiet about it. It’s not true.

A NASA scientist called David Morrison has been bombarded by questions about 2012 on the ‘Ask an Astrobiologist’ section of the NASA website. It’s heart-breaking that this guy has spared time to answer scientific questions from the public, but has received over 5000 questions about this 2012 nonsense, including threats for denying its existence.

Here’s his response to all this bullshit.

Now stop it! And go and ask him some real scientific questions

Want to see some more David Morisson? He gave a long, but very entertaining lecture about 2012 that can be watched here.