http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay Exploring the sky, one sidereal day at a time. Sat, 28 Jul 2007 02:54:38 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Astronomers usually try to educate the public that black holes do not go around actively eating the hearts out of galaxies. Usually. On July 24, astronomers announced that in the early days of the universe large numbers of young supermassive black holes actually spent their days feeding on galaxy cores. ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/07/26/black-holes-take-a-bite-out-of-galaxies/ All of us have a certain amount of rubber necker inside us. We all turn to see the wrecked car, and as kids we paused to watch the fights in the school yard. As an adult, I have to admit to taking a secret (well, maybe not so secret anymore) ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/07/18/black-holes-dont-exist-black-holes-do-exist/ In what is to me the most scientifically important paper of the year, astronomers today announced the discovery of 2 galaxies at redshifts > 10 and 4 galaxies with redshifts >7.7. The most distant of these galaxies was forming stars just 500,000,000 years after the Big Bang, and contributed to ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/07/10/time-is-t-500000-years-stars-go-galaxies-go-hubble-de-ionization-underway/ It's getting to be that time again: A Mars Launch window is approaching. If you play close attention to space exploration programs you may have noticed that we only fling things at Mars ever two or so years. In 2003, the year of the rovers, NASA launched Spirit and Opportunity ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/07/06/mars-ho/ All good things come from the Cosmic Microwave Background. The geometry of universe is defined as flat from studies of the CMB using WMAP. The age of the universe is defined as 13.7 +/- 0.2 billion years from studies of the CMB using WMAP. Even the expansion rate of the ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/07/03/all-good-things-come-from-the-cosmic-microwave-background/ This is the second part in what I had originally seen as a two part series on what may be the neatest tools in astronomy's tool belt for indirectly examining the stuff of the universe. I say originally thought, because as I sit here writing, I'm thinking this is going ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/06/29/cosmic-backlighting-the-cosmic-microwave-background/ Astronomers on Earth are limited in how they can look at the universe. We basically have three tools. We can detect light across a broad spectrum of colors. We can capture high energy particles - cosmic rays - that are flung at us from distant events. We can also potentially ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/06/27/gravitational-lenses-making-the-invisible-detectable/ One of the concepts that confuses people most about the Universe is the Earth's location relative to the Big Bang. People constantly ask, "Where is the center of the Universe?" and "Where was the Big Bang relative to us today?" and perhaps the most articulate of all, "Why does the ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/06/20/you-are-the-center-of-the-universe-and-so-am-i-and-so-is-gursplex-on-alpha-eck/ Last May, I took my blog, Star Stryder, daily and gave it the tag line "Blogging one sidereal day at a time." Everyday, as I read and explore astronomy, science and academics, I attempt to throw something on my little site. And here, on my brand new shiny Earth and ... http://blogs.earthsky.org/pamelagay/2007/06/11/one-sidereal-day/