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Ken Tapping

Ken Tapping

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Telescopes on the Moon

Telescopes on the Moon

For many years astronomers have mused about the possibility of putting radio telescopes on the Moon. Considering the extreme temperature variations,...

yesterday 2

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Sirius and the dog days

Sirius and the dog days

Around this time of year, if the weather is clear, just before dawn you might be able to see Sirius, the brightest looking star in the sky after the...

26.07.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Reaching out in space

In the movie Contact, the action starts with the Very Large Array, a large radio telescope in the U.S., picking up an alien radio signal. This...

19.07.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Another alien visitor

Astronomers have discovered yet another alien visitor to the Solar System. This one appears to be a comet, a ball of dust, ice and various volatile...

12.07.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

A new eye on the sky

A new observatory is coming on-line and, in its own way, is going to have an impact similar to what we are seeing with the James Webb Space Telescope....

05.07.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

A tale of a solar storm

The interior of the sun is threaded with huge ropes and tubes of magnetic fields, loaded with very hot plasma—gas so hot its atoms are losing their...

28.06.2025 2

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Their turn in the sunshine

Over the last few years, the term "Goldilocks zone" has come to be widely used to describe the range of distances from a star where its planets would...

21.06.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

The colour of Mars

We were pretty sure even before the first lander grounded on Mars, the red colour of the planet is due to a lot of iron oxide in the rocks and sands...

14.06.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Three’s a problem

One of the more poignant moments in the movie Star Wars, is when Luke Skywalker gazes wistfully into the sunset on the planet Tattoine. What makes the...

07.06.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Duelling galaxies

I don't usually compare what we see going on out there in space with mediaeval ritual, but in this case it is hard to resist. Astronomers have found...

31.05.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

The missing antimatter

Imagine, the house needs $10,000 worth of repairs and you have no money to spare for it. You go to the bank and borrow $10,000. That means you can go...

24.05.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Part-time North Star

"But I am as constant as the Northern Star", says Julius Caesar in the play Shakespeare named after him. He was making a strong statement that he was...

17.05.2025 4

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Earth's magnetic shield

Our planet is surrounded by a magnetic field that acts as a shield. It keeps the solar wind away from the top of our atmosphere, preventing it from...

10.05.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

The planet that wasn’t there

Thousands of years ago, our ancestors noticed that most stars were located in fixed patterns. Those patterns moved slowly east to west during the...

03.05.2025 2

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Is alien life out there?

The crew of an alien spacecraft entering the Solar System, maybe looking for planets bearing alien life, would be struck by three things about...

26.04.2025 4

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Dying galaxies

Nothing lasts forever, even galaxies, and maybe even universes. The James Webb Space Telescope has just observed the oldest dead galaxy, that is, one...

19.04.2025 3

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Ken Tapping

The 'new' astronomy

The radio telescope at the Algonquin Radio Observatory, located in Algonquin Park, Ontario, is typical of the radio telescopes built around the world...

12.04.2025 4

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Radio astronomy in action

Canadian radio astronomy started directly after the Second World War. Arthur Covington, a scientist with the National Research Council, worked on...

05.04.2025 5

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Ken Tapping

Before the Big Bang

Einstein was not happy. In the early years of the 20th century, he came up with his General Theory of Relativity, an important part of which was a...

29.03.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

A lunar eclipse

The recent lunar eclipse was spectacular. From here on Earth, small telescopes showed the Earth's shadow moving slowly across the Moon's surface,...

22.03.2025 6

Castanet

Ken Tapping

A star with seven planets

TRAPPIST-1 is a red dwarf star about 40.7 light-years away from Earth. It is of particular interest because it has seven earth-like planets orbiting...

15.03.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping

Accidental discoveries

It might be surprising but two of the most important discoveries in radio astronomy were made by accident. Maybe, just as surprisingly, they were made...

08.03.2025 3

Castanet

Ken Tapping