cosmology

Edwin Hubble Present and Past

Realm of the Nebulae cover

Prior to the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope that has recently delivered to us so many awe-inspiring images of the universe, it was the Hubble Space Telescope, named for astronomer Edwin Hubble and launched in 1990, that set the standard for what we could see from a space-based observational platform. Indeed, both technological developments that went into the creation of, as well as of course images from, Hubble continue to provide new information not only to astronomers and astrophysicists but to a wide range of scientists around the world.

For All Who Look Up

Our Universe cover

The scene: a very nicely appointed high-rise hotel room in 1953. Two figures – “the Actress” (who looks remarkably like Marylin Monroe, played by Theresa Russell) and “the Professor” (looking every bit the spitting image of Albert Einstein, played by Michael Emil) – are gazing out a large window into the night. Professor: I prefer […]

Dante and the Early Astronomer

Dante Early Astronomer cover

Of all the poets whose works I admire, Dante Alighieri is foremost in my personal pantheon. And of all his works, “Inferno” is my unquestioned favorite. The beauty of Virgil’s explanation in Canto 2 of Beatrice’s charge to him to aid Dante in his journey, concluding in “Why do you delay, when three such blessed ladies care for you in the court of Heaven?” always brings tears to my eyes. However something has long puzzled me about the poem – the astronomical references in it.

Gravity; A Very Short Introduction

VSI Gravity cover

I defy you to find more than a handful of people who can provide a clear and relatively easy-to-comprehend explanation of gravity and its effects. Not just the basic “Newton’s apple” material most of us learned in school, but the deeper, universe-spanning phenomena in which it plays a role.

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