5 Amazing Facts Everyone Should Know About Our Sun

By on Feb 15, 2015 in Solar System | 5 comments

5 Amazing Facts Everyone Should Know About Our Sun       We hear a lot about other gorgeous planets like Saturn or Jupiter and we appreciate the Sun but never hear too much about it. What is the Sun exactly? The Sun is a beautiful ball of hydrogen and helium gas that burns bright about 150 million km from our pale blue dot called Earth. The size alone of the Sun is astounding even though in the grand scheme of things it’s just an average little guy. The radius of the Sun is 695,800 km which could fit our Earth about 109 times across! Alright let’s jump right into the main reason you are here: 5 amazing facts about our Sun that we should just all keep in mind. Here we go!   1)  Gravity on the Sun is 28 times that of Earth   Okay so depending on who you are 28 times may not seem like a lot at first but it’s always about perspective when it comes...

3 Reasons Why “Year in Space 2015 Calendar” is Awesome

By on Nov 30, 2014 in Reviews | 2 comments

A Space Calendar that’ll Make You Love the Universe Even More…     Alright so I normally don’t review products or calendars but this is one calendar I cannot stop being so excited about! Let me also preface this with the fact that this was sent over to me by Steve Caridi over at Year in Space. I should also note that I do not make any money off this and everything written here is my honest opinion. I will also be giving away one FREE wall calendar to my fans. Just leave me a comment about what fact about astronomy fascinates you the most and I’ll reach out to you via email. (Make sure to fill out the email part in the commenting section) Okay without further adieu let’s jump into my 3 reasons why this calendar is awesome!   1) Gorgeous High Resolution Images     Okay I know that may be a cop out for listing it as one of my favorite...

Happy 80th Birthday to Carl Sagan!

By on Nov 9, 2014 in Carl Sagan | 0 comments

Happy 80th Birthday to Carl Sagan: The Man Who Showed Me the Wonder of the Cosmos   Carl Sagan is the reason I got into astronomy or even started the website Brown Spaceman. It’s been nothing but an amazing journey learning about new discoveries as well as being more aware of the progression of science in various fields. It’s a love that has such a deep intimate feeling that it has not dimmed in the least bit since the initial epiphany. I know there are hundreds if not thousands or millions of people that can tell their own story of how Carl Sagan impacted them. For those of you who don’t know much about Carl Sagan let me give you a short quick overview of why so many people love him.   1) He Led the American Space Program Since the 1950’s     Since inception Carl Sagan had a role in the American space program. He was going through getting...

Once in a Lifetime Comet Siding Spring Skimming by Mars Today!

By on Oct 19, 2014 in Breaking News | 0 comments

Comet Siding Spring Skimming Mars and Giving Our Satellites a Scare. Here’s Why You Should Be Watching this Event Today!     Comets are fascinating and valuable to astronomers and scientists alike. It helps us understand where we come from or how we even got here. It’s said that comets were the reason water is even on Earth. Now why the fuss over Comet Siding Spring? Well here is the lowdown:   Quick Facts You Need to Know About Comet Siding Spring:   It will just skim Mars by 87,000 km. To give you an idea, our Moon is about 384,400 km from our Earth so this comet would pass in between earth and the moon and show up like a second sun in the sky. Comet Siding Spring is hurtling through space at about 56 km/s! The weight alone is about the weight of a mountain. It’s also shedding 220 pounds of dust per second. This comet took an estimated million years to...

Carnival of Space 375

By on Oct 12, 2014 in Carnival of Space | 0 comments

Welcome to Carnival of Space 375!     Hello space fans and welcome to another edition of Carnival of Space! Today, we’ll be looking at some really cool space stories. Let’s not waste anytime and jump right into the good stuff. Hold on to your spacecraft we’re going into overdrive!   1) Chandra X-Ray Observatory: Suspected Black Hole Unmasked as Ultraluminous Pulsar   Here’s a story that is really exciting. Astronomers found an Ultra luminous X-ray Source (ULX) and thought it must be a devious black hole lurking in the galaxy called M82. As described by Chandra: “ULXs are objects that produce more X-rays than most ‘normal’ X-ray binary systems, in which a star is orbiting a neutron star or a stellar-mass black hole.” However, what they found was not a black hole but something else… read more here! 2) Urban...

17 Amazing Reasons to Why We Should Be Excited About Space

By on Sep 15, 2014 in Round Up Post | 0 comments

17 Amazing Reasons to Why We Should Be Excited About Space   Over the years I have been fortunate to meet and talk to such brilliant, passionate, and inspiring space advocates. They’ve all done amazing jobs spreading the excitement of space exploration to the masses. I’ve taken a group of special space advocates that I think everyone needs to know about. I asked them this one question: Question: What NASA or space project are you most excited about and why? Also please feel free to leave an answer in the comments below. I would love to see what you’re excited about. Back to Top Alan Boyle An award winning science and technology journalist, he’s a man who brought us intimate details of the universe right to our door. He’s kept the science community engaged and informed since 1996! Alan is currently a science editor at NBC News Digital, writes for his...

Mission to Jupiter’s Moon Europa: 2014 Edition

By on Jul 19, 2014 in Breaking News | 2 comments

2014 Update on the Mission to Jupiter’s Moon Europa     The mission to Europa has been a dream for many planetary scientists for a long time and now NASA is asking for proposals for what science instruments should be on board for the mission. One of the main reasons Europa is an excellent prospect to send an orbiter or spacecraft is the ocean of water beneath its thick icy crust. As far as we know water is a great indicator for potential life and with a combination of tidal heating it makes Europa a suitable candidate for life. Before we jump into the details of the mission let’s take a look at why Europa is insanely cool!   Europa: All the Fun Facts You Want to Know     It’s still quite mind boggling that not only do we live in a galaxy that may support from 100-400 billion exoplanets but now moons may be capable of harbouring life as well!...

Carnival of Space 356

By on Jun 1, 2014 in Carnival of Space | 2 comments

Welcome to Carnival of Space 356!     We have some amazing space stories for you today so let’s get right into it! Our first story comes from TheVenusTransit with the Deep Space Network’s (DSN) fifty year celebration! Thanks to the DSN we can communicate with all of our wonderful spacecrafts that are waay out there in our solar system like Voyager.     Vega 0.0 looks at a really cool story about an interesting object called the Smith’s Cloud that could be a possible failed dwarf galaxy. Speaking of really peculiar objects, Gamma Ray Burst M31 (GRBM31) was in the news spotlight but our friends at the AARTScope Blog will take a deeper look at what exactly is going on here with GRBM31 and why we should focus on the positives of this news story. We also get to see the first amateur photos of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko by the Professional Amateur...