Dark matter is our best explanation for why galaxies stay together when they don’t seem massive enough to keep up gravitational attraction. But now a largely-dismissed alternative theory has some actual proof backing it up. This could get complicated.
Scientists using NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope have detected beams of antimatter produced above thunderstorms on Earth, a phenomenon never seen before. Scientists think the antimatter particles were formed in a terrestrial gamma-ray flash (TGF), a brief burst produced inside thunderstorms and shown to be associated with lightning. It is estimated that about 500 TGFs … Read more
Image of the GIANT solar eclipse, with a special present included!
The singularity is here–run http://ow.ly/37PC8 Scientists have said that these temperatures are actually 1 million times hotter than the surface of the sun. http://ow.ly/37PxO #astronomy
The RAS Fall picnic was definitely a success. Thanks very much to Tim Streagle and the Heart of Virginia Scout Reservation for use of the facility, for supplying grilling equipment and for providing such a great stargazing venue afterward. Thanks also to Prashant Reddy for coordinating the event and the menu and making sure that everything went smoothly.
The weather was great and the evening was a lot of fun. It was wonderful to see everyone.
The annual meeting of the Virginia Association of Astronomical Societies will be held this year on the campus of Roanoke College in the Colket Center (221 College Lane, Salem, VA) on October 9 from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM with evening observing opportunities. More information is at:
RAS had three telescopes at the latest skywatch for the Petersburg National Battlefield Park Service at City Point in Hopewell. And it’s a good thing we had as many scopes as we did, because we were surprised by a sizable group of scouts that had come for a rocket and astronomy activity earlier in the day. With parents, we probably had 100-125 viewers in attendance.
Members and guests are welcome to the Ragland Observatory’s monthly open house at 8:00 pm, Sunday evening, Oct. 17th. I’ll send out a reminder the day before on the club’s directory ( keep Jim Blowers advised if your email has changed) and on Richastro.org. Unless it’s actually raining, a staff member will be present. Use your own judgement about the … Read more
Sydney asked her dad Mark (one of our members) if they could build a telescope. They are doing just that and have set up a web site to chronicle their adventure here. Mark has also set up an email address for comments/suggestions: sydney.telescope.blog@gmail.com. It looks like they are going to have loads of fun with … Read more
I just added a new link to our web page, in the rightmost column, under Categories. To use it, once you open an article for reading, just click on the Share button. This will take you to a page where you can select a social network to share it with.